Seldomly a film of such beauty...

Rating: 9/10 (21 April 2005)

I was in my teens,about sixteen or seventeen,when I first saw this film and,incidentally,I was at an age when the twenties imagery fascinated me-well it still does... Highly artistic was the opening scene,when the annoying phone calls are associated with a lavish party scene-a symbol for life's vanity and the revenge of a guilty conscience for all the pleasures(similarly in Shakespearean theater the obsessive repetition of nagging noises is actually stands for the guilt complexes from the past reemerging). It's,like previously other viewers noticed,the story of a few poor immigrant boys trying to conquer the new promised land-even if they end up building an empire of crime(let's face it,they did't have any other chance to evolve from rags to riches considering their social background)they are somewhat American pioneers,these solitary,strong-minded and ambitious heroes who turned the U.S. into what it is today. By the way,American capitalism and political life,even if apparently honest and fair-play are not necessarily based on legal methods... Eventually their twisted friendship will(like in a passionate,irrationally intense love-story)destroy everything it touched-and in between an epic spanning between 1915 and 1968,a visual treat of elegant vintage cars,stylish clothing and sophisticated champagne bottles-all the luxury and fascination of the legendary prohibition age. The scene where Prohibition is "buried"-somewhat resembling the "Death of Glitter" concert from "Velvet Goldmine",actually a coffin-shaped chocolate-cake is surrounded by four candles stuck into Cordon Rouge bottles,is one of the most influential in film history,probably known and loved even by the ones who aren't much into this genre,did not watch/enjoy this film. In my opinion this scene is capturing all the beauty and vanity of life,youth,ambition and pleasure-it is almost possible to feel,to sense an utterly voluptuous universe fading away,becoming impossible to hold back... I don't think that the characters were homosexual,in spite of their very strong friendly love,I guess this film is rather a hymn in the honor of a myth as old as mankind:friendship;even admitting that this film involves a certain homo erotic subtext,it is that high-minded, poetic,strictly Platonic homo eroticism to be found in the strong bonds that existed among e.g. ancient warriors wanting to be buried together and have their ashes mixed for eternity-this ritual(though altered) actually happens this way in this film too. I also don,t buy the preconception that Max was a traitor-notice that even his more balanced friends are actually brutes occasionally violently bursting out like wild animals-he's just a better survivor and fighter that the rest.Of course he might be more megalomaniac,self-indulgent and egocentric than the others,but he's acting according to the rules of gangland and of his Jewish background-the Jewish origin of most of the characters partly explain their talent for money-making,their compellingly manipulative personalities,their practical intelligence. While Noodles turns out,in my opinion,as a winner in the end.Even if poor and forgotten,even if he gets high in order to forget life's misery,he seems balanced and appeased in the end.After going trough pretty much of what his century had to offer,after undergoing so many experiences and changes,he takes refuge in a world(even if artificially created by drugs)where,in an almost godlike way,only the beauty,the legendary side of the violent age of gangsters exists.He therefore rescued,almost like Proust,trough the power of memory,his glamorous and adventurous youth from extinction. Another fascinating (among many others) scene is the one when a posh partying crowd is throwing with Cordon Rouge bottles out of an old timer swiftly and almost invisibly driving by-this scene somewhat exhales the ghastly,nostalgic roaring twenties beauty,like in a novel by Fitzgerald or a visually disturbingly compelling&lush period piece by Ken Russel. Irespective of the dark,violent and bleak message of this film,I'll always remember it as one of the most accomplished visual poems dedicated to youth and the unlimited ambitions it is often linked with. Therefore a lush and highly fulfilling treat due to its immense and very credible evocative power,depicting credible and actual scenes without ever being common or boring.