I watched...I rewound and rewached. An 8.4, it ain't.

Rating: 6/10 (18 October 2018)

Perusing Netflix, I recognized this movie title and the names Sergio Leone and Ennio Morricone; I particularly enjoyed the music of Cinema Paradiso, also the work of Morricone. The line-up of actors pulled me right in, but to what? After watching for a little while, I looked up the movie and noted how 10 hours of film were sliced and diced to a disastrous 2h 19m for US release, whereas the 3h 49m release was the one to make everything right. Well, at least I had that going for me.
At the end, it was still a disappointment. A movie that forces you to pay fanatic attention to detail to "get it" is not the product of good direction. It is the result of a riding on one's own name to varnish a deeply flawed product as "art." Even at 3h 49m, continuity suffered. The flashback method of story telling was clumsy and not handled nearly as smoothly as in its inspiration, Godfather II. The fact that these were kids from a Jewish neighborhood was inconsequential. Things happen in the movie often for no apparent reason and go nowhere, the opening 10 or 15 minutes being a prime example. Even the music of Ennio Morricone seems worn out by the end, as the same theme repeats throughout scenes where it seems misplaced or simply gets in the way.
You might will dismiss this review as the ramblings of someone who isn't sophisticated enough to realize what a masterpiece this really is. My guess is there is a coherent, thought-provoking story somewhere among the frames that made it to the screen and what was left on the cutting room floor. This still isn't it. To suggest that less than a point separates this move from The Godfather I just doesn't pass the sniff test.