A fine story in the spirit of The Godfather and The Untouchables but yet different...

Rating: 10/10 (16 July 2005)

It is impossible not being impressed or loving this movie completely. Robert De Niro is making one of his greatest roles, along with Taxi Driver and The Godfather, in this movie by playing David Aaronson, a Jewish gangster, who hangs out with his friends - Cockeye and Patsy among others - when he was a boy, when they said that they would die for each other... They shared their fortunes (which they earned by making some crime in the under world), their loves and their lives. When they grew to men, they shared a dream, a dream to skip poverty, which was their world, and rise to power. But they don't realize that it will cost them their friendship - that it will be built on greed, violence and betrayal for making the dream come true. Finally, their dream would end as a mystery that refuse to die. Except from De Niro, James Woods is making his maybe best role of Max, who becomes the leader of the gang of which De Niro is a member.
It is a fine story by three and half a hour that tells the whole story by the beginning of David's escape from the justice after being accused of having betrayed his friends, and how he thirty years later came back to his youth, wanting to find an answer of his past, returning to his memories from his time in the gang, how he was in love with Deborah, how he was best friends with Max, how everything ended... the end that still is a mystery.
It is a very thrilling drama movie, which the ending will be nothing you imagine, but of which you understand will happen by the last ten minutes until the fine story ends. The photography is beautifully filmed, the cinematography realistic, which make it feel like you are in the first half of the 20th century, when you aren't, and the actors all simply great as well as the characters and the story. It's one of the best storytelling movies, along with movies such like The Godfather and The Untouchables, that I've been watching... All simply, it's a great experience of a greater movie.