Delightfully Detailed

Rating: 9/10 (5 August 2013)

Do not bother to watch the shorter version. Cut and mangled for American Theaters by some 90 Minutes, it is still out there and should be avoided. The intended 227 Minute Movie is readily available on Disc and that is the Director's intent. Anything else is blasphemous.
That being said, it is the almost Four Hour Film that will have some, less patient, viewers wriggling in their seats and demanding a more friendly version. It is a lengthy, at times lethargic, sprawl that can be an attractive display of Period and Time hopping.
This was not a common Film Style at the time, much more so now, and it feels like a Dream sometimes, and there are some Nightmarish Scenes to be sure. With a Movie so long and Artistically involved there is a lot to take in. Most of it is richly rewarding, but it can be overly complex. It is a Film that takes investment and waiting for the payoff may be tiresome, but ultimately satisfying.
For those willing to become involved for the long haul it can be a Baroque, Powerful Experience. The haunting Score and the beautiful, soft, hazy visuals combined with some clever Cinema tricks and excruciating sense of detail, to make this a fine Film for those with an eye for demanding and delightful, disturbing and dense, fictionalized and fancied, Gangster Americana.