Great, but...

Rating: 8/10 (12 February 2011)

I am doubtful about this movie.
It is certainly a classic; it is at times beautiful,moving and insightful- but I felt it was somehow unequal. A sequence of great scenes and a rigorous construction; but also a number of plot elements and twists I don't know how to feel about.
Just off the top of my head-
How come Bugsy just randomly starts shooting in broad daylight, with the cops just one block away? Is he stupid? You don't do things like that.
How is it that after some ten years Noodles comes out of prison to immediately rejoin his gang as if nothing happened? Sure, it's possible, but a lot of things change in that time- especially if you're a teenager; I don't know, it was just too natural.
What line of business are the guys actually in? They seem to do hits, robberies but also booze-traffic and are involved with the union too. Yet at the same time they just work for themselves, no bosses, no gang. You don't get to do that kind of things; unions are not doing business with four thugs who haven't got their backs covered; you don't get to just buy and sell stuff like alcohol during the Prohibition or drugs nowadays; you don't get to gun down Mafia members and then walk around as if nothing happened. It's a rather common thing even with the best crime movies that the script is not quite sure about what the heroes do- they're just 'gangsters', and that should include all.(ex. in The Departed, you have Jack Nicholson selling military information to the Chinese & also driving drugs around himself in the trunk of his car & also collecting protection money from the local shop; so what is he? Big Boss, supposedly, and yet acts as a foot soldier sometimes...).