The Fracturing of the American Consciousness

Rating: Null/10 (10 January 2001)

I've only seen the 'long' version of this movie, and I barely get it. I can't imagine what sort of mess the 'short' version is. This movie is almost impossible to talk about. It has a bizarre atmosphere and doesn't make its points in anything resembling 'normal' movie logic. This is of course to its credit, as its effect is mind-boggling but also strangely moving.
This tale of Jewish gangsters growing up together in the Lower East Side is structured and paced in such a way that the viewer is almost constantly caught off guard. Even in the familiarity of the gangster motif, the nostalgic renderings of the early days of the gang, the film is light years from a movie like "The Godfather" which is very straightforward and decidedly concillitory. This film seems to be be illustrating a world that is without philosophy.
That, or its philosophy is rooted in a perversion of the American Dream. These guys have it all, they built themselves up through their own ingenuity to become successful, but their methods are ostensibly opposed to the accepted American Way. After nearly 4 hours, I still don't really know what to make of any of the characters, but that in itself seems to be the film's center of fascination, for me anyway.