A Greek Tragedy of South Eastern Pacific Proportions

Rating: 9/10 (2 November 2003)

This movie almost moves at a French pace for nearly two hours...so I was wondering what was going through director David Lean's head: All the nuances, the set ups, the little vignettes. Beautiful, but slow. Then the ending unfolds just as slowly, but psychically too fast: I was unprepared for the devastating ending which completely relies on all that came before it. It completely enraptures one in the deepest tragic depths of civilization.

I think about the scene from the movie Amadeus where Mozart hears the complaint that his opera is too long - too taxing - has too many notes; whereupon he asks which notes should be removed. Of course, in a Mozart composition, no notes can be removed without diminishing the piece...and so, too, this film.