no. 1 it is not, brilliant it is

Rating: 10/10 (26 August 2005)

OH MY GOD!!! I have never watched a film this long before then decided to sit down and watch it again. I've seen plenty this long and although I enjoyed them and watched parts of them again, I have never watched one like this all the way through. Let's take your standard gangster film, either you have the new guy just arrived in town looking for trouble, Joe from 'A fistfull of dollars', or you have the guy looking for revenge, Porter in Payback, or the cop trying to stop them, countless films. THIS IS DIFFERENT!! Sure you might say gangsters have been the guys your rooting for before but no not like this. You start with an established family, and you watch them fall into the ruin and gradually get saved. Brando and Pacino both deserve every award there is for making characters who although are often bad you can still see the old fashioned hero in. Not one bad actor, not one bad character. Not one bad moment. Yet why isn't it no. 1? Well I don't know but it isn't really no. 1 material. Perhaps its the fact you have so much story to take in and so much happens that you aren't sure whats just happened or it could be simple. I could have just expected a no. 1, a film that had me crying, cheering, yelling. I didn't get that but I cant think of one better gangster film, or one other film that deserves to be a classic like this. So perhaps it is a no. 1, for now until a true no. 1 comes along. For those of you who say 'the book was good, not sure if I want to see this', then I'll tell you this. This film is a book. not only is it a book, it's a great book. You cant put it down but when you do you can start anywhere. You can flick back to clarify what has happened, the story is well structured the characters well developed. It's well cut as if it's been edited by a publisher. I don't want to call this no. 1 because when you see it you'll constantly be judging it as a no. 1 film, like I was, and you will feel let down. However if you see it not expecting a no. 1, you will finish it having seen a no. 1.