A mafioso genre at the twilight of its life

Rating: 9/10 (28 May 2020)

Scorsese is a titan in the motion picture industry ! I have watched this film maybe 6 to 7 times in a short span of time already. I am a huge fan of the mafioso cinema, from 1962's Mafioso to GoodFellas, Casino, The Sopranos, Once Upon A Time In America, The Godfather trilogy. And this film definitely, without a shadow of a doubt, stands up there with the legends. It pays homage to the gangster and mafioso genre and instead of romanticizing the world of crime, Scorsese shows us the vulnerable end of that world. The last 30 minutes impact me more than any films have had for a very very long time. It shows the fear of old age, reflecting on a lifetime of crime, killing for an ideal you believe is for the good of your kin, but it only deprives you of your kin. The fact that this picture took 10 years or so to make because Scorsese was having difficulties allocating the funds for it, while Hollywood greenlit remakes, reboots, sequels, prequels, Disney live-action, superhero flicks, and CATS... just show how ridiculous it is. If I heard there is a film being made starring Robert De Niro, Al Pacino, and Joe Pesci, directed by Martin fucking Scorsese, I would have handed over my rent money ! Those who says this was too long or too boring are probably the same people who the next thing they do is to continue to watch 7 hours of a dumb rom com. The only reason why I regretfully gave it a 9/10 was because of Scorsese's rather conservative way of keeping the original character in their original physique while playing younger versions of themselves, this could have easily been resolved with a stunt double.