Screen legends last hurrah

Rating: 7/10 (7 December 2019)

What a wonderful gift to be able to watch a Scorsese collaboration with this extraordinary cast. This is an old style gangster film of a time in history now gone. Similar story in many ways to Goodfellas, The Godfather and others of that ilk. It's a story of few surprises but masterfully recreated nevertheless. Great characterisations, full of wonderful dialog such as the quirky 'fish' scene. It does meander along giving glimpses through one man's life, but doesn't explore too deeply the psych of the protagonists or political plays involved. Noticeably absent of female characters, with the father daughter relationship so surface it's appears token.
At 3 hours it is way too long and one wonders if a bit of judicious editing would have improved the pace and tension. The de-aging technology is a wonder of skill, but I felt the main characters all still looked a bit old for the parts they were playing. They did look 20 years younger but not the needed 40 years and it couldn't disguise their movements and physiology, which were of elderly men. The scene showing DeNiro climbing over rocks disposing of a gun is a case in point. In the last part of the movie they were old men so that didn't matter.
All that aside they are all masters of their craft and delivered wonderful performances. Pacino explosive passion, Pesci power contained and DeNiro humble. It felt like a labour of love and to see them together as an ensemble is something special.