The Lonesome Dove of Mob Movies

Rating: 9/10 (28 November 2019)

Robert De Niro, Joe Pesci, Al Pacino, Harvey Keitel, Welker White, Anna Paquin, Jesse Plemons, Dascha Polanco, Kathrine Narducci to name just a few of the top notch line-up of performers at their very, very best in this tour of the golden age of the Italian dominated underworld' power struggle for union control and government corruption.
The story reminded me of a three decade long chronology of "New York Daily News" (et. al.) gangster hit headlines over those years. (And 'the News' would splash the front page with crime scene photos back then!)
In a nutshell, Di Niro, as aged mob enforcer Frank Sheeran, narrates a chronology of the life and times during this 'golden age' of corruption as he and his boss, Russell Bufalino (Joe Pesci) embark on a road trip from Philadelphia to Detroit to attend Bufalino brother's wedding while taking care of business, and one major problem, along the way.
That's the good news. The bad news is that this is an 'epic' in every sense of the word. The best way I can describe it would be as the "Lonesome Dove" of gangster movies. Although riveting in every way, it seems endless and is well the the feature length class as "Ben Hur", "Lawrence of Arabia" or "Doctor Zhivago", but without a carefully placed intermission. It needs one.
Every moment, every flashback vignette is worth waiting for, but there are seemingly an endless number of moments. Plan on watching it over two evenings. Also, keep your mouse pointer near the 'pause button'. When characters are introduced, a too quick 'who's who' description pops up letting you know 'who the guy is'.
Overall, this is a classic and probably one of Martin Scorsese's very best .