The first time I viewed this movie, on video, the first section, before the initial flash forward, was confusing. Very lttle dialogue. After the tape was over, I decided to rerun those first few minutes, to see if I could make more sense of their context. I was surprised to find that this prologue was a half hour long. Leone's often uses shots of very long duration, with not much action, so it would seem that this 220 minute movie would feel like days. Instead it feels shorter than many 90 minute ones.
The story, about friendship and betrayal among New York gangsters, is nothing special, and seems pretty historically and culturally inaccurate. The structure and editing, however, are terrific. Jumping back and forth from the sixties to the early twenties to the early thirties, this film mesmerizes. The musical score adds more to feel the movie than any other score I know of.
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