Running Time: 185 minutes
Directed By: Luchino Visconti
Written By: Suso Cecchi d'Amico, Pasquale Festa Campanile, Massimo Franciosa, Enrico Medioli, Luchino Visconti, from novel by Giuseppe Tomasi Di Lampedusa
Main Cast: Burt Lancaster, Claudia Cardinale, Alain Delon, Paolo Stoppa, Rina Morelli
Click here to view the trailer
I'LL TAKE THE BLAME...
Wow, nearly ten days since my last review. I'm such a slacker! It's been rough going at work though (you try tackling retail at Christmas time!) and what with Christmas shopping and making time to spend with my wife, movies have not been first priority, to say the least. However, they're still a high priority and I really want to wrap this season up sooner rather than later, which is why I tackled the longest beast on my short term to do list first, rather than saving this uphill climb for later.
Here's the deal guys, if you actually thought I was going to like this one in the slightest, then you haven't been paying attention. This one had been lying on my desk for days. I put it into the DVD player one day last week when my wife was working the night shift and got about fifteen minutes in before deciding I just wasn't up to a three hour movie and opting out. Fast forward to Tuesday night and I got up the gumption to just do it and oy vey, what a chore this was! Dare I say the biggest chore of the 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die book thus far? Perhaps. I actually couldn't even give you a credible plot synopsis, because my mind wandered so easily with this one. I just couldn't have possibly cared less about what was playing out onscreen and it's a shame, because Burt Lancaster is a broad shouldered man who commands full attention, Alain Delon is a fine actor whom I loved in Le Samourai and Claudia Cardinale is breath taking, here more than ever. It's just that I don't do history and the older it gets the less attention I care to give. When you send me back to 19th century Italy and pieces of history that I know absolutely zero about and have absolutely zero interest in learning about, I tap out. At one point, I realized that I was never going to like this one for plot reasons, so I decide to start looking for reasons to give it a few points. Here's the thing though, for all the praise that this film gets for great looking cinematography, I didn't see it. Hey, maybe my perception is a bit skewed, as I've seen some really gorgeous pictures this season, dozens of which trump this as far as good looking movies go (Days of Heaven and The Conformist come to mind, both of which I disliked plot wise, but gave decent enough marks too just because they had other positive attributes).
What took three nights to finish (one hour per night is all I could muster) wound up being a huge bust, but one that I anticipated. I kind of knew going in that if I ended up liking this one, it would be a pleasant surprise and that just didn't happen, folks. During the third room and with so much stuff on my mind lately (Christmas, work, etc.), I could barely keep my thoughts on the movie and by that point, has basically decided to call it a wash, accept the low rating and move on. So that's that and I take full responsibility for this one. Perhaps I'd made my mind up before going in, but after years of being a movie fan, I know what I like and this isn't it, so maybe making my mind up early wasn't that much of a sin. I'll stop rambling now...
RATING: 1/10 Again, I take the blame and if you loved this one, more power to you. I, for one, found nothing redeeming and that's three hours of life I won't get back.
MOVIES WATCHED: 880
MOVIES LEFT TO WATCH: 121
December 12, 2014 7:43pm
Is this what you meant the other day when, after we celebrated a 4 way agree fest, you predicted a disagreement or two on the horizon?
ReplyDeleteOh well... but one I see as a different kind of disagree.. a sort of Gentlemans disagreement.."Yes, I can see what you mean, but I happened to like it" as opposed to "What!? You didn't like it? How can you say that?"
Perhaps this is a generation thing.. being decidedly in the same sort of '"Things are changing too much and too rapidly, and I don't like it" place as Don Fabrizio.
Not one I loved, but one I found fulfilling, if a little hard work, and well worth it's place in the book and one I was glad - very glad- to have seen. Well worth investing in the commentary track to understand what was going on at times..
If this is the worst you can come up with strength of disagreement, I'm fine with that.
No, I wasn't really referencing a specific movie when I said the other day that a disagreement was in our future. I just meant that if we're agreeing so much, surely a disagreement is in the works just to even things out.
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