Reviews

Pros: The costuming, cinematography, and music are outstanding. One scene with a flaming castle especially stands out.

One of the last movies to have large cavalry groups with no cgi. The battle sets feel real.

The ending scenes are powerfully emotional.

Cons: Some of the cuts/editing feel dated for 1985, even more so for 2021. Reminds me of a 50s epic.

The action is poorly choreographed. It's possible there was intention behind this, but at certain times the soldiers' movements didn't make sense and took me out of the film.

Flimsy characters. I didn't find any emotional payoff until the last 20 minutes.

Not Scorsese's best work but a beautiful character driven story. It's filmed in a gritty rough style. Evokes the feel of living in NYC among the Italians. As for the story, it's mostly comprised of vignettes revolving around Charlie (Keitel). He's a young man torn between his friends, his lover, his career with the mob, and his Catholic religion. Stand out performance by DeNiro as the charismatic but good-for-nothing Johnny before his widespread fame from Godfather Part II.

Scorsese set the gold standard for rockumentaries with this film. Not perfect: too much focus on Robertson, some eye-rolling commentary from the band. The shooting and editing is nearly perfect. And the performances are outstanding even if the most of the musicians seem tired of the rock lifestyle. Well worth the watch for anyone interested in rock music history.