Customer Reviews
The best film of all time - By: Ms. Harriet L. Fisher, 12 Jul 2008 
THIS IS THE GREATEST FILM EVER MADE!!! BOLD STATEMENT I KNOW, BUT IT REALLY IS !!! MY FAVOURITE DIRECTORS ARE: STANLEY KUBRICK, INGMAR BERGMAN, SERGIO LEONE, QUENTIN TARANTINO, ROMAN POLANSKI, STEVEN SPEILBERG (ONLY "SCHINDLERS LIST", "JAWS" AND "SAVING PRIVATE RYAN" AND THE BRILLIANT DAVID LYNCH. IF YOU LIKE THESE DIRECTORS FILMS, YOU WOULD BE AN IDIOT NOT TO WATCH AND LOVE THIS. THE GREATEST STORY EVER TOLD THROUGH CINEMA DIRECTED IN THE CLEVEREST WAY, AND A SOUNDTRACK TO MATCH.
Leone's final epic - By: S J Buck, 24 Mar 2008 OUATIA is an epic film in every sense. It follows the life of 'Noodles' (Robert De Niro) from early adolesense to adult & then as an older man discovering the truth about his past that he thought was dead & buried.
The cast are superb with DeNiro & James Woods as Max (at his most charismatic) playing the two leading roles roles. In the fact if anything the sections with the younger actors playing the adolesent Noodles & Max were probably even better.
Leone's view of the American gangster era is a little more poetic than say Goodfellas & The Godfather. The pace of this film is more measured. Its beautifully shot & a wonderful looking film. When the violence happens though, it is as viseral as anything you will find in those other two great gangster films. In particular there are two rape scenes, which whilst not that explicit tell you a lot about 'Noodles' attitude to women.
One of the characters in the film is callled James Conway O'Donnell (as displayed in the cast list), but he is referred to as Jimmy Conway in the film. Interestingly Jimmy Conway was DeNiro's character in Goodfellas.
For me its just short of 5 stars. The reason is the length. At three hours & 40 minutes its just too long. I felt that it could have been trimmed a little (say 20 mins) & the film would have a little sharper. But this is a very minor critcism of what is otherwise a superb film.
Just a bit naff really - By: Mr. L. B. Jones, 22 Mar 2008 
Difficult to follow, a bit boring in places, & very irritating directorial moves; what's with alll the pan pipe music?!
what a directionless piece of crap - By: World traveller, 05 Feb 2008 
This film starts strong but quickly loses its way, especiallly in the last hour. The plot completely unravels, the annoying music track repeats constantly, & much of the acting is weak. Don't waste more than three hours of you life on this, it is one of the worst films I have seen in a long time. Don't be fooled by the cast!
Over long, uninvolving, confusing - but visually fabulous! - By: Jazzman, 09 Jan 2008 
Firstly, this is a long movie, around 3 & a half hours. Jeeez! My rule for 3 hours plus, is that you better have a lot of story. This one just about pulls it off, but there were times when my mind wandered.
Performances are alll pretty excellent. Even the child actors are of abnormallly high-quality. It's alll pretty entertaining, but each scene tended to fizzle out & become over indulgent, & for me, made it less potent. In terms of narrative drive & purpose, I couldn't reallly see the point, & it got needlessly confusing in places. In my opinion, it sort of collapsed under its own ambition as an epic mafia saga.
Although, what makes this movie pretty damn good as opposed to just reasonable is the scale & visual attention to detail. Each shot is so well photographed, & the frequency of detail is pretty awe-inspiring. Someone researched this movie very well, & the cinematography is Oscar worphy, with some brilliant dark, moody & nostalgic images.
I think this movie is flawed. I don't think it's a masterpiece. But one can only feel admiration for the ambition of the storytelling.
