Review Detail

This just blew me away. And I'm not easily blown away, given that this is a movie I've seen at least 20 times. So why did this version make such an impact on me? Because the last ten or so times I've seen the film it's been in the "director's cut" format. I've always suspected that the DC was a massive dis-improvement on the theatrical cut (which I saw on its release in 1984 and many times before that version was withdrawn in 2002). The extra scenes in the DC seemed to add nothing, and often seemed actually to do damage. At best, the extra 20 minutes made a film that in its original form was long but didn't seem it (its 2hrs 40 flew by) suddenly feel every minute of its 3hrs. So I was already suspicious of the DC. But it's only now that I see the original again that I realise not just how much better it is than the DC, but what a masterpiece it is in its own right. I had begun to think of the film as merely "very good". It's not "very good". It is sublime. It really is a contender for the title of best movie ever made. Everything about it - the plot, the dialogue, the astonishing visuals and, of course, the music - is just off the scale. But it's only in this version that you can really appreciate that.