A former Prohibition-era Jewish gangster returns to the Lower East Side of Manhattan over thirty years later, where he once again must confront the ghosts and regrets of his old life.
There are times when we don't understand exactly what is happening, but never a time when we don't feel confidence in the film's narrative.
– Roger Ebert,
Chicago Sun-Times,
23 Oct 2004
rotten:
A disappointment of considerable proportions.
– Variety Staff,
Variety,
12 Sep 2008
fresh:
Every gesture is immediate, and every gesture seems eternal.
– Dave Kehr,
Chicago Reader,
12 Apr 2011
fresh:
Leone is less interested in arousing an audience's easier emotions than in presenting, at a dispassionate distance, the horror of two men warily walking toward each other on a tightrope suspended above the snake pit of their , deepest compulsions.
– Richard Corliss,
TIME Magazine,
12 Apr 2011
fresh:
Sergio Leone's languid, lovely and lengthy ode to Lower East Side mobsters (more specifically, mobster films) ...