A dark subject and an ugly, not-well-known chapter in American history. Great director, great cast, and a harrowing, real-life story. Should be a formula for success. Expected it to be well done, based on reviews. Instead, was a bit disappointed.
First and foremost, it's too long (3 hours and 26 minutes). A lot more editing needed.
Second, they undersold the work by the cops who broke the case. That would have been among the best entertainment elements, from a movie perspective. As is fashionable these days, the movie focuses a lot of time on the evil of white men and oppression of non-whites. In fairness: That's the real life story. It's just that you can only soak your audience in that theme for so long.
We get it: The oppressors in this story are the lowest form of pond scum. But get on with the exciting part, which is the work it took to find and punish (or under-punish) them. Scorsese seems to go out of his way to make sure this movie cannot have a white hero. Okay. Don't make the cops heroes. But don't leave out the risky stuff they did to end this ugly chapter of American history.
Scorsese is a great filmmaker and has a great knack for bringing historical pieces to life (Gangs of New York). This movie just misses on the balance between telling the story and keeping the audience entertained, which is a shame, because they left a lot of real-life excitement out of the story, while dragging out the ugly stuff.
I usually get annoyed when Hollywood embellishes to make history more entertaining. In this case, no embellishment was needed, but they left a lot of the good stuff out.
First and foremost, it's too long (3 hours and 26 minutes). A lot more editing needed.
Second, they undersold the work by the cops who broke the case. That would have been among the best entertainment elements, from a movie perspective. As is fashionable these days, the movie focuses a lot of time on the evil of white men and oppression of non-whites. In fairness: That's the real life story. It's just that you can only soak your audience in that theme for so long.
We get it: The oppressors in this story are the lowest form of pond scum. But get on with the exciting part, which is the work it took to find and punish (or under-punish) them. Scorsese seems to go out of his way to make sure this movie cannot have a white hero. Okay. Don't make the cops heroes. But don't leave out the risky stuff they did to end this ugly chapter of American history.
Scorsese is a great filmmaker and has a great knack for bringing historical pieces to life (Gangs of New York). This movie just misses on the balance between telling the story and keeping the audience entertained, which is a shame, because they left a lot of real-life excitement out of the story, while dragging out the ugly stuff.
I usually get annoyed when Hollywood embellishes to make history more entertaining. In this case, no embellishment was needed, but they left a lot of the good stuff out.
