Quartile rating: 7.5/10 · 1 rating
The epic tale of a class struggle in twentieth century Italy, as seen through the eyes of two childhood friends on opposing sides.
Bertolucci's sweeping 5-hour epic earns top marks for its ambitious, richly layered class-struggle narrative spanning half a century of Italian history, and for its extraordinary ensemble — De Niro, Depardieu, Sutherland, Lancaster — all delivering commanding work. Storaro's cinematography is lush and painterly, making the Po Valley feel mythic. However, the film's Marxist allegory follows a fairly schematic ideological framework that limits its Novelty score — the dialectical structure and peasant-vs-landowner arc are well-worn epic conventions even if executed grandly. The ending, while thematically resonant, tips into theatrical didacticism and feels somewhat abrupt and unresolved after such a monumental buildup, preventing a top score there.