"1900"/"Novecento"

"1990" (1976): Lately I seem to have mustered up the spirit and time to sit through overly long films such as Akira Kurosawa's "Seven Samurai" (clocked at 3 & a 1/2 hour). Next up's "1990" or "Novecento", coming at a total of 5 hours and in two parts, perhaps the longest film I'd ever watched in my life and in a single-sitting.

When one thinks of a 3-hour war film "Schindler's List" or "Saving Private Ryan", would come to mind, as these both of which are excellent films (with albeit justifiable long-runtime). However, "1900" is not a Steven Spielberg war film. It is a sprawling, 5-hour, dare I say, mess of an epic. The storyline spans throughout the mid-1900s, from the time 2 boys, one born a peasant and the other to a rich landowner's family (or "patrone" as referred in the film) become friends and grow up during the peasants' revolution against the Italian fascists.

The story of two young boys of different social class during a tumultuous period of revolution and uprising certainly sounds like a great movie for me. Sadly, the script of "1900" just isn't too well-written; the dialogue in the film is crude at times, and the actors' accent and acting at times laughable (think dialogues like "I want the key!", "I stick it up your ass!", "The greatest load of horseshit and dung!" acted out in Italian-accented English dubbing). The pacing throughout the film to say the least is excruciating, as scenes tend to drag on and on and seemed really self-indulgent. The only few reasons I'd watched the flick's because firstly, I'd read how controversial the film was (but by today's standard it merely seems tame). Secondly, Robert DeNiro's in it, and lastly it's a Bertolucci movie (the first of several I've yet to finish viewing). If there's any commendable points to be taken from "1900", it would be its cinematography, which looks great for the time it was made. My rating for "1900": 4/10

Here's a list of the rather "brow-raising" scenes I'd seen in the movie:
-a young girl milking a cow, later an old landowner asks her to "milk" him (exactly what I mean)
-2 boys pulling out and pulling back their erected penises
-Again the 2 boys lying on the ground and "humping" the grasses
-Skip to 2 boys all grown up and getting handjobs simultaneously from a hooker
-cocaine sniffing
-a couple of animal killings (a cat, a pig in separate scenes)
-A mass shooting of farmers by the fascist character, rape (off-screen) and killing of a young boy
-close-up of a horse's ass and a man "massaging" it to make it defecate

Well, now that I've finished watching the longest-running movie on my list, it's time to finish watching these:
Gettysburg (1993) - 4 and a 1/2 hrs
Dances with Wolves (1990) - 3 hrs 56 mins. (Director's Cut)
Gods and Generals (2003) - 3 hrs 38 mins.
Wyatt Earp (1994) - 3 hrs 10 mins.
Fanny and Alexander (1982) - 3 hrs approximately.
The Last Emperor (1987) - 2 hrs 43 mins.
Ran (1985) - 2 hrs 42 mins.