first time seeing this, if i'm being honest -- fragments from a decade ago don't count. and guess what, it's great. what a surprise. what's wonderful is that, even though so much of this movie has been passed on through cultural osmosis, those oft-referenced moments are still really effective. brando's performance still has the gravitational pull of a collapsed star. the horse-head scene was chilling. the "massacred my boy" bit was heart-breaking. the sporadic violence is still horrifying.

three hours long and felt like half that length.

the actors here are really excellent. no surprise.