Great performances and revolutionary directing carry this film from being a meandering, plotless bore to being seen as one of the all-time greats.

Honestly though, this movie did not have to be three hours long. Michael’s love story in Italy was useless, there was barely any plot in the first act and a lot of it just seems repetitive or not integral to the main storyline.

That being said, basically every actor was on the top of their game, with Brando being the obvious standout. It was frustrating that he was M.I.A. in the second act, I feel like I wanted more out of him. At the start, I thought all of the brothers and side characters were too similar and I wasn’t going to be able to tell them apart, but the beauty of having a three hour movie is that they were all fleshed out well and developed their own distinct personalities without becoming caricatures. The colors, lighting and score were all amazing and established the environment and emotions perfectly.

Is it the greatest film ever made? No, not in my opinion. But it was still great, and I can see why people give it that distinction.