If, like me, you are attempting to get the great satisfaction that gave reading "The Sicilian", by Mario Puzo, watching this movie you will be highly disappointed. It has virtually nothing to do with the book, although it claims to be based on the novel. No character corresponds to the age, temper or intelligence attributed to them on the novel. It's clear a movie cannot recreate a book completely, but this one goes the extra mile and butchers it without mercy. Spoiler alert: it leaves out important relationships like Giuliano's with his mother and La Venera and makes up another with the Contessa. All the human, great stuff of the book is left out. This movie is just terrible.

Cimno obviously hadn't learned from "Heaven's Gate", which isn't the disaster it's made out to be, just too long and too caught up in its subplots. "The Sicilian" copies the mistakes, but this time around it doesn't even have the beauty or breath of "Heaven's Gate". Nor its good actors. Christopher Lambert is a disaster in the title role. He tries to get by on his good looks and roguish twinkle in the eye, but his charisma is non-existent and it's hard to believe him as a folk hero who can move the masses. Helena Sukova is also a disappointment. Terrence Stamp's performance is hard to measure fairly, due to a poor dubbing job inflicted on him in post production. Only John Torturro as his usual nervous self is worth the money, as is Joss Ackland as the don of dons in Sicily.Apart from the acting problems, this film is also spectacularly dull. Cimino stretches a repetitious, drawn-out story over almost two and a half hours, when 90 minutes and some judicious editing would have served him better here. Because things shuffle on at a snail's pace and many scenes seem completely superfluous (also known as the "Heaven's Gate" syndrome), the viewer quickly loses interest. Which in turn is a problem with this densely plotted and at times confusing film. There are so many betrayals, broken deals and secret alliances, that at some point the viewer is bound to be confused, especially if he's trying to keep up interest in a movie that doesn't deserve it. Seriously, give "Heaven's Gate" a try instead of this. You might lose an additional hour of your life, but you'll be awarded with a flawed epic instead of this epic failure.

For the record, I'm not a Cimino knocker. I liked Thunderbolt & Lightfoot, I initially thought the Deer Hunter was overrated, but it's grown on me. I actually like Heaven's Gate (although the last third drags - and in a film of that length a third is a LONG time)... it also is obvious that it shouldn't have cost that much (The book on the making of it, Final Cut is a must read). Year Of The Dragon, I liked, even with the stereotyping and awful leading lady (where did she disappear too?)I just want to make a short and simple comment - worst dancing scene ever by an actor. Joss Ackland, the singing and dancing fool. Also, Cimino needs to seriously get out of this 'I want to be like Coppola' thing... it's not working. The Sicilian is junk.It's hard to tell if Cimino is talented or if he has a habit of picking good cinematographers... the only good point in The Sicilian

The European-release version of "The Sicilian" is 31 minutes longer than the US version. Supposedly, the director was ordered to deliver a version under 2 hours, so he recut the film to render it incoherent with the expectation that Fox would have to release the complete film. Only, they went ahead and released the deliberately botched shorter cut. This may be apocryphal, but it would help explain the critical drubbing it got in this country. I was lucky enough to see the complete film in Paris and was mesmerized. Gore Vidal was denied credit for the screenplay, but the film has a literacy, intellectual depth and acidity that is pure Vidal; the character played by Terrance Stamp is essentially Vidal's stand-in. The only comparable film might be "The Godfather," but with an even stronger historic/political context. It is certainly the highpoint of Michael Cimino's career to date, and I'm one of those odd ducks that fervently admires "Heaven's Gate". If you can see this in Europe, or if it comes out over there on DVD and you have a region-appropriate DVD player, grab the opportunity to see it.