Two friends from very different backgrounds discover love, friendship and themselves amidst the backdrop of Italy in the early to mid 1900’s.

This was my first viewing of 1900 and my overall sentiment is one of great disappointment. Not just disappointment in the quality of the film, but in virtually every aspect of the filmmaking process. I realize Bernardo Bertolucci has his devout fans, but I have to say that 1900 was many things, but a masterpiece it was not.

I’ll start with the performances of all of the main performers. The one link between all of them, yes Mr. DeNiro too, is that none of them seemed like they wanted to be there. None of them seemed to understand or care about their characters and the results were several uninspired performances. Robert DeNiro is one of the greatest actors of all time, but this is not a good example of his greatness. The biggest question mark came with Donald Sutherland. He just didn’t fit his role at all and at times it seemed like he wasn’t even trying.

The direction is also to blame for this misguided epic. Mr. Bertolucci missed on all accounts and the 5.25 hour runtime was wasted with meaningless scenes and scenes that ran on long after the action was done. While we’re on the subject of wasted time, 5.25 hours is too long for any movie, much less one that means as little as 1900. This could have easily been trimmed to 2.5 hours and would have perhaps been better for it.

I can’t say I’ve ever been a fan of Bernardo Bertolucci and 1900 sums up why. He had the ingredients and the talent to make a powerful movie that could have actually made a political statement about Communism in Italy while showcasing the amazing scenery the beautiful country has to offer, but instead he wastes his time on amateurish sex scenes, animal cruelty and drawn out dialogue exchanges so much so that he misses the big picture.

Video: Widescreen (1.85:1): It does appear the film has been restored and it looks pretty good on this transfer.

Audio: English 2.0, Italian and French Mono with English subtitles: I’m not sure why Paramount would go through the trouble of releasing the 5.25 hour version on two discs and not give us a 5.1 mix, but they did, and the result was a very mundane audio track.

1900: The Story, The Cast (13:56): Bernardo talks about the story and offers a little side notes to go along with his discussion. He’s pretty passionate about the film and it’s nice to hear him discuss it.

1900: Creating an Epic (14:21): This is more of a discussion about the different problems the cast and crew faced while filming the movie. There’s nothing too shocking in this, but it should be interesting for anyone that enjoyed the film.

I can think of many things to do in 5.25 hours that would be more worthwhile than watching 1900. The film missed on all marks and didn’t come close to what seems to have been Bertolucci’s goal.