This one had to grow on me. I kept thinking about it, after my first viewing. I've seen it 3 times since then; I've come to believe that it's the most important film made in 2013, and is Scorsese's best film after "Goodfellas".
The story here is nothing new - it's as old as time. This is the story of self-destructiveness, celebrated by the participants. It shocked people back in 1931 with "The Public Enemy" and in 1932 with "Scarface". And, I suppose it's still the case that when told with panache and without more peppering of "this is bad" cues and narration that people are used to seeing in movies, apparently this story can still offend a fair amount of viewers.
This is called immersion; it's what movies are best able to do. You can see and feel an experience without living it. Here you're immersed in the world of someone who is empty inside, and consequently goes on a doomed ride through life replete with drug abuse, sexual hijinks, and general lack of ethical behavior. Other people get hurt. And the whole thing ends badly.
Huge props to Martin Scorsese - at age 71! - for the quality of that immersion. This is stylistically beautiful. But more impressively, it's powerful. IMO, more powerful than other celebrated stories of self-destruction such as "Raging Bull" or "Taxi Driver" that people eventually learned to appreciate.
You have to buckle in for this one. It's long, and it doesn't let up. One could argue that this would have made a better miniseries than movie - that's it's difficult to take in all at once. But that's what they (Scorsese and screenwriter Terence Winter) wanted to do here. To make a great big movie overflowing at the seams. It's well-written throughout, it's got great performances by DiCaprio and Hill, and it's a masterful creation. Rating : A+.
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