This performance is the stuff of legends. Beart was naked for almost two hours of screen time. Unfortunately, it is a four-hour movie, and the other two hours are as dull as a Bob Dole speech. Even Terrence Malick and Tarkovsky would be falling asleep at the slow pacing of this one. Come to think of it, the two hours with naked Beart are also dull, but you don’t notice it as much.
To be fair, the arty set loves this flick. The great Kurosawa, for example, counted it as a favorite, and said he wished he had made it! Both Tuna and I reviewed it decades ago, and suffice it to say we respectfully thought the great Kurosawa was full of it.
Interesting sidebar: the film was not lensed in widescreen, but in TV aspect ratio (4:3)!
