'1900'

Was there a good film made in the last 40 years that didn't have Robert De Niro in it? No one has a resume quite like De Niro and no one ever will. He's the greatest actor ever.

This talking about a film co-starring Donald Sutherland, who had his own stretch of films in the 1970s that absolutely killed form year to year.

1900 is quite the expansive and fascinating epic film. Although Bernardo Bertolucci would get known for The Last Tango in Paris and blow up for The Last Emperor, 1900 was probably more of a benchmark film for him.

It was a killer cast (De Niro, Sutherland, Burt Lancaster, Sterling Hayden, Gérard Depardieu) set in Bertolucci's home province of northern italy, Emilia Romagna, the film starts with the fall of the fascists during World War II. We are flashbacked to January 1901 when Alfredo (De Niro) and Olmo (Derpardieu) are born on the same day -- Alfredo to the rich landowner and Olmo to one of the landowner's serfs.

The pair prove to be friends despite their different outlooks on life and different opinions politically as the scene changed in Italy. It's five hours long and chronicles the 40 years between the day they were born and when the workers revolt and chase out of the landowner and fascists. What makes it great is that it doesn't feel as long as it actually is. That's hard to do in five hours.