I guess I must have missed Kael’s comment. I never read the Times anyway. Most of the reviews I read (trying to stir faulty memory) praised the flick. But I’ll demur...even with constant narrative stimulation, I think I’d find it pretty tedious.
A lot of the major critics of the time (Sarris, Kaufman, John Simon) didn’t like it. Some of them have since changed their mind. The slow unfolding nature of it is part of the effect. It could not be told any other way keeping the themes intact. It totally envelops and grabs me every time I watch it. You probably don’t like ‘Barry Lyndon’ either right?