I just watched this movie, and it took me 10 minutes to realize that I already saw it before (but never made it to the end). It's that forgettable. For starters, its interminable, almost 3 hours. It's a huge production, with a cast of a thousand, all famous French actors and with James Caan thrown in for good measure. There is an unending cast of poorly portrayed characters, new characters small and large popping up all the time. It's like watching a French telephone book made into a movie. Trying to keep it straight? Take a load of this, they all play two generations of themselves, sometimes at the same time (OK, the James Caan with the graying hair is the dad, and the one who looks not a year younger, with the red hair is the son. Why not give them all name tags?). If you want to see Fellini meets Busbee Berklee, if you like a comic book history lesson of WWII with nicely tanned and brightly colored scenes of Auschwitz for instance (I'm not kidding, and it's not a spoof either), and if a director who can't tell a story and covers up with gratuitous special effects and lavish song and dance numbers is your kind of guy, by all means watch this movie.

I am a professional musician. This film, in VHS, was presented to me by friends after my comments on the music I listened to on a cassette tape. I do not know how they did it as we were living in Southern Mexico at the time. I thank them profusely. All the music and, that dance at the end, is just simply outstanding. I do not know how any music lover could ever lessen a 10+ rating. I hope to find it on DVD someday. My two VHS tapes are good but what a blast it would be on DVD. The cast includes some great actors who seem to actually perform their musical parts. I get emotional with the story line, particularly the return of James Cahn to his Sarah. I recommend this to all.

I happened to be in Paris when this film was released. I was able to see it three times in 2 weeks at a theater who did English Subtitles. What an incredible movie. Unfortunately, it was released within months of Blake Edwards "10" which also used "Bolero" as it's main theme and that movie went over big time in the US, so distributors had a problem getting this film out. I wish they would re-release it. The thing I enjoy the most about it is the director's multiple uses of the actors. Many play their characters children and grandchildren. It is also an incredible look at a time when the world was trying to blow each other up and it shows that people everywhere just want the same things. A brilliant film.

I'm amazed how few have seen this fabulous movie. Though not as perfect as the directors' Les Miserables, it is still a superb classic. I always have found it difficult to understand at first viewing, I now realize that this probably due to heavy editing from the original six hour french version. I hope that some day it is released in it's entirety.