I recently rewatched this for the first time since I first saw it in theater last November. Watched it in one sitting.
I must say that the first act flows tremendously well and by the time Pacino turns up the dynamic even improves. While Pesci plays the more subdued mob boss, which he does wonderfully, Pacino gets the more flamboyant theatrical one with Hoffa and he really injects life in it. While De Niro is a stellar lead in here, as he always is, it's Pacino that really commands the screen.
Time gradually passing by was more effective for me this time around. I could pay more attention to the costumes, the surroundings, than before. Of course the aging of the actors works well too, but it's most effective with Pacino. Partly because we don't get to see him very young nor very old, like Pesci and De Niro. Granted, it largely does look pretty convincing, but I do pity that they touchup up De Niro's eyes, it's often the crux of his face not looking too convincing.
Anyway, this time around I found the sequence of
to suffer the absence of the score. I mean I understand why they decided not to include the score by that time but with a runtime this long, it doesn't do much good. In fact, it hurts the film.
Besides, it's just so weird through how many huge worldwide events the people lived through. Most notably Frank Sheeran of course, since he passed away in 2003 and lived longest from the people he spent his younger days with.