The recurring motif of an anonymous fiddler and dancer, who remain perpetually spry throughout the thirty years of this family saga, is supposed to make you think you are getting the essence of gypsy life. But the irritatingly dark photography and nearly inaudible narration are truer tips to how coy this movie is about details, particularly the details of everyday living. The storyline, almost a carbon copy of The Godfather, wherein a young gypsy is sucked back into the fold despite his desire to strike off on a "normal" life ("I'd like to be a surgeon,'" he pipedreams, "maybe even save people's lives"), transforms the exotic into the conventional. The handsome hero's thickly spread New York dialect gives him more kinship to Pacino-Travolta-De Niro movie stars than to the gypsy fraternity, and his fluidly choreographed Green Beret expertise in carrying out a personal vendetta confirms the hunch that he has acquired his style by studying current movies. Eric Roberts, Sterling Hayden, Judd Hirsch, and Susan Sarandon; based on the book by Peter Maas; written and directed by Frank Pierson. (1978) — Duncan Shepherd
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