2. Limo driver in the rape sceneNoodles is clearly raping the shit out of Deborah, and the limo driver is visibly just driving calm and careless, never looking back. Then all of a sudden he decides he's raping her too hard, quickly stops the limo and comes out all pissed off. WTF?
2) After Young Deborah shuts Noodles out of her life -- she refuses to open the door and let him in after he ditches her for Max and is beaten up by Bugsy -- there is no justification for why she'd have cared about him so much all that time he was in jail, and want to see him after he gets out, and says "you're the only person I ever cared about..." There should have been another scene with them as kids, with her taking him back and showing their love for each other. I am not certain, but I think I recall that there may have been an additional scene of this that was shot, but it is not in the restored footage shown at Cannes
I don't know about that one. You have to consider Deborah's age at the time, how many years have passed, and her real reason for not letting him in. When she was younger, she said she could never be with a 'two-bit' thug, though still implied she had feelings for him. Right after, Noodles is beaten up due to 'thug-related' activity. I don't think she doesn't let him in because she doesn't want him or care about him, but instead was proving her statement about not wanting to be involved with him for being a 'two-bit' thug.
No matter how many times I watch the movie, I still dislike the '68 framing device. Dream, no dream, whatever, it stinks.
Without the 1968 scenes, this is pretty much a straight gangster movie
Your point?
True, but a dramatically-stilted, ill-conceived framing device isn't the reason.