The commentary is pitiful. He spends most of time summarizing what is happening on the screen. No critical insight. No production tidbits. Just summary.

Disappointing, yes, but it's not as bad as all that. I don't know who had the idea of putting Richard Schickel to comment on Leone's movies (doesn't seem like an obvious choice to me). Sure, they could do a lot worse, after all Schickel's a fine "film historian" (whatever that means) and his insights (when he has any) are good. As a "film historian", though, Schickel could have put a lot more onto this track. Nevertheless, this being an almost 4 hour movie, I guess he did an okay job. There are silences here and there, and most of the time he is just describing the scenes, but the movie is long and slow and so things may get a bit repetitive.

Like it has been said, he can't "keep it up" for so long (the movie goes on forever) and considering the odd nature of the film (its choice of actors, its interesting themes, its anti-Hollywood and confusing nature) you would figure there would be more to talk about, but obviously what we have here is someone unaccustomed to good commentaries.

An extremely insightful track considering the length of the film and the third party involved. The film itself was criminally underrated and butchered when released, this track has much to sustain the length of the film and I was fascinated from start to finish (you try talking for 4 hours). A really respectful track for a masterpiece that needs to be rediscovered by generations to come.