Maybe I am lucky because I haven’t read the book. Most reviews scream and yell that the book is unfilmable, but from my uninitiated perspective, I found this to be pretty frickin incredible. Beyond beautiful cinematography (what sacrifice to Satan exactly was it that Vittorio Storaro had to do to get all his films so breathtaking?) and score and performances and costumes bah bah bah bah. I also just dug the journey. Many internet critics complain there is no plot. I don’t know how you could say that. It is a big fat soap opera set among the most remarkable backdrop this side of Lawrence of Arabia. It’s funny, I have had the book on my shelf for about 10 years — I think now I’ll finally read it. When I do, who knows, maybe I’ll hate the movie like everyone else.