As an amateur filmmaker myself, not having seen this movie would be a true indictment on myself. Scorsese is probably the second biggest director of all time after Spielberg, but this one did not hit it for me. The pacing is way too slow for me, the story is not exciting and honestly, for a 3 and a half hour movie, didn't have many climaxes. I'm writing this as a genuine fan of cinema and not necessarily as a big fan of Scorsese, and this one was simply not for me.