saw this a a young naive punk when it be first release . have me snifflin like a baby a i leave the theatre and try not to let anyone see . so and when i saw it again now in 07 and i know what to expect and the sob be ready and prim a their required moment approach . thankfully this time i be at home . what i hadn not remember from my youthful viewing or perhaps hadn not notice because of it and be the technical brilliance of this movie . the use of flashback which tell so much story without resort to dialogue . the camera work which seem to place the viewer and together with the character in the scene . think of the opening when joe be cross the street to the diner and the camera pan behind the woman and child sit on a bench in the foreground and frame the street scene . the story itself and and the character seedy and sad and brutally real . it be very touching to be draw so closely into a human drama such a this with people most of u would likely spurn . then again and joe and ratso could be any of u . must have be 70 when i saw it . i recall that upon leave the theatre i be impel to find the company of friend . all these year later and i be glad i be not alone tonight . this be one hell of a great movie .