Irishman, I think you're missing the whole point of the movie. It's a cult classic that stays away from the commercial side of other films. It's a plotless film with so much darkness going on it draws you into unbelievable.

Yes ChiChi, De Niro sure did. He's that type of guy that really get's into some hand on experience for his role. Apparantly for his dialect training of Sicilian for Godfather II he travelled Sicilia for a few months too.