This is my first Cassavetes film (as a director) and I red all the reviews warning people not to start with this one, but I must say that I'm quite satisfied that I did. This is truly a unique piece of film making and a nice character study showed through, what appears to be a special 70's crime movie style. I love American genre films of the 70's so that is mainly why I started with this one, and it scored.<br /><br />I think that Cassavetes explored depths that were unexplored in American cinema of that time, and it perfectly shows in this film, how you can make an art/crime picture. I watched truncated 104 minutes, version, but id doesn't appear to be missing anything, either in plot or character development.Definitely recommended even if you're not a fan of John Cassavetes's style.