well, the movie confused me the first time I saw it; in some cases I could not follow the subtitles when the dialogue was in Italian due to lack of contrast (white letters on light background).. too much Italian I thought.
Also, the first time I saw it, I thought the killing of Vito's mother was over dramatic.. I remember thinking if a dim-witted 9 year old saw his mother get shot after seeing his brother get shot, after burying his father... he would not probably continue running without any sign of devastation or pause at least! ....I later realized the scene's importance. I also recall asking myself "who the hell is Pentangeli"?

I needed to have it on video tape, pause, read subtitles, rewind scenes... to fully understand and appreciate it.

However, I know it was a great movie by the DeNiro scenes!