I really do feel stupid. I know I’m supposed to love it, but I don’t, so I feel like the stupidest, fakest, “movie lover” on the planet. I really feel like don’t know a gaddam thing.
It’s not as simple as that. For a young film viewer, much of its brilliance might not be as obvious on first viewing. When I first saw it many years ago, I just liked it as a good mob movie. Only after rewatch and more understanding did I come to see what made it so great.
At the time it came out, it’s excellence was a bit more obvious, but mainly because there had been nothing like it (gangster movies looked very different beforehand). Modern viewers take these elements for granted. But the things that make the film really great transcend its (at the time, though no longer) novel approach.
I assume most people who watch the original Star Wars for the first time as adults now have the same sort of shrug response.