I am one of those who had to put it down; after losing interest in TV and movies for a decade and becoming resensitized to violence (finally growing up and developing some empathy during adulthood also contributed), I just couldn't take it. Nor can I typically take extremely violent movies unless I watched them a lot in high school.

I'm quite interested in the history of the era and might give it another go; I think I've got it on a bookshelf somewhere.