I haven't the slightest idea what you guys are getting at with this "as the tale was told in that time" stuff - the tale was told in 1991, right? I don't quite follow your point.
But I certainly don't want to get caught up in a little aside when there's so much to criticize in this film...
Except for the strange and ugly depiction of gays (use of "otherness" to express the sinister and menacing?), it works fairly well as comedy (dark comedy, at least). And though I'm not generally a fan of Stone's hyperactive and hamfisted montage style, here it compliments the subject matter...