Once Upon a Time in America (1984)
Paramount DVD (region 4)
d. Sergio Leone; pr. Arnon Milchan; scr. Leonardo Benvenuti, Piero De Bernardi, Enrico Medioli, Franco Arcalli, Franco Ferrini, Sergio Leone; novel. Harry Grey; ph. Tonino Delli Colli; m. Ennio Morricone; ed. Nino Baragli; cast. Robert DeNiro, James Woods, Treat Williams, Elizabeth McGovern, Tuesday Weld, Joe Pesci, Jennifer Connelly, Danny Aiello, James Hayden, William Forsythe, Burt Young, Larry Rapp, Darlanne Fluegel (229 mins)
Although director Sergio Leone is renowned for his spaghetti westerns with Clint Eastwood (known as the Dollars trilogy), the remaining three of his films since then have also begun to be considered as a loose trilogy known as the “Once Upon a Time” trilogy, comprising Once Upon a Time in the West, A Fistful of Dynamite (which some critics amusingly referred to as “Once Upon a Time in the Revolution”) and the film that for many critics is the director’s consummate achievement, Once Upon a Time in America, a lavish tribute to American genre filmmaking. Leone had spent over fifteen years developing this film, finally seeing it through to completion before sadly dying not long after its release. Sadly, it has been one of the most ill-fated of modern films. Yet, it is a remarkable last movie, a stunning and dreamlike evocation of American gangsterism as a kind of national and political failed empowerment fantasy, treated with considerable moral ambiguity and cinematic self-consciousness. When Leone premiered his 3 ½ hour final cut to European audiences it won immediate acclaim. However its complex and fragmented narrative met with the disdain of American distributors, who cut over 90 minutes and tried to re-arrange the flashbacks into a chronological narrative, robbing the film of its nuance and poetry. The critics understandably detested this shortened version and the butchered film soon sank.
This DVD release restores the film to its original form as approved by Leone. Once Upon a Time in America covers some 50 years in early 20th Century New York City. It inter-cuts three different ages in the life of Noodles (Robert DeNiro) and his relationship to Max (James Woods) and Deborah (Elizabeth McGovern). To give the film a strict linear synopsis denies it much of its dreamy incorporation of a complex narrative structure. As an old man, Noodles returns to his old neighbourhood after being on the run from his fellow gangsters after a terrible, but rationalized, act many years before. He remembers his youth and how he and his friends, led by Max, formed a gang, thriving during the Prohibition Era only to be faced with new challenges as Max became overly ambitious. He also remembers his lost love Deborah, the real failing in his life. As children they grow into hardened gangsters and after a prison term Noodles emerged to find that his gang has gone in directions he seems displeased with. Max soon turns his eyes on a political connection and uses his organized crime links to infiltrate the emerging trade union movement, which ironically needs the criminal element in order to advance its cause. Soon, the lines between good and evil and blurred, but when Max announces his mad plan, Noodles believes he should stop it, no matter what the consequences will be. read more