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Once Upon a Time in America [DVD] [1984] [Region 1] [US Import] [NTSC] starring: Robert De Niro, James Woods, Elizabeth McGovern, Joe Pesci, Burt Young

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Rating: - the best film ever made?

Well, i think so!!

I First saw this film 18 years ago in its full length version(just shy of 4 hours!). 18 years on, it's still the best film I have ever seen with brilliant performances from the whole cast, but particularly from De Niro and Woods (Woods is stunning, both cruel and charismatic, De Niro, the more thoughtful but still viscious!).
The story flicks backwards and forwards over three generations and tells how four kids grow from teenage hoodlums into fully grown gangsters/racketeers and finally into ageing and faltering shadows of their former selves. Beautifully filmed with a wonderful soundtrack by Ennio Morricone, the story unfolds in a haunting, tragic way and still leaves me both enthralled and saddened... Even though it's a far better film than The Godfather or any other gangster movie come to that, it does still have its faults.. answers to some questions are left unanswered and it is to some extent flawed, but for me that imperfection makes it all the better...!

Interestingly, I read somewhere that this was the only commercial flop that De Niro has been involved in and when released in The States in its stupidly shortened version, it flopped. But, if you only watch one film this year, make sure it's this...

Rating: - One Foul Experience...

I know I'm going to take a lot of heat for this review and I understand I am the minority here, and that's fine with me. Has never stopped me in the past from voicing my opinion, no matter how much it goes against popular opinion. The truth is that I wanted to love this movie so much. From seeing the commercials, it looked like something I would really enjoy. Sort of came across as another "Godfather" type movie, which was why I was so anxious to see it. About four hours later, I found myself COMPLETELY disappointed. I was so disgusted with how much I hated the movie. I gave it so many chances and I kept hoping it'd get better... but it didn't. "Once Upon a Time in America" is a slow and long movie that didn't rub me the right way.

From the explosive cast in the film, you'd think there's no way it could go wrong. Knowing that De Niro was in it, I was positive that I would enjoy it to some extent. The overall premise is okay, that being that it's about two friends who grew up in the life of crime and what's changed many years later. A tale of betrayal, deceit, violence, and loyalty. All sounds good, right? That's what I thought.

I found myself not caring for ANY of the characters in the movie. There should always be at least one person you should be rooting for, even in gangster movies. I thought that would be De Niro's character, but that's until he pretty much rapes a woman in a scene that just drags on and on (I actually had to forward it; I refused to watch the scene in it's entirety. I could've sworn I was fast-forwarding for five minutes). So, I wanted them all dead by the end of the film. The film keeps tricking you that it's going to get better and then it slows down again. It felt like I was watching ten different movies all at once.

Granted, a lot of hard work went into this film. That much I can tell. It was very well-filmed, but it just didn't do anything for me. And I was upset that I had given up four hours of my life to this terrible movie. I kept thinking "It's going to get better, it's going to get better." Ten minutes left in the film, I knew that it wasn't going to get better. It even ends on a very confusing and unsatisfying note.

"Once Upon a Time in America" had potential but in the end it did absolutely nothing for me. I hated the characters, hated the story, and hated the resolution. My advice is to rent this first before purchasing. Yes, chances are you will like it more than I did, but still I recommend renting it first. I usually give films second chances; this is one I know I will NEVER see again. NEVER. EVER. PERIOD.

Rating: - "The Best!!!"

This film is not only myfav gangster movie of all time but also my fav film of all time.

This is a story that has it all: love, faith, revenge and redemption and as such will appeal to both genders.

Politics at the studio stopped this receiving the plaudits it deserves.

One to watch again and again!

Rating: - masterpiece

This is one of the greatest films ever made. Not so much because of the story, but because it is a masterpiece in the fine art of story telling. It tell us the story of a group a childhood friends that grow to become ruthless gangsters during the hard times of the prohibition. It is a story of friendship, but also a story of love and betrayal, that spans for the decades of it’s heroes’ lifetimes.
But as I said before, the great accomplishment of Sergio Leone’s movie is in narrative. The film doesn’t follow a linear structure, but moves back and forward in time to show us, with the precision of a clockwork, the intricate bonds that connect the characters. It is not an easy film, some of it’s main questions remain unanswered, and some of the aspects of the story remain misty and confused. In this sense, one could say that it is a flawed film, some sort of a failure, but with the extreme beauty of all great things flawed. Perfection is for the gods, beauty and failure are human.

Then, Leone had a very personal way of shooting. A great attention to detail, the importance of sound, the originality of the frames, the voracity of the sequences, the ritualization of violence (I just realised how Leone must have been an influence on Takeshi Kitano), the variations in rhythm, all this made Once Upon... America a grand and beautiful movie.
Add to this the musical score by Ennio Morriconne, generally considered one of the best film scores ever. The music not only adds phatos to what’s going on in the screen. Sometimes, it seems that it is telling us a different aspect of the story, that it is following a different and autonomous narrative thread.
And then the actors. Never has DeNiro been so sweet and visceral, so deep and brutal, namely when ‘Noodles’ is at his most sadistic and cruel mood. Not even when he was Don Corleone in The Godfather II; because in Coppollas’ film, he was a man with a mission, with goals and with an honour code, while in Leone’s movie, he is just a fallen angel, a damned soul. Never has James Wood’s genius so touched by doom. And never has Elizabeth McGovern eyes been so ethereal, so transparent, so aquatic, so close to not being real eyes, but some sort of mist that reflects the impossible place of beauty in the world.
This DVD edition restores the original director’s cut that won Cannes and opened across Europe, instead of the infamous producer’s cut that was shown in America at the time of release. I’m afraid I was expecting a little bit more as special features go, but don’t let that get you off from one marvellous cinematic experience, and from one the most wonderful films ever made.

Rating: - Padded and false.

It is high time that American critics and fans alike start to debunk their unquestioned, sloppy veneration of films like Sergio Leone's 'Once Upon a Time in America'. The checkered history of this opulent film (and the grand, fanciful myth associated with it's production and many versions) belies its mediocrity on a narrative level. The film lurches backward and forward in fits and starts, its central figures adrift and seemingly out of place surrounded by all the ersatz decadence of towering sets, the minutia of production detail and the, by 1984, cliche'd but gorgeous cinematographic confection on offer. The plot's time frame is confusing, gimmicky and laboured, leading some critics to imagine the Noodles figure's opium binging to be the antecedent. This glosses over the glaring narrative irregularities on show. Even at this full running time, figures appear and disappear with alarming suddenness: the Deborah character is fleetingly established in child form, a cold and unattainable 'trophy' female, not even hinting at the gravity with which she will re-establish her relationship with a post-prison Noodles, the said re-union henceforth rings completely false. The deadening pace is somewhat to blame, certain scenes drag on for far too long, signifying nothing, hinting at a director with so little restraint that he feels obligated to usurp every bit of screen time possible in order to show off his production. The cast of characters as imagined in the one note script (written by seven Italians no less) are flatly and awkwardly played by all but the younger actors, who at least venture a few variant facial expressions. Although Ennio Morricone's score is much revered, it is undeniably schmaltzy and repetitive, it gushes with an emotional redolence that the scenes themselves, many violent, just don't warrant. At points it is questionable whether or not Morricone was watching the same film I was so incogruous is his work. As a paean to American Filmmaking, it succeeds in terms of mood, helped by a few strokes of masterful editing, and visuals, not helped by said score, but lacks narrative cohesion and fluidity.

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