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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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Average rating -

Rating: - Over long, uninvolving, confusing - but visually fabulous!

Firstly, this is a long movie, around 3 and a half hours. Jeeez! My rule for 3 hours plus, is that you better have a lot of story. This one just about pulls it off, but there were times when my mind wandered.

Performances are all pretty excellent. Even the child actors are of abnormally high-quality. It's all pretty entertaining, but each scene tended to fizzle out and become over indulgent, and for me, made it less potent. In terms of narrative drive and purpose, I couldn't really see the point, and it got needlessly confusing in places. In my opinion, it sort of collapsed under its own ambition as an epic mafia saga.

Although, what makes this movie pretty damn good as opposed to just reasonable is the scale and visual attention to detail. Each shot is so well photographed, and the frequency of detail is pretty awe-inspiring. Someone researched this movie very well, and the cinematography is Oscar worphy, with some brilliant dark, moody and nostalgic images.

I think this movie is flawed. I don't think it's a masterpiece. But one can only feel admiration for the ambition of the storytelling.

Rating: - Oh dear...

After eagerly anticipating seeing this film, major let down is an understatement.

Apart from the length which was to be honest ridiculous I personally thought there were glaring holes in the alleged "plot"

We were led to believe Max was dead and he wasn't but how did a well known gangster manage to reinvent himself as a politician?

The woman who Noodles rapes doesnt age in 35 years

What exactly happens to Max in the end?

Who exactly were the gangsters after Noodles at the start?

if anyone could answer please do!

Rating: - De Niro + Leone + Morricone = Masterpiece !

A combination of De Niro, Sergio Leone, and Ennio Morricone combine for an ultimate masterpiece. If it's on DVD, Buy it now !!! This is 4 hours Value for Money, and the performances are top notch. The ending is hotly disputed but I feel it to be justified in such circumstances.
A great film !!!

Rating: - Classic Cinema

This is Sergio Leone's last and perhaps best film. Epic in length, scope and cinematography "Once upon a time in America" follows a group of kids and their rise to fully fledged gangsters.

Running at almost 4 hours and including an interval the story covers childhood, their 20's/30's and Noodles (De Niro) 70's.

The story is plays with time, cutting between 3 periods in cleverely crafted arcs. When originally released in the US the distributor re-arranged the whole film chronologically, destroying the suspense of the story. Here it is shown in it's proper, full length edit.

This really is cinema at it's best. Yes it's long and may take a couple of sittings, but once finished you know you've seen a film and a great one at that.

[Spoiler]

The final shot is a perfect ending to the film and Leones career. Noodles smiling in the opium den indicating that some, if not all of what you'd seen was infact a 'pipe dream' or hallucination. So perhaps the whole thing was fake, a story, but in the end you're there to watch a story being told, which is what Sergio did best.

Rating: - This is by far the greatest film ever made

To say this is a Gangster films is a bit far fetched. It goes further than just gun shoot outs. This is a film which explores the relationship of a group of close friends, through there troubled lives.

I cant express what a great film this is, even better is the sound track. There is no musical score ever which captures the beauty of cinema

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