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Once Upon a Time in America |
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Once Upon a Time in America
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by Warner Home Video
Sales Rank: 340
Price: $29.98
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This movie has a checkered history, having been chopped from its original 227-minute director's cut to 139 minutes for its U.S. release. This longer edition benefits from having the complete story (the short version has huge gaps) about turn-of-the-century Jewish immigrants in America finding their way into lives of crime, as told in flashback by an aging Jewish gangster named Noodles (Robert De Niro). On the other hand, it's almost four hours long, and this sometimes-indulgent Sergio Leone film is no <I>Godfather</I>. Still, it is notable for the contrast between Leone's elegiac take on the gangster film and his occasional explosive action, as well as for the mix of the stoic, inexpressive De Niro and the hyperactive James Woods as his lifelong friend and rival. <I>--Marshall Fine</I>
Viewer Reviews
Once Upon a Time in America (Two-Disc Special Edition)
THE LEADING ACTOR IN SERGIO LEONE'S DREAMING EPIC IS NOT JAMES WOODS NOR IS IT ELIZABETH McGovern; NOR FOR ALL THE EXCELLENCE IN HIS PERFORMANCE, IS IT ROBERT de NIRO. THE MAIN CHARACTER IN THE FILM IS 'TIME'! THE THEME IS ONE THAT HAS ALWAYS FASCINATED MR.LEONE. ONE COULD POINT TO SOME OF THE MORE OBVIOUS SYMBOLS IN HIS EARLIER FILMS LIKE THE HANDLESS CLOCKS THAT LITTER THE LANDSCAPE OF 'ONCE UPON A TIME IN THE WEST' OR THE MUSICAL FOB-WATCH IN 'FOR A FEW DOLLARS MORE' THAT WAS A CONTINUOUS REMINDER OF RAPE AND REVENGE AND WAS USED TO TIME THE FINAL SHOOT-OUT!
IN 'ONCE UPON A TIME IN AMERICA', THE ITEM WHICH FIRST BRINGS THE YOUNG NOODLES(de NIRO) AND MAX(JAMES WOODS) TOGETHER IF THEIR LIFE TIME OF CRIME IS A STOLEN POCKET WATCH, AND IT PASSES BETWEEN THEM THROUGHOUT THE FILM AS A KIND OF TALISMAN. MOREOVER, THE ALL-IMPORTANT KEYS THAT CAN OPEN
THE LEFT-LUGGAGE LOCKER, WHERE THE GANG STORE THEIR LOOT ARE HIDDEN IN A GRANDFATHER CLOCK. QUITE LITERALLY, SERGIO LEONE IS SAYING, THE KEY TO THE MYSTERY IS IN THE CLOCK. IN STRICT CHRONOLOGICAL TERMS, THE FILM, IS DIVIDED INTO THREE PHASES. (1)1923: THE ADOLESCENT GANG OF NOODLES, MAX, COCKEYE, DOMINIC AND PATSY IS FORMED ON THE LOWER EAST SIDE OF MANHATTAN.
(2)1933: WHEN AFTER SEVERAL SUCCESSFUL YEARS OF TRADING IN HOOCH, THE END OF PROHIBITION SPELLS AN END TO THE GANG'S ACTIVITIES, AS A RESULT OF WHICH MAX PLANS TO PULL AN AMBITIOUS BANK RAID , AND NOODLES, ANXIOUS TO AVOID THEIR DESTRUCTION IN THIS MAD SCHEME, BETRAYS THEM TO THE POLICE AND THEY ARE ALL SLAUGHTERED IN THE RAIN; AND (3)1968: WHEN NOODLES AFTER ANONYMOUSLY LIVING IN BUFFALO IN A SELF-IMPOSED EXILE FOR THIRTY FIVE YEARS, RETURNS TO NEW YORK, SUMMONED BY A STRANGE LETTER WHICH SEEMS TO HOLD A SOLUTION TO THE MYSTERIES HE HAS BEEN PONDERING WHILE IN EXILE.
THE FILM RECREATES THE STARING POINT OF 1968. IT THEN, SHIFTS TEASINGLY BACKWARDS AND FORWARDS IN TIME, IN MUCH THE SAME WAY THAT HUMAN MEMORY DOES. IT MAY NOT BE MUCH, BUT IT IS EVERYTHING THAT IS CINEMA.
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