:
Benito Stefanelli,
Benito Stefanelli,
Robert De Niro,
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Sergio Leone,
Sergio Leone
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: Warner Home Video
: Costume Drama/Period Piece, Gangsters
: English, French
: English, Spanish, French
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This title is currently out of print.
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Though some viewers might be put off by its length, graphic violence, and absence of likable characters, Sergio Leone's final film is also a cinematic masterpiece. Spanning four decades, the film tells the story of David "Noodles" Aaronson (Robert De Niro) and his Jewish pals, chronicling their childhoods on New York's Lower East Side in the 1920s, through their gangster careers in the 1930s, and culminating in Noodles' 1968 return to New York from self-imposed exile, at which time he learns the truth about the fate of his friends and again confronts the nightmare of his past. The acting, the re-creation of the time period, the cinematography, and the music are all superb. However, even more important is Leone's ability to make the film work on so many different levels: it's both a criticism of gangster-film mythology and a continuation of the director's exploration of the issues of time and history. Strange as it may seem, the violence and gore in the first half of the film turn into a sad elegy about wasted lives and lost love. The film's strengths emerge only in its full 229-minute version -- the 139-minute and other edited versions don't make nearly the same impact. ~ Yuri German, All Movie Guide
This disc contains Part One of the feature.
Special Features:
- Commentary by Film Critic Richard Schickel
- Theatrical Trailer
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| Once Upon a Time in America (Disc 2 of 2) (1984) |
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| A Classic that Holds Up
by talltale
June 11, 2004 - 3:15 PM PDT
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3 out of 5 members found this review helpful
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| No doubt about it--ONCE UPON A TIME IN AMERICA is a great, a wondrous movie. It's Leone's best by a long shot: everything that GANGS OF NEW YORK should have been and more. That it's nearly 20 years old and still holds up to our landmark "criminal history" films is further testament to its greatness. Its cast has never been better: What a pleasure to see DeNiro, Woods, McGovern, Weld, a very young Jennifer Connelly and more--all doing such a terrific job. Yes, the movie has its flaws (there is a contrived feel to the penultimate scenes), but given the richness, complexity and beauty of what is here, this ranks among the all-time greats. Even the sex scenes are classics: the would-be Charlotte Russe trade-off, two very different rapes, and the later "identification" scene. The wonderful innocent charm of the former; the shock, shame and power of one of the rapes; and the all-stops-out sleaziness of the second, coupled with the utter, gutter humor of its outcome--well, these are amazing. Even considering the no-holds-barred state of our current cinema, nothing like these scenes have been accomplished before or since. Best of all, the women come off as powerfully as the men. While you may have seen the originally-released (and badly hacked-up) video years ago and still enjoyed it. But until you've experienced this complete (nearly four-hour) version, you can't get near the giant, tragic, throbbing heart of this splendid film. |
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