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Once upon a Time in America

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Once upon a Time in America

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Summary

Epic crime drama starring Robert De Niro, James Woods and Elizabeth McGovern. Noodles, an ageing Jewish mobster haunted by his memories, is lured back to New York by a mysterious letter. His mind drifts back to his friend Max and their Lower East Side gang's rise to power before the Second World War.

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Review

A star rating of 5 out of 5.

Adrian Turner

Sergio Leone was the man who reinvented the western with the Dollars films starring Clint Eastwood and also the masterly Once upon a Time in the West. This, his final film, is an extraordinary crime drama that runs for nearly four hours in its full-length version and chronicles the lives of two New York gangsters, Noodles and Max, played by Robert De Niro and James Woods. Clearly influenced by The Godfather - wags called Noodles and Max the "kosher nostra" - it is made on a massive scale. Four decades roll past in flashback, underpinned by a great Ennio Morricone score. The plotting is often arbitrary, but, unlike The Godfather, Leone and his fine actors never try to win our sympathy: these are nasty people and there are two rape scenes, involving Tuesday Weld and Elizabeth McGovern, that may be among the most shocking ever filmed. But just gasp at the scale, at the immaculate period reconstruction and at that incredible opening with its endlessly ringing phone. This is essentially a re-examination of Leone's western preoccupations. Just as he reclaimed the west for "violent, uncomplicated men", here he treats crime and corruption as a quintessential part of modern American life. According to Leone, we shouldn't be shocked that a bootlegger can end up mixing with the rich and powerful. That's just how the system works. It's a scathing indictment of America's recent past and perhaps that's why, like Michael Cimino's Heaven's Gate, it was a resounding flop on its US release and was heavily cut by its panicked distributors. It fared better in Europe, where it was hailed as a masterpiece of 1980s cinema.

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8.3/10

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Credits

Cast

rolenameNoodlesRobert De NiroMaxJames WoodsDeborahElizabeth McGovernJimmy O'DonnellTreat WilliamsCarolTuesday WeldJoeBurt YoungFrankieJoe PesciPolice chiefDanny AielloCockeyeWilliam ForsythePatsyJames HaydenEveDarlanne Fluegel"Fat" Moe GellyLarry RappBugsyJames RussoChicken JoeRichard BrightYoung DeborahJennifer ConnellyYoung NoodlesScott TilerYoung MaxRusty JacobsYoung PatsyBrian BloomYoung CockeyeAdrian CurranYoung MoeMike Monetti

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Crew

rolenameDirectorSergio Leone

Details

Released on

1984-10-05

Languages

English | Yiddish | Italian | French | Hebrew

Guidance

Violence, swearing and nudity.

Available on

video, DVD and Blu-ray

Formats

Colour

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