Once Upon a Time in America (1984)
Country: US
Technical: col 228m
Director: Sergio Leone
Cast: Robert de Niro, James Woods, Elizabeth McGovern, Treat Williams, Joe Pesci, Tuesday Weld
Synopsis:
Two Jewish boys grow up in New York's slums to become the heads of a fearsome gang of hoodlums, but death, prison and the spectre of betrayal blight their lives.
Review:
The director's swansong is a paean to the American gangster film in the same way that its namesake was to the Western. With its haunting music by loyal collaborator Morricone it is probably the most beautiful of films in the genre, and certainly one of the longest. The screenplay was the work of about ten different people, the film has existed in several versions owing to the inordinate length in which it was delivered, and even in the fullest edition contains irksome narrative lacunae: the fateful night around which the entire story hinges is inexplicably given scant attention, when it would normally be a classic Leone set piece; the scene in which Noodles appears to have drowned in the submerged car is unresolved, though is clearly payback for an earlier scene; the exploding limousine at the cemetery is unexplained, as is the appearance of Pesci's character at City Hall towards the end. The whole viewing experience is so melancholic, drawn out and, for a gangster film, devoid of action that it is not for the faint-hearted and should probably not be undertaken more than once every ten years. In short, not an easy film, or a coherent one, but hugely influential.
Country: US
Technical: col 228m
Director: Sergio Leone
Cast: Robert de Niro, James Woods, Elizabeth McGovern, Treat Williams, Joe Pesci, Tuesday Weld
Synopsis:
Two Jewish boys grow up in New York's slums to become the heads of a fearsome gang of hoodlums, but death, prison and the spectre of betrayal blight their lives.
Review:
The director's swansong is a paean to the American gangster film in the same way that its namesake was to the Western. With its haunting music by loyal collaborator Morricone it is probably the most beautiful of films in the genre, and certainly one of the longest. The screenplay was the work of about ten different people, the film has existed in several versions owing to the inordinate length in which it was delivered, and even in the fullest edition contains irksome narrative lacunae: the fateful night around which the entire story hinges is inexplicably given scant attention, when it would normally be a classic Leone set piece; the scene in which Noodles appears to have drowned in the submerged car is unresolved, though is clearly payback for an earlier scene; the exploding limousine at the cemetery is unexplained, as is the appearance of Pesci's character at City Hall towards the end. The whole viewing experience is so melancholic, drawn out and, for a gangster film, devoid of action that it is not for the faint-hearted and should probably not be undertaken more than once every ten years. In short, not an easy film, or a coherent one, but hugely influential.
Country: US
Technical: col 228m
Director: Sergio Leone
Cast: Robert de Niro, James Woods, Elizabeth McGovern, Treat Williams, Joe Pesci, Tuesday Weld
Synopsis:
Two Jewish boys grow up in New York's slums to become the heads of a fearsome gang of hoodlums, but death, prison and the spectre of betrayal blight their lives.
Review:
The director's swansong is a paean to the American gangster film in the same way that its namesake was to the Western. With its haunting music by loyal collaborator Morricone it is probably the most beautiful of films in the genre, and certainly one of the longest. The screenplay was the work of about ten different people, the film has existed in several versions owing to the inordinate length in which it was delivered, and even in the fullest edition contains irksome narrative lacunae: the fateful night around which the entire story hinges is inexplicably given scant attention, when it would normally be a classic Leone set piece; the scene in which Noodles appears to have drowned in the submerged car is unresolved, though is clearly payback for an earlier scene; the exploding limousine at the cemetery is unexplained, as is the appearance of Pesci's character at City Hall towards the end. The whole viewing experience is so melancholic, drawn out and, for a gangster film, devoid of action that it is not for the faint-hearted and should probably not be undertaken more than once every ten years. In short, not an easy film, or a coherent one, but hugely influential.