When I first saw ONCE UPON A TIME IN AMERICA in a theatre in 1984, I was very disappointed. I had been a fan of Leone’s since THE GOOD, THE BAD, & THE UGLY (although I didn’t like the first two DOLLARS movies). What I saw looked like a GODFATHER clone with Jewish as opposed to Italian gangsters. The performances were fine, the settings and the camera work were top notch and it had one of Ennio Morricone’s finest scores but somehow it didn’t quite work. Then I saw the original version of the film on HBO and I was outraged.
This original version made “THE GODFATHER look like a plate of cold spaghetti” to quote a review from Cannes where the film was greeted with thunderous applause. As documented elsewhere the film was cut from 229 min to 139 min but the real crime was in totally rearranging the film’s storyline into chronological order thus robbing it of what makes the film so unique. The power and persistence of memory is a theme which runs through most of Leone’s films but never has it been treated with such genius as it is here. I have seen this movie many times and I’m still catching little details and nuances. That’s what makes a movie great in my opinion.
Even though I know how it will end I still find the last 30 minutes as wrenching an emotional experience as any film has ever given me. I must agree with an earlier reviewer that the way DVD #1 ends is highly unsatisfactory (the intermission occurs early in DVD #2) but you can’t have everything. This movie for me is the culmination of the motion picture experience. It is Leone’s homage to the history of movies. Everything from silent film technique (note the long periods of silence and watch everybody’s eyes as they speak volumes) to references from several different films to a masterful use of music and camera can be found once you get below the surface and immerse yourself in the details.
This is not an easy film to deal with on many different levels which is why it requires a lot of effort from those who watch it. But if you are willing to make the effort, I think that you will find that there’s really not another film quite like it. I guarantee that it will leave you talking to yourself and asking questions afterwards and how many films can do that. Perhaps in future editions the intermission faux pas can be corrected. Incidentally Giuseppe Tornatore borrowed a central plot twist from this film for the uncut version of his CINEMA PARADISO.
The Capsule Critic 