Movie Review - Once Upon A Time In America

Once Upon A Time In America (1984) - This is one of those movies I'm pretty sure the cognoscenti think I should like.  Sergio Leone is one of those directors that a certain portion of the movie loving community fawns over.

I just can't muster a whole lot of enthusiasm for either.

I do kind of like Leone.  His style in his "spaghetti westerns" (cowboy movies made in Italy with largely Italian casts and crews that required massive overdubbing of dialogue) is quirky and kind of fun.  As long as I take it in small doses it can be fun.  At the same time you get the impression that every single idea that comes to him ends up in the movie.

And there we hit on what may be the biggest problem with "Once Upon A Time In America".  There is no sense of directorial restraint.  Leone just piles image and idea and character on top of the next.  Which explains why the original cut ran six hours.  Supposedly Leone's "ideal" cut would have been around four and a half hours.  It's just insane.

OUATIA (I'm not typing the title every time) is the story of a band of Jewish boys in New York City who begin a life of crime that will carry them into the big time with Prohibition.  The cast is stellar ( DeNiro, James Woods, Elizabeth McGovern, Treat Williams and a band of top flight supporting actors), the subject matter is certainly epic and Leone has an astounding visual style.  The shot of the four boys walking through the streets with the Manhattan bridge in the background just might be one of the most stunning movie moments I have ever seen.  The soundtrack is OK but don't ask me why it was nominated for an Oscar because I can't.  The main theme is excellent but the rest is rather trite and strikes me as out of sync with the tone of the movie itself.  In the end the parts are far better than the sum total.

So why does this movie get such a rave up in some quarters?  Maybe they just are better at looking past the flaws.  For me a movie that expects its audience to invest this much time to watch it shouldn't also expect me to be constantly forgiving its sins along the way.  Some sympathy is earned because of the butchery visited on the America release which dropped it to 139 minutes.  (The people responsible should be banned from the industry.  I'm talking being treated like a Middle Ages leper, forced to wander from town to town with a bell and shouting "Unclean!".  Anyway...)  Some of the rest of it comes from the fact that this was Leone's last movie.  He turned down the chance to direct "The Godfather" (thanks be to God) and saw this as his chance to make the great gangster movie he had missed out on.

What we got instead was a ponderous, unfocused mess with some stunning, wonderful moments.  If you decide to take the plunge make sure you get the longest version you can find and set aside a whole afternoon.

Rating - *** Worth A Look