Laid off Reviews : Once Upon a Time in America

Manny's Laid off Reviews Presents :
Once Upon a Time in America
"C'era una volta in America"



Recently I had a chance to watch Sergio Leone's "Dollars" Trilogy and was amazed at how fascinating these films were even after all these years. So when I read that Leone had made a gangster movie, I was instantly intrigued. That, coupled with the fact that this film was also part of IMDb's Top 250 (It currently holds 91st spot) as well as the cast set for this movie made it a must see.

Synopsis: The Story, based on Harry Grey's autobiographical novel "The Hoods", begins with a group of friends who start off as delinquents and follows them into adulthood where the become gangsters in the Prohibition Era. Jewish gangsters at that, in the tradition of Meyer Lansky and Dutch Schultz.

Leone uses a form of storytelling that deviates from his linear story lines in the "Dollars" Trilogy and Once Upon a Time in the West. He cuts back in forth from the past to the present which shifts this film at times between Gangster, Mystery, and Drama genres.



In addition, the Cast for this film is filled with notables. Robert De Niro plays the protagonist, accompanied by James Woods, Joe Pesci, Jennifer Connelly , and William Forsythe. Interesting enough, Danny Aiello makes a cameo in which his character is named Captian Aiello. Burt Young, who plays Paulie in the Rocky movies, plays a mobster just as he did on the TV series The Sopranos. Sadly though, James Hayden who plays "Patsy" in this film passed away before this film was released.

Also worth mentioning is the Makeup used in showing the aging of characters. De Niro looks eerily familiar to his current self, even though this was filmed in 1983. De Niro's acting between both states of his character's age is worth note even though it may not be on the same level as some of his other performances.

Another bonus you receive from some of Leone's movies is Ennio Morricone's score. In this film, the music is subtle yet moving. Arguably the best of all of Morricone's composures. Interesting fact on the DVD, the score's paperwork was not filed and it was not submitted for a nomination for the Academy Award, which it could have won that year.

One thing could be held against this movie is the length of the film. This is definitely a film that you may want to watch in two sittings as its has a running time of 229 minutes. Yes that is close to four hours long, so make sure you bring your lunch pail.

This is Leone's Swan Song to Film (he passed away in 1989) and its definitely worth watching if you have not seen it. If you did watch it when it was in theaters back in the eighties and disliked it, its worth checking on DVD now with the added footage.