At more than three and a half hours, Once Upon a Time in America is no small investment. A mob film full of mystery, violence and drama, there are inevitable comparisons between this and such films as The Godfather, Goodfellas, Scarface and the like. But, directed by Sergio Leone, this 1984 Cannes Film Festival sensation is firmly stamped with its own European aesthetic of the American dream gone wrong.
Returning to Manhattan’s Jewish Lower East Side 35 years after a self-imposed exile, former Prohibition-era gangster, Noodles (Robert De Niro) finds himself confronting memories of the past and the responsiblity for the death of his best friend, Max (James Woods). It’s an epic story of heists, double-crosses, drugs and violence (the misogyny of the time can be hard to take, including two rape scenes). But an older Noodles looks for atonement – and in his search he makes unexpected discoveries.
Butchered on its release (more than 90 minutes of the film seen in Cannes edited out), this longer version, now dated, can be hard going. Whilst not quite the classic many maintain it to be, Once Upon a Time in America sees De Niro in a role that fits like a second skin and features a fascinating soundtrack from Ennio Morricone, part haunting pan pipes, part cloyingly sentimental schmaltz. It’s also the film debut by pre-teenage Jennifer Connelly.
Rating: 65%
Director: Sergio Leone (A Fistful of Dollars, The Good The Bad & The Ugly)
Writer: Leonardo Benvenuti (Amici miei, Between Miracles), Enrico Medioli (Rocco & His Brothers, The Leopard), Franco Arcalli (Last Tango in Paris, 1900), Franco Ferrini (Phenomena, The Pool Hustlers), Sergio Leone (A Fistful of Dollars, The Good The Bad & The Ugly) – based on the novel by Harry Grey
Main cast: Robert De Niro (The Godfather Pt II, The Irishman), James Woods (Salvador, Be Cool), Elizabeth McGovern (Downton Abbey, Ordinary People)
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