To keep it short, I rented this movie, I wanted to like it, I gave it a chance, I started fast forwarding after about an hour and only stopped for Pesci and the hits.

I'm a forgiving kind of guy, I wish people who don't like my favorite movies would give me a chance to convince them why they're good.

I'm sure there's some fans of this film here, so please, enlighten me, lecture me, give me as much detail as you like, but please, please, convince me why so many people like this movie when I found it so horrible.

I like DeNiro, I like James Woods, I like mafia movies, I like Pesci, but I hated this movie.

If someone could explain to me why they like it, I'd appreciate it.

Interesting, like in the Heat thread, I'm going to post a review I wrote for this a while back, earlier this year. I'd appreciate it a response.

Once Upon a Time in America

Dir. by: Sergio Leone
Country: US
Year: 1984
Running Time: 229 minutes

“Le temps detruit tout.”

“Time ruins all things,” so Gaspar Noé’s Irréversible (2002) claimed. Leone’s Once Upon a Time in America is not so different. Both films contain a shocking rape scene at a pivotal point in their respective plots; both scripts play with narrative conventions to emphasise their point; both are blessed with great, emotively suitable scores; and both treat their protagonists as deeply flawed beings at odds with a world driven by inescapable violence.

But while Irréversible portrayed its violence in an agonisingly post-modernistic, ultra-realistic fashion (and yes, it is a fashion of sorts), Leone strived to make his part of poignancy which lay at the core of his film, making the violence, gunshots and even Noodles’ rape, seem nothing less than operatic. In the same way that his Once Upon a Time in the West (1969) transcended the Western, Once Upon a Time in America revitalises the gangster film, that genre which in the thirties Hollywood made its own, to spectacular effect.

Spectacularly slow, some might say. And they’d be right, but they would have no justification in complaining. For slowness is the point here. It emphasises Leone’s message: that time, as Noé made so clearly and polemically over thirty years later, does indeed destroy all things. Jewish gangster Noodles (Robert De Niro, restrained) grows up with Max (James Woods, calm with bursts of animation) and rises to the top of the Lower East Side’s prohibition racket. Sent away in exile after shopping his friends to the police—a betrayal out of compassion and love for them—he is lured back in 1968 to find that there may be one last secret for him to learn.

That we learn of Noodles’ betrayal so early on in the film and that it is, chronologically, very late in the tale, shows how convoluted this is. Leone’s sharp eye for period detail—captured lovingly by photographer Tonino Delli Colli, particularly in the extraordinary exterior shots—lends the film a grandiose feel of the epic, placing viewers in its mise-en-scène with wonderful authenticity, much in the same way as The Godfather (1972) and its sequel (1974) did. Carlo Simi and James Singelis’ art direction adds much visual and production value, while writers Leonardo Benvenuti, Piero de Bernardi, Enrico Medioli, Franco Arcalli, Franco Ferrini and Leone’s adaptation of David Aaronson’s novel The Hoods adds operatic weight to the proceedings, a fine blend of hardboiled colloquialisms and Shakespearean extravaganza.

As with Once Upon a Time in the West , the music is a character in itself, and perhaps the most important, since it is that which evokes most of the film’s emotion. Morricone’s score was again written before filming began, a unique way of creating the scene’s tone, which was repeated to phenomenal effect when Krzysztof Kíeslowski filmed his Trois Coleurs: Bleu (1993) to Zbigniew Preisner’s score. A haunting pan-pipe motif, mixed with other rare instruments, America’s score suggests a humanity full of despair and regret, a hymn to the American Dream sadly gone wrong.

This is a magnificent film, a sweeping epic in the strongest sense, with Leone drawing attention throughout to his obsession with time and how it relates to our lives. Note the beautiful, noted sequence where a phone rings to the memories of Noodles, for some twenty-four times, before finally revealing whose phone is ringing. And even then, the context of the phone call is not revealed until much later in the film, a delaying device used more overtly in González Iñárritu’s 21 Grams (2003), which inter-cut scenes in a non-linear narrative to address how much substance lies in the little moments of life.

As it was also suggested in 21 Grams, time is but memories, which soften the past and destroy the present. Leone delivers a tale of love, friendship, and the corruption of the avaricious West; compelling stuff, and, more than anything, a mere fairytale, suggested by Leone’s full awareness of how fake Cinema actually is, epitomised in the dream-like title itself: Once Upon a Time…

Thanks for reading,
Mick

Ok, as much as I love this film, I can understand how someone doesn't understand why it's so well liked. If you want to appreciate this film, try the following:

1) Watch the film all the way through, and DO NOT FAST FORWARD!

2) Don't think of it as a gangster film, because it isn't really. It's a story about a man and his life, who happens to be a gangster. It's certainly not mafia.

3) When you watch the film for the first time, concentrate on what is happening with the plot. It seems weird, but do not try to fully enjoy the film on first viewing because it is so complex that most people can't grasp everything.

4) Once you have seen the film, make sure you have a good understanding of what went on. Read some posts here or on IMDB if it helps.

5) Now you have seen the film and understand the plot, watch the film again a few months later, only this time just sit back, relax and enjoy the film for what it is. Try to appreciate the music, the mood, the way the characters develop etc.

6) Most importantly, I would say, regardless of any of the other of my points, you MUST take your time with this movie. Don't expect high adrenaline hits and car chases or anything throughout the movie, and don't just keep waiting for the next action scene to come along. The movie is slowly drawn out, and just be patient with it. Try to understand that Leone let the movie take its own gradual pace to that everything is explored and nothing is rushed over.

Hopefully, those points may help you to either enjoy the film more, or at least explain why I love the film so much.

This is Sergio Leone's best film. Many people see it expecting a gangster film with DeNiro and Pesci, not knowing it's the opposite, and Pesci has one scene and a three or four second appearance near an elevator.

It's a film about guilt. It's about Noodles' decision, and how it destroys the life he knew. The big debate is whether or not it's an opium dream. This film works BOTH ways, so it is not important.

THE OPIUM DREAM
Many think the scenes from the 1960's are not real. It's possible. Noodles' has nothing but drugs to comfort him after his decision, and the urban legend is that opium makes you hallucinate of the future. The film could simply be a guilty fantasy.

REALITY
The film could still be real, and it works just as well. Noodles' ends up taking refuge in Buffalo (if memory serves) and spends 30 years there, until his return. He confronts his past demon, but also finds new ones in the form of a senator who looks like Max, and claims to be him. He won't kill him, but Max walks towards him, being passed by the dump truck and vanishing.

I personally believe the former.

I saw a post on IMDB, http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0087843/board/nest/19398390 which is very interesting. The guy reckons Noodles couldn't be dreaming as he watches a television, something that wasn't around in the early 30s when middle section of the film was set. He couldn't have just imagined a TV, so they stuff in the 60's has to be real.

Food for thought anyway.

Raymondo, you are right. It is a film about a man and his life, the decisions he made, the good and bad times, and the consequences of it all. Actually, if you strip away the gangster motif, you are left with a life not that different fromthe average persons. The road not taken, etc. I don't watch it that often because it saddens me. Also, the score is heart rendering.

I actually had a problem with the music. For instance, in one scene, the one little boy sits on the stairs with that pastry thing he was gonna give to the girl for a handjob or something, and he sits there for a while and waits, and then eats it, and the music changes to and from like 5 different types of emotions and we're just watching this kid eat. It really bothered me.

I do appreciate the post of the review though Capo, and all the other input. I guess I may try to go back and watch it, but we'll see.

Oh there is so much more to that scene that you would first believe! If you get round to watching the film again try to understand what Leone is trying to say.

Never thought of that, actually...

Pssht, I liked Daredevil, but by all accounts, the movie totally blows. And I still hate "Bennifer Part Deux" but I enjoyed the film for what it was.

I never thought you could describe the same object as both something you liked and something that "totally blows" unless it was your girlfriend.

Capo De La Cosa Nostra, Beautiful review of Once Upon A Time in America. I am a semi-active member of this post, but i have not read the original posting of your review.

This film is more about beauty in friendships and loyalty, than anything else. The honesty of the film, as expressed by several sexual innuendos, further expresses the point that the events of the story are possible.

To fully appreciate the film, you must look beyond the actors (names) and take in the scenery and most importantly, the music. I was so impressed with the films score, that I ordered the soundtrack from Spain. (I live in the United States)

I agree with having to watch the movie several times to fully understand all of the concepts. This is so true with Once Upon a Time in America, since it is so long and so complex. Similar to Godfather II and Pulp Fiction, once you understand the chronological order of the story, the true appreciation can really begin.