I just watched it again today for the second time, and I was even more blown away than the first time I watched it. The movie shows in great detail every part of these guys' lives, whereas the Godfather, while also a flawless and brilliant movie (obviously), only shows about 10 years of time. Now if you put the Godfather parts 1 and 2 consecutively, it'd be better than OUATIA, but in a head to head comparison of The Godfather part 1 and Once Upon a Time in America, OUATIA wins IMO.

I used to rank them side by side, and I could see how anyone can think it's better, but right now I have The Godfather ranked a little higher, but not by much.

I haven't seen The Godfather films in quite a while now.

The last time I watched the Godfather was about a month and a half ago, and OUATIA today. I just thought it was mindblowing how well this film was made. Everything is just flawless, from the acting, to the directing, the music, the cinematography, dialogue, everything. Most underrated movie of all time.

I wouldn't put it above The Godfather, but man it's a great movie. By far one of the best Mob movies ever.

Definitly not better than the Godfather., but one of the best mob movies ever



Joe Batters

Hey,Don Vito,how do you mean OUATIA is underrated? it was one of the best recieved movies of it's time,or do you mean as a gangstermovie?

When talking about Sergio Leone himself, Once Upon a Time in America AND Once Upon a Time in the West are shadowed by The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly mostly because it's the most mainstream of the three and it has the most famous score of the three.

Now on a scale of cinema itself, I never hear about OUATIA at ALL outside the internet. Hell, when DeNiro got his Lifetime award, the film wasn't even mentioned.

When the original cut came out in 1984, it was trashed.

Leone's cut is a masterpiece. (Still shouldn't be compared to The Godfather.)

Original cut? No. The shitpile butchered cut was trashed by critics. The original cut is Leone's masterwork.

The studio cut is what I meant, yes Leone's cut is a masterpiece.

I dont think Once Upon Time In America is better than the Godfather... But OPTIA is a good movie anyway.

Its definetily a masterpiece, Leone's 2nd best IMO. Its in my top 20 ever! But I dont conisder it better than The Godfather, between Mobmovies I prefer GF1, GF2 and Goodfellas over UOATIA...

Great movie, but not in the same ballpark as the Godfather.

I saw this movie in it's theatrical release back in the day.
It was a good movie and IMO did not deserve the thrashing that it received.

That being said I was thrilled when the directos cut was released on DVD. I had seen portions of the directors cut on TV but never in its entirety and was looking forward to buying it (I don't but alot of DVD's so that tells you what I thought of the movie). The directors cut is a better movie and is actually a different movie, but I don't think the difference between the two are that far apart.

It improved but I was expecting a bigger improvement.