The version that Sergio Leone wanted us to see was a 6 hour version, what i would give to see that version.
It might be comparable to The Godfather Part II, The Godfather 1 was just flawless and better than Once Upon A Time In America for sure.

This followed by Raging Bull might be the two greatest films of the 80's.

I really cannot get into this movie at all.

Longneck, you really have to give it a chance. It starts out a little slow and a bit confusing at first, but it really picks up and things fall into place. It really is a classic.

A movie that you must give 100% attention to when veiwing.

I've tried....I've watched it a few different times and...

Very close to the real thing, IMO. Many "mob" movie fall short in realism (Goodfellas? Aaack...) Godfather II also shows true to life immigrant experience and how easy it was to fall into crime.

It was a very good film about some Jewish gangsters in New York.

"In an interview by Noël Simsolo published in 1987, Leone himself confirms the validity of this interpretation, saying that the scenes set in the 1960s could be seen as an opium dream of Noodles"

From wikipedia...

Great film -- I personally prefer if over GF.

believe it or not, im one of the few people im sure, that prefers this movie over the Godfather movies. ive always considerd jewish mobsters to be more intertestin, than the italian ones.

What do you find more interesting about the Jewish mobsters?

How exactly was GoodFellas not realistic? Not only is it heavily based on a true story, but many people knowledgeable about organized crime have said it's the most realistic gangster movie ever made. Although not everything pertaining to Henry Hill and the real life events portrayed happened the way it's shown in the movie, I don't see anything in GoodFellas that would be impossible or even far-fetched.

in my opinion, ive always found most italian mobsters to be generic. but in my view jewish mobsters were tougher, smarter and more business like than most of the italian mobsters....most jewish mobsters goals were to one day go legit, in business and leave the mob life behind so to speak. also most jewish mobsters were a one generation only thing, they never involved thier kids or families in the life.....unlike most italian mobsters whos kids or family members, become the next of kin in the mob life. the jewish mobsters never wanted thier kids to grow up and become gangsters/mobsters....and kept them seperate from the life. the opposite of what Bonanno, Gambino, Trafficante Sr., and Gotti did....just to name a few mobsters that had thier sons involved in the life.

If you have not read them already you might enjoy the books "The Life and Times of Lepke Buchalter" and "The Purple Gang" both by Paul Kavieff, "Vicious Circles" by Jonathan Kwitny, and especially "Supermob" by Gus Russo. I have seen mixed reviews on "Tough Jews" by Rich Cohen with some saying it's too celebratory but I have not read it yet.

hey man, thanks alot for lettin me know about those books you just listed. the only ones that i knew about that you listed, were the Lepke one, Tough Jews, and the Purple Gang...ive never heard of the other ones, but i will be checkin them out. the only books specificlly based on jewish mobsters, that i own are "We Only Kill Each Other", "Meyer Lansky: Mogul Of The Mob", "Mickey Cohen : In My Own Words", "Murder Inc." and "The Rise and Fall of The Jewish Gangster in America". i own other mob books that talk about jewish mobsters, but they also talk about irish and italian mobsters too. when i have enough dough, i want to get "But He Was Good to His Mother", "Tough Jews", "Family Secret", "Our Gang : Jewish Crime and the New York Jewish Community, 1900-1940", the Lepke book that you mentioned, "Rothstein: The Life, Times, Murder of the Criminal Genius Who Fixed the 1919 World Series" and "The Hoods" which OUATIA is based on.

p.s. im not really into hip hop music, but "2 of amerikaz most wanted" is one of my favorite rap songs, just cause it mentions Bugsy Siegel in it haha. also i see that you have the "All Eyez on Me" avatar, so i thought that i would let you know that man. thanks again for the book titles imm goin to check them out.

Welcome, underscore.

thanks.

I think the approaches of the Jewish gangsters you mentioned differed from the approaches of the Italian gangsters you mentioned partly because of the long existence of organized crime in Italy and Sicily specifically.


Mafia existed before any large wave of Italians ever set foot in America. It's existence was known and was (at least on the underbelly) a part of society in Sicily for decades before 1900.

I've not heard or read about Jewish organized crime in German, Poland, or Russia before the first world war.

What the Siegels of the world put together in America was something new....distinctly American. Because it didn't have the framework or history that cosa nostra did, jewish organized crime in America was free to evolve on it's own.

I get the impression that they couldn't compete directly with the "mafia"....so they became associates, affiliates and formed their own niche(s)

Noodles and "rape"


Had a discussion with a friend about this yesterday after we both FINALLY saw the entire film.


I think the film implies that rape( and probably drug use) was something that Noodles encountered and "came to terms with" while being in prison. He goes in as a teen and the implication is that he was sent away to a REAL prison because he killed 1 possibly 2 men.


Did anybody else get that impression?

My friend disagrees and he says that even before jail..a young Noodles had tried to force himself on the young prostitute character.

I think it was just his nature, but he was also enormously frustrated about that hard-to-get girlfriend of his. The other girl at the robbery wasn't really raped btw.

My buddy says the same thing about it being in his nature to be aggresive and animalistic towards women.



I guess to quote whoopi goldberg, about the rape during the robbery,it wasn't rape-rape.

I'd like to read the book and see how that scene was written because the way it was shot....Noodles thought he was raping her.




the fact that she had "unique" sexual fetishes and turn-ons wasn't revealed until later....


In the scene when they encounter her again...I expected her to pull out a knife and do something gruesome to Noodles.

my brain didn't process that she was that much of a freak....until a few seconds after that brothel scene.



The film had some disturbing sexual encounters.

I don't think I had ever watched this all the way through before, but it's currently available on demand on DirecTV so I watched it last weekend.

De Niro, as always, is magnificent. James Woods falls flat for me, though. That might be because he's made such a career of playing crazies that the whole time you're just waiting for him to go off into his schtick. Very nice to pick out the rest of the cast of thousands -- Peschi, Weld, Aiello, Young.

I thought that much of the present day story was hokey and overly contrived. Does Noodles really have to be led around by heavy-handed clues to jog his memory of his own past? One question to be asked of a film told in flashback is, "Would you watch it to the end in chronological order?" I don't think the movie does (except that De Niro remains watchable).

It's a good movie, but probably a little too complex for its own good. I have the same sort of criticisms of GF2, but not nearly to the same extent.

The music score by Ennio Morricone is magnificent. He is the one who did some of the great film scores and worked alot with Leone. Among Morricone's best is music for the film "Malena" and "Once Upon a Time in The West"

Hey yoose guys!
My first post here. Just found this forum by accident. Love reading about this stuff. I am a lifelong Mafia fanatic and love reading about this stuff. Fascinating!

Anyway, I just bought the 2-disc dvd set of OUATIA. I had seen it years ago, but forgot just how magnificent this movie is. I really liked the ambience of the Prohibition-era sets, like Fat Moe's speakeasy. Its just how I imagined it would be. A couple of things I wish Leone would have touched on: the symbiotic relationship of the 4 main characters' business with the Italian mobsters and the actual mechanics of the business side of things. Other than that, I think this movie ranks up there with GF I and II. I just wish Leone would have lived long enough to make more gangster movies.