Once Upon a Time in America

"I hope the investigation turns out to be nothing; it'd be a shame to see a lifetime of work go to waste."

I've owned this film for about two years, but I was too lazy to even give a good attempt at watching this since it runs close to four hours. I just decided to watch it, planning to have a break in between discs, I didn't end up needing that break.

Title: Once Upon a Time in America
Year of Release: 1984
Director: Sergio Leone
Genre: Drama/Crime
Rating: 8.5/10

This film is about Noodles, played by Robert De Niro, who at the beginning you see go into hiding, at that point you don't know why. He is then drawn out of hiding 35 years later, again, for an unknown reason. The film chronicles four boys rise from being twobit hoods to gangsters.

During De Niro's golden days (70's-mid 90's) it was harder to find a movie that De Niro didn't deliver a great performance in than one he delivered a terrible performance in. This and Taxi Driver I would have to say are his best performances to date. Moments before the infamous scene in a car, his facial expressions showed all emotions you could imagine to running through him at that particular point. De Niro is quite widely known to be a "Method Actor", the way he just sinks into his role like it was himself was incredible, I'm not sure what exactly he himself did to prepare, but I certainly got the feeling that he truly cared for his role, and put a lot of effort into it, much like Leone did into even being allowed to make this film.

The picture above shows only a frame of such an incredible scene. The tall buildings, the distant bridge, the four boys walking and little Dominic dancing down the street. This is a perfect example of great use of a long shot. What follows this great moment is a scene that I think is one of the best in this film. The way Dominic turns and runs back "Bugsy is coming!", everything slows down, they turn and run, with fear painted right on their face, it certainly is very intense. "I tripped", a great line that effects the hoodlums, and gives the chance for a time jump, and helps life their level of being simple hoods up to no good into something far more serious.

This film is does so much more (like any great film, really) than just stick to a genre in particular. A lot of people may watch this in hope for a good gangster film, I'm sure you will find that in this film, but there is far more than just being about the crimes committed. It does a great job in showing how the boys develop into men, and how their relationship develops. This film, certainly does sit on relationships a lot, not just friendship and loyalty, but love and most of all, betrayal. Which increases this film from good to great.

The musical score was great, I've read of people not liking the choice of having "Yesterday" in the film, but I had no problem with it personally. The theme that is played numerous times was great. I don't have much to say about the score though really. I didn't pay enough attention to it, but I know I liked it, but I can't think of any examples where it enhanced scenes.

This film is quite graphic, I've read of people being greatly disinterested from this film because of the nudity that is present throughout, the violence that is there from the very beginning, and also the sex, mostly that involving adolescent teens. I don't have any smart words to dismiss these problems some felt, simply, get over it.

This film is quite a long film, running slightly under four hours, I thought it would be a struggle to pull myself through this in one go, so as I've said, I was prepared to watch it in two parts. I was so immersed in the story and just generally eager to find out the reason for Noodles' return. I'm sure there are some people out there though that will find this a long film, I'm not sure about your copy, but mine is two dvd's, half of the film on each disc, I suggest if your tired of the film, stop between the discs, though if you think you will only need about five minutes, just wait until the intermission that appears about twenty minutes or so into the second disc. I urge you greatly to make it through the film though.

Overall, a great film, worth watching, especially if you liked The Godfather, I recommend this to you.

Click me to view the trailer!