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Once Upon a Time in America (Italian title C'era una volta in America) (1984) is the last film by director Sergio Leone, and features Robert De Niro and James Woods as Jewish ghetto youths who rise to prominence in New York City's world of organized crime. Set as an expansive and hypnotic film experience, the story explores the ideas of time, memory, love, violence and betrayal. It is renowned for its beautiful cinematography, the detail of its three historical settings and its intricate, open-ended narration. Like most of Leone's films, it was first released in the United States in a heavily edited version almost ninety minutes shorter than the version released in Europe. The short version also eliminates the flashback structure of the film, instead placing the scenes in chronological order. The film premiered to great acclaim at the 1984 Cannes Film Festival at its original running time of 229 minutes (3 hours 49 minutes).
The Hoods The film was inspired by an autobiographical novel called The Hoods, written by Harry Gray (a pseudonym), a former gangster-turned informant. The novel itself depicts only the first two-thirds of the movie's chronology. The "contemporary" scenes (which many believe to be a prolonged dream/fantasy sequence) were entirely the work of Leone. The plot is otherwise faithful to the original book, though the rape scenes were not present in the novel, and several character names were very different. Another major difference is that the original novel featured several historical mob figures (mostly in cameos), including Frank Costello, Meyer Lansky, and Bugsy Siegel, to name a few. Leone edited out these characters because he felt they distracted from the overall storyline. The Mafia (or "Combination" as its referred to the book and movie) is represented in the final cut of the film by a brief appearance by the fictional Minaldi Brothers, Frank and Joe, played by Joe Pesci and Burt Young, respectively, and their henchmen. There were also a few references to various real gangster anecdotes sown liberally throughout the film. The character of Noodles is based loosely on Meyer Lansky, and Max on Bugsy Siegel (Max's reactions to Noodles' calling him "crazy" is taken directly from Siegel's real-life reactions to his nickname), and several of the hits and acts of violence were based on photographs of real incidents, such as the hit on Joe Minaldi, which was based on Bugsy Siegel's death. Leone had wanted to make the film since before The Good, the Bad and the Ugly but had great difficulty in securing the rights to the novel, and in arranging a meeting with its reclusive author. Gray finally met with Leone several times in the '60s and '70s, and was a fan of Leone's Westerns; before his death in 1982, he ultimately agreed to the adaptation. Part of the reason why the production took so long was that another producer had the rights to the novel and refused to relinquish them until the late '70s. Leone also used as a reference for the film's visual appearance, the paintings of such artists as Reginald Marsh, Edward Hopper, and Norman Rockwell, as well as (for the 1922 sequences) the photographs of Jacob Riis. F. Scott Fitzgerald's famous novel The Great Gatsby also influenced the characterization of Noodles (or at least his relationship with Deborah). Once Upon A Time In America The story interweaves three different eras in American history: 1968, the early 1930s, and the early 1920s. The film shows an elderly Noodles (De Niro's character) looking back on his life and beginnings of his mob career. However, in the DVD commentary, Richard Schickel presents the notion that everything is an opium-induced dream which the main character has in 1933, containing memories from the past and contemplations on the future. This so-called "Dream Theory" is popular among many fans of the film, and is often the cause of heated debate (see below). Plot summary The film is made up of two extended flashback sequences (in 1923 and 1933, respectively), along with a framing device set in 1968. Summoned back to New York after over thirty years in hiding, David "Noodles" Aaronson is forced to confront his past as he searches for the person who tracked him down. In the aftermath of the 1933 deaths of Noodles' friends Max, Patsy, and Cockeye following a shootout with the police, Noodles, pursued by the Mafia, takes refuge in an opium den. While in hiding he reminisces about his childhood in 1920s New York. The subsequent 1923 sequence, widely hailed as the greatest segment of the movie , shows young Noodles' (Scott Tiler) struggles as a poor street punk in the Jewish ghetto of Brooklyn. His gang consists of Patrick "Patsy" Goldberg (Brian Bloom), Phillip "Cockeye" Stein (Adrian Curran), and Dominic (Noah Mozelli), whose last name isn't given. They nominally work for local hoodlum Bugsy (James Russo), who has a gang of his own. The plot follows Noodles and his gang as they first meet Max Bercovitz (Rusty Jacobs), then become an independent operation under his and Noodles' joint leadership. Important subplots include the maintenance of gang funds in a suitcase stored in a bus station locker (a crucial plot piece) and Noodles' fruitless flirtation with Deborah (Jennifer Connelly), a local girl who aspires to be a dancer and actress. The childhood sequence ultimately ends in tragedy as Bugsy, furious over the boys' success independent of him, shoots Dominic. Noodles retaliates by stabbing Bugsy to death with a switchblade, along with a police officer who intervenes, and is sentenced to nine years in prison. The second flashback sequence begins in 1932 as Noodles (now played by Robert De Niro) is released. He quickly becomes reacquainted with his old gang: Max (James Woods), Patsy (James Hayden), and Cockeye (William Forsythe) are now major players in the bootlegging industry. After briefly renewing his acquaintance with Deborah (Elizabeth McGovern), Deborah's brother Fat Moe (Larry Rapp), who now runs the gang's speakeasy, and Peggy (Amy Ryder), Patsy's girlfriend, Noodles is recruited with the others by the Minaldi brothers, Joe (Burt Young) and Frankie (Joe Pesci). The Minaldis want the gang to steal a shipment of diamonds from a jeweler and deliver them to Joe. During the robbery, we are introduced to Carol (Tuesday Weld), the jeweler's secretary, she establishes herself as a masochist, and more or less coerces Noodles into raping her while the others are rifling through diamonds. Later, at an abandoned dockyard, Joe and his henchmen are gunned down in a surprise hit by the gang. Noodles is indignant, but Max reveals that Frankie (Pesci) has arranged the hit to eliminate Joe, and points out that this could lead to more work for the four friends. Noodles expresses his misgivings at working for the mob, but ultimately drops the subject. The gang quickly becomes more deeply involved in Mafia matters, directly intervening in a steel workers' strike to protect union boss Jimmy Conway O'Donnell (Treat Williams) from a steel tycoon and his hired thugs. The crew also punishes corrupt Police Chief Vincent Aiello (Danny Aiello), paid off by the steel company, by switching the Chief's newborn son for another baby in the hospital. Shortly afterward, Carol becomes reacquainted with the gang and falls in love with Max. Noodles goes on a date with Deborah and, after being rejected by her, rapes her in the backseat of their rented limousine. (This very graphic scene was by far the most controversial part of the movie.) Max continues to drive the four friends in even deeper with the Mafia, union, and politics. He is eager to advance the gang's position, but Noodles continues to express misgivings. Following the repeal of Prohibition, Noodles finally balks when Max reveals his plan to rob the New York Federal Reserve Bank, realizing it's a suicidal gesture on Max's part. Carol convinces Noodles to tip off the police about a planned liquor run in the hopes that the three will be arrested, throwing off the plan for the bank heist. Unfortunately, Max, Patsy, and Cockeye are killed in the subsequent gun battle. On the run and needing money to ease his escape, Noodles opens the bus station locker only to find the suitcase empty. The plot then moves forwards in time to 1968. Noodles arrives in New York, in response to a mysterious invitation. He visits with Moe, who still owns the one-time speakeasy, and with Deborah, now a successful actress with connections to the as-yet-unintroduced Commerce Secretary Christopher Bailey. Eventually, Noodles is led to the very same bus station locker, in which he finds a suitcase packed with money and an anonymous note indicating that he is being preemptively paid for one last job. It gradually becomes clear that Max is still alive, faked his death in 1932 with help from the Syndicate, and has reinvented himself as the powerful and wealthy Bailey. About to be investigated for corruption, "Bailey" is the one behind the money-filled suitcase, with which he hopes to hire Noodles to assassinate him. Max will be able to escape the investigation with his reputation unscathed, and Noodles will be able to obtain his revenge on the man who stole his life. Noodles refuses, and leaves. As he walks away from the Bailey estate, he sees a man who appears to be Max leaving behind him. A garbage truck passes between the two, and by the time it moves away the other man has vanished. The camera focuses on the trash being ground up in the truck's maw, suggesting that Max may have committed suicide by throwing himself into its mechanism. As the truck's lights fade into the night, two cars full of revelers pass by in the other direction. At least one vehicle is of a 1930s make, and its occupants are dressed in clothes of the same period. Whether this is a further flashback or a mobile costume party remains unclear. The movie then returns to the 1930s, as Noodles enters the opium den. He lies down on the little bed he occupied at the beginning of the story, inhales some opium from a pipe, then turns to the camera and gives a beatific smile. The frame freezes, and the credits roll. A brief summary of the "Opium Theory" The movie begins and ends in 1933, with Noodles hiding out in an opium den from Syndicate hitmen. Since the last shot of the movie is of Noodles in a smiling, opium-soaked high, many people (as mentioned above) interpret the film to have been a drug-induced fantasy or dream, with Noodles remembering his past and envisioning the future. In his commentary for the DVD, film historian and critic Richard Schickel states that opium users often report vivid dreams and that these visions have a tendency to explore the user's past and future. Opponents of the "Dream Theory" cite the fact that the 1968 sequences include several anecdotes - music from The Beatles (see below), television, and references to the Vietnam War - that did not exist in 1933, and that Noodles would thus not be able to envision such things. Furthermore, they claim that to dub the later scenes a dream would remove the thematic and psychological point of the film. Proponents claim that the final scene with Noodles leaving the mansion supports the dream hypothesis. The movie begins with a rendition of 'God Bless America' and in the corresponding end scene has people riding in 1930s-era cars singing the same song. Bailey's betrayal in the future can be interpreted as a transference of guilt. Noodles subconsiously blames Bailey for his entry into organized crime and his failed relationship with Deborah, and in a way feels betrayed by Max's burgeoning ambition. Another aspect which supports the theory is the famous scene where a phone rings in the opium den, which reminds Noodles of the call he made that betrayed his friends. As soon as he mentally reaches the point where the ringing phone is picked up at the other end, Noodles wakes up and runs out of the opium den. Supporters of the dream hypothesis argue that if Noodles were as heavily drugged with opium as the movie makes him out to be, he would simply not be able to make such a quick getaway. Lastly, the scene in which Noodles wakes up begins the flashbacks. As the very last scene of the film is Noodles arriving in the den, the beginning of the movie is arguably also its end, with Noodles high on opium ruminating about his past and future as other gangsters wait to kill him. If the dream theory holds water then it's likely that Noodles was eventually killed by them. The ambiguous nature of the ending and its non-chronological framing is arguably the film's most enduring aspect as it demands and rewards those who appreciate repeated viewings. It is a film where the lines blur between past, present, and future. The unfilmed title scene Originally, the transition from 1933 to 1968 was to be much more elaborate, but finally the scene simply proved to be too difficult. From the original shooting script: "We hear the roar of the its wheels and the wail of a train's whistle, and the view across the tracks is blocked by the engine, the tender and the cars - car after car laden with Model T's or whatever Ford was turning out in 1933... The train keeps passing, but the cars are no longer laden with 1933 Fords. They've become 1968 models in pink and turquoise and emerald green, announced by a title that fills the screen: ONCE UPON A TIME IN AMERICA. The train disappears, taking its rattle with it, and the barriers rise. But we are no longer staring out over open countryside. We see instead an endless row of high-rises, a cement City of Oz. Heading the row of cars that face us at the crossing is a 1960 Chevy. The is in his sixties too... Noodles, forty years later." Deleted scenes The original shooting-script, completed in October 1981, was 317 pages in length. At the end of filming, Leone had about 8 to 10 hours worth of footage. With his editor, Nino Baragli, Leone trimmed this down to about 6 hours, and wanted to release the film in two three-hour parts. The producers refused (partly due to the commercial failure of Bertolucci's two-part Novecento) and Leone was forced to further shorten the length of his film, resulting in a completed (i.e. scored, dubbed, edited, etc.) film of 229 minutes. Leone has said that ideally, he would have liked the film to be "between four hours ten minutes and four hours twenty-five minutes" (250 minutes to 265 minutes), and that such a cut would mainly have served to restore scenes developing Noodles' relationships with women. Important scenes which failed to appear in the 229 minute cut: The main importance of this scene would be to establish why Noodles' gang is working with the Capuanos. Dialogue from that scene indicates that Bugsy had been working with them, but since he and his thugs have now been jailed, Noodles and Co. have taken over his old job. These scenes were all shot, and the footage still exists. However, it is in a very raw state, not dubbed and not edited. Leone and his editor wanted to finish these scenes for a later release, but were prevented from doing so by Leone's death. Falsely rumoured scenes and version There have been rumours of longer cuts appearing on Italian television, but according to Christopher Frayling's authoritative book Something To Do With Death these rumors are false, and the longest completed version is the 229-minute version shown at Cannes and now available on DVD. Many people assume that Joe Pesci's brief second appearance was part of a longer scene. In the original shooting script, this appearance is just there to establish Max's continued involvement with the Combination. Others also believe that several additional scenes were filmed with Pesci's character, but a reading of the original shooting script shows that this rumor is false. (The reason that Pesci, a name actor, was cast in such a relatively small part was because he had been promised the part of Max, but was turned down by Leone in favor of Woods. As a favor to De Niro, Leone allowed Pesci to pick a part from several available, and he chose the role of Frankie.) Similarly, many people (including film critic Richard Schickel, who records the film's DVD commentary) assume that the flying disc scene was part of a longer sequence. While the first shooting script placed much more emphasis on the union subplot, this was very heavily trimmed in the revised version. Thus, there are not nearly as many union-related deleted scenes as many people believe. Note: PAL editions of the DVD have a running time of 219 minutes (and 48 seconds). This is due entirely to PAL speed-up. Shortened versions There are three abridged versions of the film, none of which are currently available. DVD releases The film was released in the late '90s on a poor quality, pan-and-scan release with no special features aside from the original trailer and brief cast listing. The two-disc special edition was released on DVD in June 2003 and was a bestseller on Amazon.com for several weeks. The result has been hailed as having excellent image quality, partly due to the high bitrate, which places the release on a level with most superbit DVDs. However, it has been criticised for its limited extras and the fact that, being spread out on two double-layer disks, Disc 1 ends very abruptly, during an action sequence. (The film’s 'Intermission' doesn't occur until 40 minutes into Disc 2, so it is argued that placing the break later would have meant compressing Disc 1 far more heavily. This is false. The PAL version of Disc 1 has over two gigabytes of unused space, and while PAL video takes up more space per frame than NTSC, the bitrates for both are fairly comparable. While placing an extra forty minutes on Disc 1 might not have been easy, two gigabytes is more than enough room for this much footage.) Soundtrack The music was composed by Leone's long-time collaborator, Ennio Morricone. Due to the film's unusually long gestation, Morricone had finished composing most of the soundtrack before many scenes had even been filmed. "Deborah's Theme", considered by many to be the best piece of this soundtrack, was in fact originally written for another film in the 1970s but rejected; Morricone presented the piece to Leone, who was initially reluctant, considering it too similar to Morricone's main title for Once Upon a Time in the West. Track Listing Besides the original music, the movie also used several pieces of "found" music, including: Once Upon a Time in America is widely regarded as Morricone's best work, but was disqualified, on a technicality, from Oscar consideration; in the original American print, Morricone's name was (accidentally) left off of the opening credits by the producers. Critical reception and current perception of the film The film's premiere at the Cannes Film Festival was an astounding success. Though some female audience members were offended by the rape scenes and depiction of women (Leone was often accused of misogyny based on this film's content), the film was extremely successful, garnering a fifteen minute standing ovation from the audience. The uncut European version of the film won rave reviews, and was very successful throughout Europe and abroad. However, several sneak premieres in Canada and the US gained a mixed reception at best (some suspect due to studio tampering). The film was drastically edited, as mentioned above, more for commercial reasons than anything else. Leone, who had turned down an offer to make The Godfather twelve years earlier, was indignant when several American critics compared the butchered version of his film to "a Jewish Godfather". The 144-minute version was a huge flop and the American critics destroyed it. Roger Ebert however noted in a 1984 review that the original longer cut was a masterpiece, but that the American theatrical cut was a travesty. The uncut version of the film, however, was by far Leone's most critically acclaimed film, and today it has a large cult following. James Woods, who considers Once Upon A Time In America his finest work, mentions in the DVD commentary that one critic dubbed the film the worst of 1984, only to see the original cut years later and call it the best of the 80s. Ebert, in his review of Brian DePalma's The Untouchables, called the original uncut version the best film depicting the Prohibition era. * Sight and Sound magazine placed it among the ten best films of the last twenty five years when it attempted to do a poll on recent films. Though not Leone's most well-known or -liked film, and often compared unfavorably to The Godfather, Once Upon A Time In America has finally been given its due as a classic film. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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