Burt Young, Danny Aiello, Darlanne Fluegel

Epic, episodic, tale of the lives of a small group of New York City Jewish gangsters spanning over 40 years. Told mostly in flashbacks and flash-forwards, the movie centers on small-time hood David 'N...( read more  read more... )oodles' Aaronson and his lifelong partners in crime; Max, Cockeye and Patsy and their friends from growing up in the rough Jewish neighborhood of New York's Lower East Side in the 1920s, to the last years of Prohibition in the early 1930s, and then to the late 1960s where an elderly Noodles returns to New York after many years in hiding to look into the past.

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93% liked it

24,103 ratings

Critics

93% liked it

29 critics

R, 3 hrs. 47 min.

Directed by: Sergio Leone

Release Date: June 1, 1984

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DVD Release Date: June 10, 2003

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Flixster Reviews (3,792)


  • September 18, 2009
    Sergio Leone's epic gangster masterpiece is like a fine oil painting. It's slow paced and beautiful, it's just as good as The Godfather in my opinion.
  • April 11, 2009
    "Once Upon a Time in America" is probably the most difficult film I have ever encountered in terms of completing an overall accurate cinematic criticism. This movie just grows in myth and debate as the years come and go. Co-writer/director Sergio Leone (who became an internationa...( read more)l success with "A Fistful of Dollars", "For a Few Dollars More" and "The Good, the Bad and the Ugly" in the late-1960s) could not really figure out what to do with the complicated novel "Hoods" when adapted to the silver screen. He struggled through with writes, re-writes and several versions of this production. Every version seemingly has more questions than the one before. There are six screenwriters credited (one being Italian film-making giant Federico Fellini, arguably the finest writer-director of movies of any movie era). In the end the final product (the very long running 229-minute version) is one of those films that cannot really be talked about. If you try to talk about this production with someone unfamiliar with it, you will leave them dumb-founded and completely confused. Elements of time, situations, heart of the story and characterization get mixed up into a long and winding road of a movie that is extremely deep and definitely complicated. An elderly Jewish man in the 1960s (Robert DeNiro with heavy makeup) comes back to his old New York neighborhood and goes on a quiet and sad journey of remembrance and personal loss. Flashbacks to the early-1920s start quickly as we see a young group of Jewish adolescents in New York (Scott Tiler, Rusty Jacobs, Adrian Curran and Brian Bloom among them) run around town and take advantage of hard-core criminal syndicates and dim-witted beat police officers. The group is wise beyond their years. They have street-smarts that put them into a high class of law-breakers. Early problems develop and brutal multiple murders take place by Tiler. He is sent to prison for the better part of the 1920s and returns in the 1930s in the form of Robert DeNiro. The other youngsters have grown up to become James Woods (in his first legitimate screen role), William Forsythe and James Hayden. DeNiro's reunion comes and goes like a lightning strike and the group gets back to old crime basics. By this time Prohibition is a way of life for the gangsters of major U.S. metropolitan areas and the quartet takes full advantage of that opportunity to run wild around the city and create immense profits for themselves. Killing men in their way and even at times raping women in their path becomes a norm as the production advances. Other characters leave almost as fast as they appear. Joe Pesci, Burt Young, Treat Williams and Danny Aiello make such short runs that if you are not paying attention closely you might miss them. The women make more pronounced impressions. Youngster Jennifer Connelly grows to become Elizabeth McGovern (DeNiro's childhood love who has aspirations of acting and singing professionally) and Woods finds companionship with the ultra-erotic and smart-mouthed Tuesday Weld (doing her best work by a mile). As the movie continues, DeNiro and Weld develop a bond of hate that turns into mutual respect and eventually they even become the oddest of friends. Woods and DeNiro have a mutual unspoken brotherly love that translates into one of the most important relationships in the history of the movies (DeNiro and Al Pacino would later share a similar bond in the vastly under-rated "Heat" some 11 years later). As all this happens though we begin to wonder if all we are seeing is the true reality. A dream-like beginning (which supposedly shows the fates of the four criminals) does not always fit with an amazingly strange final 30 minutes that seems to defy convention, time constraints for the characters and major cinematic screen-writing principles. Symbolism that has always been prevalent in the Italian cinema also comes into play here and these symbols may indeed hold the true answers to the mysteries within. And then again, maybe not. "Once Upon a Time in America" was Sergio Leone's final film and it grows in myth and legend due to that fact. Much like similar movies like "Giant" (James Dean's final performance) and "Eyes Wide Shut" (Stanley Kubrick's hypnotic final production), this movie just seems to go into a higher stratosphere of Hollywood that totally ignores the typical norms that are always in association with other big-name movie products. James Hayden even died of an apparent drug overdose shortly after this film was initially released while performing on Broadway. And thus the legends grow and multiply. Overall in the end I do believe that "Once Upon a Time in America" is arguably the finest movie of the 1980s. It is definitely a unique production that stands near the paramount of a decade that was mired in stupid comedies, teen flicks and endless horror movie installments. DeNiro is truly a revelation once again here and he dominates most in a production of seemingly endless wonderful performances. The movie is one of those that should be studied and analyzed over and over by those who really want to get to the root of cinematic history and development. Much like its running time, the excellence of "Once Upon a Time in America" is nearly immeasurable.
  • October 13, 2008
    Sergio Leone's final film is another enormous epic, but it's not a western. It's a look at four guys that grow up to be gangsters and the way that their lives have been affected by their chosen path. This is the final chapter in Leone's second trilogy (the other films being the m...( read more)agnificent Once Upon a Time in the West and Duck, You Sucker) chronicling what he thought we turning points in the history of the United States.

    Robert De Niro stars as "Noodles", a Brooklyn street tough that befriends Max (as an adult played by James Woods) and together with two other friends they begin the ascent into the mob from being street thugs to running a speakeasy to pulling hits and robbing diamonds. There is also a love story thrown in along the way between Noodles and Debra (played by a young Jennifer Connelly and Elizabeth McGovern). The story is also intercut by flash forwards of Noodles as an old man attempting to solve a mystery.

    The film is your typical spacious Leone film. He shoots it like his westerns- it's a wide veranda even though it mainly happens in Brooklyn. Only Leone could make The Godfather feel like a short mob movie. Once again Leone uses his trademark close ups to tell a lot of the story without dialogue and it still works, especially when combined with a haunting score from Ennio Morricone. Mossicone's music for OUATIA is one of his best and tries to be a little more urban while still keeping the trademarks of a classic Morricone score. The acting is, of course, first rate with a cast like this.

    When this film was released in the United States in 1984 it was trimmed down to a little over two hours causing Leone's final film to crash like the Hindenburg. The four hour cut is simply a masterpiece of cinema and is one of the greatest mob films ever made. Amazingly Leone still wanted another 45 minutes of footage in the film that he felt was needed to tell the story (much of it having to do with Joe Pesci's character which seems to disappear from the film). Once Upon A Time in America stands as an epitaph for a man that created his own style and redefined a genre in such a way, everyone starting copying him. This is Leone's swan song.
  • September 20, 2008
    Besides The Good, The Bad and the Ugly, Sergio Leone's finest work and is above and beyond other crime films of its type--except Goodfellas of course. Nobody beats that.
  • April 22, 2008
    Chronologically anamorphic and a pointed portrait of moral pits, the Prohibition era represented in Leone's expansive film is a landscape housing growth; the growth of friendship, society, efficiency through criminality, and betrayal. The film is a tight deliverance of difficult ...( read more)subject matter and sprawling decades, with the precision of Morricone's score coupled with the sound decoration in the editing adding the final layers to the visual wonders on screen. And, as this is a Leone film, it all comes to focus, but his final epic tends to blur this aim. The portrayal of an eternal youth in these men - as kids who never grow up - is handled in a wrong way through the explicit sexual overtones that barge their way as a showing of the lack of moral compass in these men. However, the ambiguity of the film allows for most down points to be referred, making way for a piece of cinema that peaks and slows at intervals to instill blatant entertainment with intrinsic awe. If anything, the film is likely to reflect its thematic growth through its watching audiences appreciation, and nothing more can be asked of a film than that.
  • November 1, 2009
    sits next to The Godfather and Goodfellas as one of the best gangster films of all time. fantastic narrative style with a strong, cohesive plot and deep, emotional characters that provoke both hate and pity. brilliant score from Ennio Morricone as well. I thought some of the s...( read more)exual content and related dialogue was perhaps a bit too graphic, but at least it advanced the plot wasn't included simply for its own sake. I also didn't see why the characters' Judaism was a necessary plot element--it was never an issue, and they just as easily could have been Italian or Irish for as much as their religion and cultural heritage was addressed. overall, though, this is a fantastic film that is well worth the staggering 4 hours.
  • October 27, 2009
    This film was a true disappointment. Just a few minutes shy of 4 hours and to say what? And a painfully slow 4 hours it was. Through its many rapes and gunshot wounds, I'm simply left with a sense of its shallowness and emptiness.
  • October 22, 2009
    Leone's sumptuous masterpiece, available now in a four-hour director's cut, a splendorous gangster epic with wonderful performances and a powerful, compelling story about friendship and betrayal that culminates in a really bitter ending.
  • September 23, 2009
    this is great film. I have seen as young boy and took some time to find on dvd. It is worth the veiwing.
  • September 12, 2009
    It's one of the most exciting movies I have ever seen ........... Watch it ...

Critic Reviews


May 4, 2005
Nick Schager, Lessons of Darkness

Haunting, thematically complex. full review

October 23, 2004
Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times

There are times when we don't understand exactly what is happening, but never a time when we don't feel confidence in the film's narrative. full review

View more Once Upon a Time in America reviews at RottenTomatoes.com

Comments


  • angeleyes919
    October 26, 2009
    Heeeeey guys ...... Plz if any one could tell me freom where can i download this movie i'd be thankful .... THNXXXXXXXXXx
  • groaningbitch
    June 11, 2008
    somehow it might sound odd but i think the america-released shorter one might be better by devoloping in chronicles.

    i have no problem with its negative female roles like prostitutes since it was true in that period with gangsters. BUT i do have a complaint of its over-referenced misogynism, even misogynism is one facet of the dark sides among the gangsters, don't you think the occurence of contempting women appears kinda too often? lines like "put a cork in her" which means rape her from behind even that woman seems to fake being raped but actually she enjoys it. it's like every ten mins, i could spot a perversely deragatory comment upon woman. i think it's ok to bare this dark side, but it might be better if sergio lowdowns this over-usage of misogynism (de niro's character seems like a compulsive serial rapist who also ravishes the one-girl he loves since adolescence)to a limit but developes more on the other sides of this gendre. and i do feel wasteful that joe patsy doesn't have more scenes and he seems so talentedly right in this gendre, i believe the movie would be more colorful with more of his performances.

    personally i think good fellas or any work from martin scorsesse such as "casino" is much better than "once upon a time in america" despite they're also misogynistic (but to appropriate degree of reality without overdose)
  • profanusvulgus2000
    February 13, 2008
    Robert de Niro...Sergio Leone...and Ennio Morricone...perfect isnt it?
  • Balili
    April 27, 2007
    Noodles: "nobody’s gonna love you the way i loved you"

    Deborah bu sozun carpici gercekligine katlanamaz, onunla yuzlesmek istemez ve sozun uzerine "Yarin Hollywood’a gidecegim, buraya bunu sana soylemeye geldim" der. Noodles yikilir, buz olur. Askini anlattigi kadin gidecektir.

    ..Sofor arabayi kullanmaktadir. Onlar arkadadirlar. Deborah Noodles’ı oper, Noodles da ona karsilik verir. Ama Noodles cok soguktur. Yuzunde nefret vardir. Ve onu terkeden Deborah'a buyuk bir nefretle, intikam alircasina tecavuz eder, Deborah butun gucuyle direnir, bagirir ama ona engel olamaz. Tecavuzun igrencligi, zor ve siddet duygusu; film icindeki suresinin uzunluguyla da iliskili olarak yogunluguna gecer bize. Sofor gec de olsa arabayi durdurur. Noodles disari cikar, pantolununu ilikler ve yurur. Deborah’ın ruhu parçalanmıştır...

    Sonra ikisini birlikte tren garinda goruruz. Noodles Deborah'i yakalayamaz ve Deborah'i vagonun icinde otururken gorur ve Deborah onun yuzune caminin perdesini kapatir...
  • killservant
    March 16, 2007
    This was Sergio leone's last film- and it's a whopper, the full version is four hours in length. The film looks at the lives of two gangsters during three periods of their lives, early 20s, in 1933 and in 1968, intercutting between them. The period reconstruction is brilliant, and the music perfectly compliments the superb acting by Robert De Niro and James Woods.
    However, it should be noted that this is not a film for the faint of heart- these are cruel and horrid characters- there are two rape scenes which are perhaps amongs the most horrifying ever filmed.
    But just take in the masterwork of a great director who had been planning it all of his life. Take in the brilliant acting, directing and that infamous opening with it's endlessly ringing phone!
    The ending is perfect!
  • tanner101
    December 6, 2006
    class film. everyone watch it!
  • Ericksonao
    November 8, 2006
    if you got nothing to do the next 4 hours, see this movie! It's brilliant!

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Once Upon a Time in America Trivia


  • in what movie did robert Deniro play the character Noodles?  Answer »
  • What Sergio Leone movie was partially shot in Montreal, QC?  Answer »
  • In wich movie did Robert De Niro was name David "Noodles" Aaronson?  Answer »
  • In which movie Johnny Depp did NOT play?  Answer »

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