(Manufacturer # 1000170419 )
PlotThough some viewers might be put off by its length, graphic violence, and absence of likable characters, Sergio Leone's final film is also a cinematic masterpiece. Spanning four decades, the film tells the story of David "Noodles" Aaronson (Robert De Niro) and his Jewish pals, chronicling their childhoods on New York's Lower East Side in the 1920s, through their gangster careers in the 1930s, and culminating in Noodles' 1968 return to New York from self-imposed exile, at which time he learns the truth about the fate of his friends and again confronts the nightmare of his past. The acting, the re-creation of the time period, the cinematography, and the music are all superb. However, even more important is Leone's ability to make the film work on so many different levels: it's both a criticism of gangster-film mythology and a continuation of the director's exploration of the issues of time and history. Strange as it may seem, the violence and gore in the first half of the film turn into a sad elegy about wasted lives and lost love. The film's strengths emerge only in its full 229-minute version -- the 139-minute and other edited versions don't make nearly the same impact. ~ Yuri German, Rovi Movie TypeMovie Level ThemesHaunted By the Past, Rise and Fall Stories, Romantic Betrayal Movie Level TonesElegiac, Meditative, Lyrical, Sweeping, Atmospheric DVD Features - Commentary by critic/historian Richard Schickel
- Excerpt from the documentary Once Upon a Time: Sergio Leone
- Theatrical trailer
Awards- 1984--Hollywood Foreign Press Association, Sergio Leone-Nominee
- 1984--Hollywood Foreign Press Association, Ennio Morricone-Nominee
- 1984--Los Angeles Film Critics Association, Ennio Morricone-Winner
AMG RatingReview Once Upon a Time in America was initially released in the US as a 2 1/4-hour, brutally studio-edited version of Sergio Leone's 3 3/4-hour masterpiece. The attempt to organize Leone's epic chronologically was devastating, losing the functions of memory and history that were key to the original film's epic structure. The film ranges from nostalgic to tragic, with healthy amounts of comedy, drama, and romance. Spanning five decades in the lives of two men, played by Robert De Niro and James Woods, the sprawling story, which moves fluidly among 1922, 1933, and 1968 on New York City's gangster-ruled Lower East Side, is memorably conveyed through flashbacks, flash-forwards, dreams, and fantasies. Driven by themes of guilt, honor, betrayal, and redemption, Leone makes clever use of aural and visual cues to dissolve time frames. The determined and languid pace, the byzantine non-linear plot structure, the lack of a nerve-calming voice-over narration, and the decidedly anti-heroic qualities of the leads create a complex and ambiguous gangster story without a pat conclusion. The sooty cinematography matches the grimy nature of the people and places, while the soundtrack by Ennio Morricone is appropriately haunting. Both DeNiro and Woods are predictably watchable; Woods has the flashier role, but DeNiro's is more emotionally complex. This is Leone's gangster film to end all gangster films, a work of tremendous intellectual depth and emotional range. ~ Dan Jardine, Rovi
Requirements
Blu-Ray Drive or Blu-Ray Player
|
