This is Leone's gangster film to end all gangster films, a work of tremendous intellectual depth and emotional range.

Rating: 10/10 (11 December 2009)

It is, finally a heart-breaking story of mutual need. By matching that need with his own need to come to terms with his own cultural memories, director Sergio Leone has made his most oneiric and extraordinary film. The story chronicles the lives of Jewish ghetto youths who rise to prominence in New York City's world of organized crime. The film explores themes of childhood friendships, love, greed, betrayal, loss, violence, the passage of time, broken relationships, and the appearance of mobsters in American society.
Once Upon A Time In America is a vast, sprawling, violent crime saga with a neat circularity about its rags-to-riches-to-rags narrative. It is operatic in style, often brutal in tone, nostalgic in mood and mesmerising to watch. A stunning, towering achievement, not afraid to stray into lurid territory when the plot demands it, that taps into audiences' guilty fascination with dangerous, sociopathic characters. James Woods and Robert De Niro could hardly be improved upon, and Ennio Morricone's score is exquisitely fitting. The film premiered at the 1984 Cannes Film Festival in April and, according to Howard Hughes' book Crimewave: A Film-goer's Guide to Great Crime Movies, received a "15 minute standing ovation".