An epic masterpiece of pure cinematic wizardry!

Rating: 10/10 (18 March 2005)

Sergio Leone's final master-piece and a swan-song to outdo all swan-songs. Once Upon A Time is a purely magical film, as good as Sergio's other Once Upon A Time film, set in the West. A great debate rages as to which film of Sergio's is his best and that is a question I can't answer having not seen all his pieces. There is no doubt he has done several classic films, with his best Westerns and this gangster epic. What makes Sergio's films so magnificent is their timelessness. Leone's visual eye is astounding and while watching some old films can sometimes feel stale, past it. Leone is a director whose use of the camera was revolutionary, dynamic and iconic. Leone is perhaps one of the most inspirational and mimicked directors ever.
This is a movie of pure cinematic beauty. It is wonderfully shot and the lighting is fantastic. The sense of timing Leone's films have is amazing with each scene and captured performance magnificent. America is a marvellous movie to behold and never drags, even at near 4 hours. The narrative is told in a Tarantino-esque (I don't like referencing Quentin and make him sound like the inventor of a non-linear plot but he is the most famous user) with the action switching from the end of the 60's when it is set, right back to the 20's. The story is a recounting of the life story of Noodles, growing up from a young street hood, to a big time gangster to a kind of tragically lonely old man. The film focuses on his development through a 50 year period of his life about his friendships, loves, and guilt and betrayal. Noodles is magnificently portrayed by Robert De Niro in a role that a lot regard as one of his all time greats. Like every other aspect of the film, De Niro was tragically ignored by the Academy that year, and the film didn't receive one nomination. That's Oscar politics for you though, the film flopped and was as such ignored. The film shows the absolute pinnacle of perfection in acting (on several fronts, but particularly De Niro and James Woods), directing, cinematography, writing and perhaps most memorably the career best score of Ennio Morricone, Leone's long time collaborator.
So the story is great as are the technical and artistic merits of the film, but what of the supporting cast? Well as I said De Niro is outstanding, with James Wood's coming a very close second. Other noteworthy performances arrive from Elizabeth McGovern, Tuesday Weld, Treat Williams, Joe Pesci, Burt Young and many more. What works so brilliantly in this piece is the amount of memorable side characters portrayed by "name" actors. Brief cameos delivered with memorable class, for example Joe Pesci and Treat Williams who come and go quickly leaving an indelible mark in the film. Special note also goes to the young cast playing the main roles in the early years sections. They are faultless and excellent. Younger actors can often lack polish and maturity in their performances. There aren't a whole load of Dakota Fannings and Haley Joel Osments rolling off a production line. Finding a young actor who can move up from giving an acceptable performance to having the ability to captivate is quite rare, and so for Leone to have found a lot of brilliant young actors who look remarkably like their adult actors playing the older versions of the characters is truly amazing. While most of these young actors didn't go on to bigger and greater fame, one did: Jennifer Connelly. She plays the young Deborah before Elizabeth McGovern (who is the spitting image of the young Connelly). Jennifer Connelly has of course developed into an Oscar winning and excellent actress and in her screen debut here she shows those early signs of excellence at a very youthful 12 yrs of age. Her performance is excellent, and in an integral and key scene that many actors of her age, and indeed older would have buckled under, she is superb. The scene has her giving a recital to the young Noodles (Who is in love with her). The performance is given with such maturity and with such a sense of timing and delivery that it is truly amazing. It was one of the best performances from a young star to ever grace the big screen in my opinion. She was a superb young actress, who developed into a superb actress and her performance here shows genuine talent and of course kudos to Leone for harnessing that ability and extracting it correctly.
As I said Morricone's score is marvellous and of the best scores ever. The music of the film has also appeared in the Kill Bill movies as well. Morricone a composer of such a prolific CV manages to deliver a career best score at a stage in his career when he had been around for years. However he found and continues to find, the inspiration not to let his work become stagnant like some composers. Overall this is a film that is regarded as a classic, mentioned in the same breath as the Godfather films and Goodfellas. It is epic, beautiful and in all counts, masterful. *****