Once upon a Time in America

Rating: 7/10 (21 July 2010)

I knew it was a gangster film featured in the book 1001 Movies You Must See Before You die, and that was good enough for me, from BAFTA and Golden Globe nominated director Sergio Leone (The Good, the Bad and the Ugly). Basically it is a episodic style tale focusing on the lives of a small group of Jewisg gangsters living in New York City, the story spans over forty years. Told in mostly flashbacks and flash-forwards, it mainly looks at small-time crook David 'Noodles' Aaronson (Robert De Niro) and his partners in crime, Maximilian 'Max' Bercovicz (James Woods), Philip 'Cockeye' Stein (William Forsythe) and Patrick 'Patsy' Goldberg (James Hayden). It sees them grow up as youths in the rough Jewish neighbourhood of the Lower East Side of New York in the 1920s, the early 1920s Prohibition, and the late 1960s with an elderly Noodles returning to look into his past. I didn't fully understand all of the plot, especially with the mixture of flashing backwards and forwards in time, but you are intrigued to see what situations Noodles and the gang are going to get themselves into. Also starring Elizabeth McGovern as Deborah Gelly, Treat Williams as James Conway O'Donnell, BAFTA nominated Tuesday Weld as Carol, Burt Young as Joe, Joe Pesci as Frankie Manoldi, Danny Aiello as Police Chief Vincent Aiello and Jennifer Connelly as Young Deborah. As I said, I didn't really get the plot, I just enjoyed the actors being rough and in a few scenes quite quiet, the violence and gun play, and some good music by Ennio Morricone. It was apparently a big flop when it was brought out in cinemas, but these days they like to call it a masterpiece, I suppose in certain scenes I'd agree with that, it is about three hours twenty seven minutes long, but it is certainly a different kind of epic crime drams to see. It won the BAFTA for Best Costume Design and Best Score for Ennio Morricone, and it was nominated for Best Cinematography, and it was nominated the Golden Globe for Best Original Score. Robert De Niro was number 2 on The 100 Greatest Movie Stars, he was number 50 on The 100 Greatest Pop Culture Icons, and he was number 5 (along with Al Pacino) on The World's Greatest Actor. Very good!