A great film but, dare I say it...a bit over-long

Rating: 8/10 (18 October 2013)

With this film Sergio Leone, the spaghetti western genius, made his gangster film. It was a project long in the making and it took many years to finally make the screen. The result is an epic film that covers four decades in the lives of a gang of Jewish hoodlums from Ney York's Lower East Side. It's told in a fractured time structure specifically covering the years 1922, 1933 and 1968. In the earliest period the characters are boys, entering the world of crime, in the middle section they are at the height of their powers as gangsters in the prohibition era, while in the latter year the story climaxes when they are old men. It isn't told chronologically though. There are flash-backs and flash-forwards; and in this way the film can deal with themes of memories, guilt and redemption much better, while it is able to conceal plot twists far more effectively. The story is essentially about the relationship between Noodles and Max, childhood friends who grew up to be gangsters. Noodles returns to New York in '68 after being in self-imposed exile for 35 years. He seemingly sold out his friends and is haunted by this memory but he soon realises on arrival that events in his past were not as they seemed.
Once Upon a Time in America is less celebratory of the gangster lifestyle than most other films in its genre. Most others show the criminals in their pomp and glory, so that the audience can understand why they lead the life they do. But here, we don't see too much of that. Mostly it's in actuality about the wasted lives of gangsters. The regrets they have about their previous ways and how it destroys them. This is compounded by the fact that there are really no likable characters in it at all. The central character Noodles, who is the emotional core of the film, is shown to be a killer and a rapist. So as the film progresses it is somewhat difficult feeling too sorry for his plight. It's quite a brave move for the movie to have such unsympathetic leads. Robert De Niro and James Woods offer up excellent portrayals of these damaged men though and we do believe in them, even if it is hard to like them. But, as a contrast to the violence and grimness of the story it looks very grand. The period is recreated with fine detail and the cinematography enhances this. It is a very lavish looking film indeed.
I do have one issue though and that's its length. At three hours and forty minutes this is an excessively long film. Some people say that it needs to be this length to tell its story properly. I disagree. If Coppola or Scorsese had wanted they could have fleshed The Godfather or Goodfellas out to the same length with extra detail and character development. Anybody could really. It does not necessarily make a film better by simply adding more in. Three hours seems more than enough for the story of Once Upon a Time in America and a bit of editing could easily have made it tighter and more concise without losing anything of significant consequence. The shorter, less exhausting, time-span would improve it. I don't like saying it but at twenty minutes shy of four hours Leone was being a little self-indulgent.
But time issues aside, this is still one of the gangster films from the upper bracket of the genre.