One of the Best Movies Ever (And Better Then "The Godfather" Personally"

Rating: 10/10 (25 June 2011)

It centres on Noodles (Robert Di Niro) who from the streets of Brooklyn in part of a low class structure. Into the midst of the plot (40 minutes in) Noodles meets up with Maximilion as a teenager, and another teenager, James Conway Donnell, and they set up a hierarchal system, where they dispense liquor to people illegally, and they distribute through and out of the water. They are Jewish (Motif of the star on the coffee window shows this); they are already in cases where they are nearly killed in this chain of events, betrayed and in an ominous place.
It shows you Noodles as a young man who comes back to an area where he is under a vulnerable force which makes him resort to travelling to a different area outside his heritage – He comes back into the heritage and this is where the movie shows a great slick and emotional catharsis that Di Niro's character goes through to go back to a place where he has such an bad experience with and in the past and the dwelling of an invitation where he is dubious of the outcome but is lost to the dormancy in replying to it, is attributed to his age, his experience, his time and where he is. He has done things that are wrong, and only the movie chronicles through this - Every object has significance and every artifact is a cavil, for example Maximillian's pocket watch is referenced at the end of the movie, the gun is fundamentally important as well and the times and places from which we need to memorize everything, as to not get too disconcerted with everything; everything is important, both in their minds and on the surface.
There's one bit in particular that I felt was an attempt for us to get into the depths of this otherworld, where James Wood's character Maximilian is used as the pivot to the story as he negotiates with Frankie Monaldi who he says has everything at the palm of his hand – and then they go against the gang with bullets. To try and get references to step up to the plate during the prohibition ending period. Their entrepreneurial business is dissolving, and it's clear that the movie is putting us in this scenario of it. Of course, from the beginning sequence we already get a look at these things and juxtaposition with the events are anachronically ordered...
Let's understand that "Once Upon in a America" takes the story of the gangsters rise but begins with his fall, indicating that what will be engaged with us the audience is a story where the 100% reliable narrative is Leone's way of dabbling into our minds and keeping us focused. We want to know how it all works; Blondie in the Dolar Trilogy was invariably a loner bereft of his path and direction. We want to follow him, but we have to also look at where he stands in the world and his status – he is a complete enigma, a puzzling character and kind of a cynical upstart – but we are introduced to him and onward he does become the only way we get into a primary Point of View into the story. It's kind of a similar trait with this movie as we see.
I feel that "Once Upon a Time in America" isn't only one of the great crossovers of modern drama, crime and gangster but also a personal statement about the tragedy of it; with such movies at that time that were launched into the mainstream cinema (e.g. Scarface, Apocalypse Now, Deer Hunter etc.) none had a greater resonance with its structure and flair than this one did for me personally. The general consensus now say that Once Upon a Time in America was revived after its experience in the abattoir, a.k.a the editing studio that butchered up the movie from its premier cut, and that this movie is brutal, hard hitting, an emotional roller-coaster, a poignant journey and a very bittersweet rendering of characters who we are kind of forced to identify with, even though they're bootlegging alcoholic substances. The real striking thing to me was that you had to feel for their rise in profiteering and that you had to really experience the life of it; so that's where it's not so much identifying as it is an exploration. Believe me, if you haven't seen it then I strongly suggest that you try and get it because it is truly one of the great American pictures.
But if I were to nitpick the movie on all of the merits it has, I would probably nitpick Elizabeth McGovern's lukewarm performance; she looked slightly like her younger counterpart (Jennifer Connelly) but her performance is off key and a little bit cold and forgettable.
But apart from that, I think Leone's best movie for me is definitely his last one. He showed that to him cinema was an entertainment novelty and it was also a place for him to express the stories to people that he felt could put him out there. He showed a real passion in this project and I really think that my entertainment was achieved and that my attention was held long enough that I consumed it in 2hrs but it was actually 3hrs 44mins
The music create a foreboding, atmospheric, mawkish, powerful, almost tear-jerking and everything compressed into the emotions of any music, that it's a character, an entity and as it trickle feeds you the feelings of Noodles, Max and everyone, you can't help feeling that the music works accessibly well and almost unbearably; believe me when I say, everything emotional is invoked in that music.
It's up there in my favourite movies and I expect that if it is to ever be shifted down that it would be a rather small shift.