My favourite film (spoilers)

Rating: Null/10 (11 April 2006)

The Godfather is undoubtedly the most acclaimed gangster film out there, but I'd take Once Upon a Time in America over it any day. In fact, I'd take Leone's film over any film full stop. It's just a beautiful film. It's a film about friendship, love, greed and time  all the good stuff.
One of the most audacious things in the film is the way the exposition is delivered. Noodles (De Niro) is in an opium den, high as a kite, and he's woken up by a buzzing in his head. But then as he looks at a newspaper with the faces of some dead gangsters on the cover, the buzzing turns into the sound of a telephone. And the telephone rings as we're taken back in time. The first thing we see are dead bodies on a street, one whose face is charred beyond recognition. Then we see a party, where Noodles excuses himself to make a call. But when he picks up the receiver the ringing telephone on the soundtrack doesn't cease. Then we cut to a police station and see another telephone. Only when this one is picked up does the telephone stop sounding. It's a very elegant way of showing Noodles' betraying his friends and communicating that he's in the opium den because his betrayal is ringing in his ears.
Just as elegant are the shifts in time. The film is wrapped around an elderly Noodles returning to New York after receiving a mysterious letter. He thought he'd escaped his mob life. But as he returns to his old home, we have extended flashbacks. And the transitions are beautiful. Indeed, one of them may even very well be my favourite bit in any film.
The moment in question is when the old Noodles returns to Fat Moe's more than thirty years after he left. Noodles looks at some old photos of his friends and then wanders to the back of the establishment. Morricone's awesome score swells and Noodles stands on the lid of a toilet. He then pulls a peephole back and edges closer towards the hole. Through the other side we see his sad eyes and when we cut back we see what he's seeing. We see a young girl dancing in the back room of a bar  Noodles' beloved Deborah. And then when we see Noodles again it's the young Noodles. It's an amazing piece of cinema.
And I do have to say that of all the sections in the film, I love the childhood scenes the most. There's just so much energy and life in these scenes. You have Noodles and his gang of degenerate friends burning down a newsstand, Noodles flashing his nymphomaniac neighbour, Patsy trying to buy a 'favour' from the aforementioned nymphomaniac by buying an expensive cake only to scoff it himself when he's made to wait on the stairs, and the scene where the urchins blackmail a policeman. These kids are little bastards, but somehow Leone infuses their scenes with such a degree of innocence. We love these kids. Therefore it's devastating when one of them, the smallest and perhaps most innocent, is shot down by a rival gangster. And when the child tells Noodles that he slipped just before he dies, it's powerful as hell. Finally the fun and games are over and the consequences of a criminal life are revealed.
One of the consequences is that Noodles goes to prison for avenging his friend's death and for stabbing a policeman. But when he comes out things have changed between him and his best friend Max (James Woods). They just aren't on the same page any more. Noodles would rather talk to Deborah than take an interest in the criminal empire Max has built up in his absence. But despite his lack of interest Noodles does get involved. Indeed, during a robbery Noodles is asked to put a cork in a woman who wont shut up. And he does so literally.
But this is a good example of a complexity in Noodles' character. He's an interesting mixture of a romantic and a thug. And an even better example of this is his reaction to Deborah leaving New York to go to Hollywood. This is the woman he loves, and he tries his best to woo her by taking her to a fancy restaurant and hiring it entirely for the two of them. But when she tells him that she's leaving he's devastated. We see him in the car completely heartbroken. But Deborah makes the mistake of giving him a consolation kiss that leads to a brutal rape. Leone got into a lot of trouble for saying that this was an act of love, but he's right in a way. What Noodles does is completely wrong, but he does it out of a sick, twisted, obsessive love. In that moment he'd rather destroy her than let anyone else have her.
But it says something for Leone and De Niro that I care for this character. He does a lot of ugly things but he's human. And the scenes with the elderly Noodles are dripping with melancholy. "What have you been doing all these years?" "Been going to bed early," replies Noodles. Since New York his life has stopped.
And it's quite interesting that the confrontation at the end of the film centres entirely around dialogue. It's a world away from the guns of Leone's westerns.
And the film's final image is perfect. We see Noodles in the opium den. He smokes, lies on his back and the camera closes in on his face. For a few moments he's pensive, but then he cracks a huge grin. His friends are dead and he's the one who betrayed them, but he's lost in oblivion. Finally he's free from everything. And of course, this hints that the film could indeed be some sort of opium dream, but that's another matter entirely...