thought Leone could only direct spaghetti westerns? think again!

Rating: Null/10 (15 October 2000)

I've seen 'A FISTFUL OF DOLLARS', 'FOR A FEW DOLLARS MORE' and'THE GOOD, THE BAD AND THE UGLY' at least 3 times each. The more I watched them the more I admired the Leone/Morricone duet. I stumbled upon 'ONCE UPON A TIME IN AMERICA' a few days ago and decided to buy it..or buy THEM actually, for the movie is divided into two parts of two hours each. At first, I couldn't find Leone's touch in the film: I mean there are no extreme long shots intercut with extreme close-ups, there are no sharp Lee Van Cleef features, there is no Clint Eastwood squint...and no Morricone's creative sound effects. I felt disappointed...then I thought:"hey, that film is somewhat like Citizen Kane, where events aren't told in choronological order. Plus Leone and Morricone have done it together again, so I'll give that long film a shot". And the movie indeed turned out to be great: DeNiro's acting is superb, the makeup is perfect, the cast is 'homogeneous', the plot elements are as complex as in any spaghetti western, the violence is intense..and the music..well Morricone's score in this film is as haunting as any of the scores he had worked on...a sad, melancholic song, and every time it is played the characters' emotions are externalized..a tune that emphasizes the role of memories in a person's life...I would say that film is very realistic, especially when it comes to sex...and ambition. Personal ambition comes before friendship and love, yet these very bonds of friendship and love last a lifetime. I can't think of what else to add, except that you should give that film a chance..watch it until its end, and please..do not fast forward if a scene appears too long to you. You'd be missing out on a lot of emotion and creativity.