You can't blame the cutting anymore...

Rating: 5/10 (5 June 2018)

Is "Once Upon a Time in America" praised because of what it is, or because of who made it? I would argue that it is the latter, as Sergio Leone has been raised to a mythical status due to his unique directing talents and the success of the four western films he directed. Despite what Leone brought to this film (and his signature techniques are all at work here), that alone does not make a great film, and unfortunately "Once Upon a Time in America" suffers from several key shortcomings.
The main one of these shortcomings is simply the plot, which is too cumbersome, and once put through the wringer of the pacing and time-jumping, simply doesn't hold up as interesting enough to justify the 4 hour runtime of the extended version (the version Leone intended, apparently). By the end of the film I was deflated and bored, and the ending itself did nothing to change that. There was a gem of a good story in here - Leone knew that - but I don't think he succeeded in bringing it out. And many of the scenes seemed to be there only to provide shock value. Leone's earlier work was much "tighter," where every shot seemed to matter.
The music and soundtrack are also a bit jarring. I think this was Leone's weak spot through most of his films. His repetition of musical themes in a film worked OK for his westerns, but in this film in particular, it becomes wearisome to hear the same cloying theme for the 50th time over 4 hours. I found myself distracted by the music and wishing it wasn't there behind the dialogue much of the time.
So despite some glimmers of brilliance, even the fully restored version of "Once Upon a Time in America" rings flat for me. Due to the years of delays in getting this film off the ground, he missed his window and the "gangster" genre was already tired when this film came out (and arguably it's even more tired today). And unlike his westerns, which were sort of meta-films as they came after the hay-day of the format. "Once Upon a Time in America" just feels like one of the pack.