Leone's "Moby Dick": A Flawed Masterpiece

Rating: 9/10 (21 August 2005)

This movie was the culmination of a sixteen-year obsession by director Sergio Leone. Ever since he first read "The Hoods" in 1967, he wanted to make this movie. But, the studios saw him as a Western director (given the Clint Eastwood "Man With No Name" trilogy's success, not really surprising), and he was forced to make "Once Upon A Time In The West", a masterpiece, and "A Fistful of Dynamite", an interesting but uneven political Western. After a decade of producing various films, Leone was finally able to get this film off the ground, with a major studio backing - and then, when it was finally released in 1984, Warner Bros. criminally hacked the movie down to just over two hours from a final cut near four, ruining the scope and feel of the movie and causing it to flop. Now, the movie is available in a not-quite-complete (the director's cut is somewhere around 270 minutes) form at 227 minutes, but still complete enough that the scope of the film and Leone's intentions can be appreciated. Obviously, the film - long, violent, and somewhat hard to follow - is not for everyone; classifying this film as a "gangster" or "crime" movie simply does not do it justice. But for those willing to check it out, OUATIA is a rewarding, bittersweet experience.
The plot of the movie is told mostly in flashback, and is so labyrinthine and complicated that it's difficult, at least for someone as long-winded as myself, to adequately summarize. Basically, it's about Noodles (Robert De Niro), a former gangster who in 1968 returns to his old stomping grounds of New York City and recalls in flashback his early childhood days with his gang, their years as important figures in the Prohibition era in the '30s, his unrequited love for local girl Deborah (Elizabeth McGovern), and the tragedy when his three friends are killed by the Feds. However, the film also shows why it is DeNiro has returned, and - well, I won't spoil it for you.
On a technical level, this is arguably Leone's best. The childhood sequences in particular give a stunning depiction of the mean streets of New York's Jewish ghettos, circa 1922, with Tonino Delli Colli (R.I.P.) providing his usual flawless, and beautiful cinematography. Ennio Morricone provides one of his two or three best scores, particularly the haunting "Cockeye's Theme" (played on pan flute by Gheorghie Zhamphir) and the melancholy and heartbreaking "Deborah's Theme".
The movie is a dark character study before it is a gangster movie. Noodles, in 1968, is basically reviewing his life, and his complicity in losing his friends, dream lover, and basically everything about his life. De Niro gives his usual fantastic performance: it isn't quite in the league of, say, "Taxi Driver", but it's still impressive in its own right - particularly in his 1968 sequences, when he discovers that, no matter how hard he tries, there is no running from the past.
The supporting cast for the most part is under-used, though the more prominent members do a great job, particularly James Woods, who would never again have a role which even approached this complexity and depth. Woods does a truly marvelous job as Max, Noodles' friend who eventually takes over the gang and drives it to destruction, and manages to steal pretty much every scene he's in (which, when dealing with De Niro and Co., is quite an achievement). Elizabeth McGovern, despite many negative comments by others, does a great job as Deborah, showing her vulnerability and personality, and managing to make her a very sympathetic character. Tuesday Weld is also a standout as Carol, Max's nymphomaniac girlfriend. William Forsythe and James Hayden do a nice job as Cockeye and Patsy, the two other members of the gang, while other veteran character actors - Joe Pesci ("Goodfellas"), Burt Young ("Rocky"), Danny Aiello ("Leon: The Professional"), James Russo ("Bevery Hills Cop"), Treat Williams ("Hair"), Clem Caserta ("A Bronx Tale"), and Richard Bright (Al Neri of the "Godfather" films) - do a nice job with fairly limited material. The acting by the child actors, particularly Scott Tiler as young Noodles and Jennifer Conneley (in her film debut) as Deborah, is surprisingly effective; it's almost a shame that except Conneley none of these kids really made it to the big time. (Particularly touching are the sequences where Conneley reads the "Song of Songs" to Noodles.)
The movie is filled with memorable images throughout, some funny and heartwarming, others dark, some almost horrifying. The relentless ringing of the telephone in Noodles' head as he contemplates the deaths of his friends; the young Patsy preferring a delicious cake over sex with the local slut Peggy; the death at the hands of local hood Bugsy (Russo) of Dominic, the gang's youngest member, and the brutal aftermath (for my money the best scene of the movie); Burt Young getting shot in the eye through a looking glass; Deborah cutting ties with Noodles by pulling down the blinds of the rail car; "Max" in 1968 stepping into the back of a garbage truck; and, of course, De Niro's (1933) final, drug-induced smile at the end.
The violence in the movie is graphic and brutal, but not in any way glamorized. The rape scenes are very hard to sit through, but neither (in my opinion at least) are gratuitous; they show that in the world of small-time hoods, women are an afterthought. It may come across to sexist as some, but blame the characters, not Leone.
The movie has a poetic feel to it that is hard to describe. It isn't perfect; some bits of the movie go on for too long, particularly in the later 1968 scenes, and there are a few plot holes that can be debated or hopefully overlooked. But overall, "Once Upon A Time In The America" deserves its status as more than a gangster movie, but rather a dark piece of cinematic mythology. 9.5/10