Better than TV's "Friends"

Rating: Null/10 (26 June 2002)

Timeframe of this Film: 1922 - 1968 (with intervening stops in 1932 & 1933) The film chronicles the lives of four male friends from age 15 to 61.

It is known for a critical climax between Robert De Niro's character and Deborah (played rather unconvincingly by then 20-something Elizabeth McGovern). Jennifer Connelly plays Deborah at a younger age. Tuesday Weld was in her 40s at the time, but convinced me she has what it takes (and looks younger than her years).
The film has sweep and style but suffers from various inconsistencies in plot, structure, disappearing and reappearing characters, bad editing (the original cut was close to four hours long) and more than its rightful share of moments of poetic license regarding narrative threads and supposedly-impressive set-pieces.
Still, Leone's fairy-tale version of Turn of the Century New York resonates with familiar and familial brilliance--particularly in a few moments of cinematographical verisimilitude (Examples: The recurring background shots of the Williamsburgh Bridge {?} and the dankness/interiors of walk-ups).
Early 1970s: Director Sergio Leone was offered by Paramount to helm "The Godfather." Leone turned it down. The real challenge was his own homage to gangster films twelve years later.
Circa 1968: Leone had considered adapting the novel "The Hoods" into what eventually became this 1984 film about (largely) lower eastside Jewish gangsters (My suspicion is that the 'Dominic' character was supposed to be Italian or, maybe, Irish).
It is up to the viewer to determine whether Leone was influenced more from the cine-success of Coppola/Puzo's "The Godfather" or, coincidentally, Leone had this gem in mind all along. At times, while watching 'America, I was reminded of "The Godfather," but Leone's take is more about the absence of marriage and family; two powerful forces which typify the more successful 1972 Mafia film, and its two sequels.
Which came first, the chicken or the egg?