Once Upon a Time in America

Rating: 8/10 (20 June 2012)

I think the first time I saw Once Upon a Time in America I was a bit disappointed because I benchmarked it against Sergio Leone's spaghetti westerns such as the endlessly more entertaining but not necessarily more emotionally rewarding The Good, the Bad and the Ugly. Approaching this gangster saga, you will not find Clint Eastwood in a poncho, and you have to deal with it. Once you do, you have four very good hours in front of you.
The film follows Noodles (Robert De Niro) in three parallel acts. First as a child, where he and his gang of hoodlums starts out with harmless thefts against drunkards, before things escalate into a violent and life-changing confrontation with the older gangster rival Bugsy (James Russo), all the while chasing the girls of New York. Then as an adult in his life of organized crime and associations with the labor union during the prohibition era, where Noodles' best friend Max's descent into madness plays a key part. And finally as an old man returning to his old neighbourhood to tie up loose ends from his life. The three parts fit nicely together, and the editing between them works fine.
All in all, the film has a fine ensemble. De Niro more or less plays the same type of guy that he does in all gangster films I have seen him in, meaning that he is solid and knows his part as the back of his hand. Joe Pesci shows up as he does in all gangster films I have seen, although he is more understated during his brief appearance here. Tuesday Weld looks uncannily alike some Hitchcock character, perhaps one played by Eva Marie Saint, in her unthankful role as a gangster wife. The real star, however, might be James Woods in his mentally unstable portrayal of Max, whose madness breaks out whenever the condition is implied in conversation.
In four hours, Leone has time to cover a lot of ground, and there are several highlights. My favourite scene is the one where Noodles finally goes on a date with the love of his life Deborah (Elizabeth McGovern). It starts off romantically, but evolves into sadness as she says that he is the only person she has ever cared for, but then asks, in a moment of unusual clarity for women in gangster films, "you'd lock me up and throw away the key, wouldn't you?", to which Noodles replies that he probably would. This sums up almost every gangster relationship ever depicted on film. The episode, as many others, then concludes in a gruesome manner.
What might distinguish Once Upon a Time in America from other films of its ilk is how nostalgic and sentimental it feels, which I don't mean in a negative sense (except at its low point when it plays some washed-out version of Yesterday); the childhood act takes you back to a time when the streets of New York were brimming with life (due to terrific compositions) in another sense than today, whereas the (chronologically) last segment finds a worn out Noodles reminiscing about those days and what has been. The final scene, in which he sees some young people going by fast in their fancy cars, feels like the moment where his memories of youth escape him. Even the part that takes place in between, where the gang is doing well financially, is less than usual about being a high roller and more about regretting what you've done and dealing with its aftermath, as represented by a phone that won't stop ringing. The most conspicuous aspect of the film is perhaps Ennio Morricone's bittersweet, nostalgic score that runs through virtually every scene. It borders on sentimentality, but it fits a movie about a man looking back on his life perfectly.