"Once Upon A Time In America"

Rating: 8/10 (11 February 2007)

Having read and thoroughly enjoyed "The Hoods" when it came out in paperback during the early 1950's, I liked the film, even though the TV version is somewhat confusing and difficult for me to follow. I only wish that, to maximize authenticity, the early street scenes had been filmed in New York City rather than in Canada; to anyone who's spent a lot of time on Manhattan's Lower East side, they obviously weren't. In the 1920's and 1930's, for example, it's highly unlikely that a restaurant in that teeming, working class neighborhood would be as spacious as the one depicted; moreover, the local streets were far less wide and open than those in the film.