Once Upon a Time in America

Plot synopsis:
The story is divided among three distinct time periods: the early 1920s, the early 1930s and the year 1968. The story is also jumps back and forth between these times and is summarized chronologically here.In 1968, David "Noodles" Aaronson (Robert De Niro), returns to the Lower East Side of Manhattan, NY following a prolonged absence. He has been called back to his old neighborhood under mysterious circumstances; he's received a notice from a local rabbi telling him that the cemetery in his old neighborhood is being closed and the remains of those buried there are being moved. He sets himself up in with a room in a bar owned by an old friend, Fat Moe (Larry Rapp), and begins to investigate the summons he received. Noodles is suspicious of the letter, thinking he's been called back to see to the reburial of his old friends, Patrick "Patsy" Goldberg (James Hayden), Philip "Cockeye" Stein (William Forsythe), and Max Bercovic (James Woods), who he used to be in a gang with. Noodles believes someone is seeking revenge against him.In the earliest time period, the early 1920s, the boys grow up in poverty in a Jewish neighborhood of the Lower East Side. They ostensibly work for a young local gangster named Bugsy, however, Noodles and his friends Patsy, Cockeye and Dominic, have ambitions to strike out on their own. One day, while attempting to roll a drunk, they are foiled in their plot by Max, who is just moving into the neighborhood with his mother. He keeps the drunk's pocket watch and leaves the boys to be harassed by a policeman, Whitey (whom the boys call "Fartface") who constantly bullies them. Noodles finds Max later and demands the watch back. Whitey happens by and takes the watch for himself. Noodles and Max come to admire each others resolve and decide to be friends. Though Noodles and Max seem to share the leadership of the gang, it is Max who is the more charismatic and makes most of the decisions for them.One day Patsy spies Whitey walking along the rooftops of the neighborhood and follows him. Patsy immediately realizes that Whitey is going to see their pre-teen (and physically matured) friend, Peggy, who prostitutes herself. The boys catch Whitey in the act and photograph him; Patsy quickly disappears with the film plate. Whitey acquiesces to their demands that, as the new gang in the area, he pay them as much in tribute as he does Bugsy and that he do some enforcement work for them. They also get their watch back from him and make him pay for Noodles and Max to have sex with Peggy.Noodles has long desired to be romantically involved with a girl, Deborah (Jennifer Connelly), who lives in his building and whose father owns the local kosher restaurant in the neighborhood. While using the men's room in the restaurant, David often spies on Deborah through a small hole in the wall while she practices her ballet steps. Deborah, however, mostly ignores his advances, with the exception of an intimate moment they share when the restaurant's closed during Passover.The boys become something of a success in their neighborhood, thieving houses and stores and rolling more drunks and other weaker types for small earnings that are substantial for themselves. When Bugsy hears that there's another gang that isn't under his control, he and his thugs horribly beat Noodles and Max . Undaunted, the boys meet with a local Italian mobster, Capuano, and show him an invention of Noodles' that will allow Capuano to keep all the imported cargo he illegally deals even after his ships crews are forced to throw it overboard by harbor customs agents. The invention is a success and the boys become very wealthy, receiving 10% of Capuano's earnings. They rent a train station locker and stash their cash earnings in a leather briefcase, promising that they will only withdraw or deposit funds from the locker when they are all present and that the key will be kept by Fat Moe. On their way back from the station, they're attacked by Bugsy, who this time carries a pistol. Dominic is the only member of the gang who is shot by Bugsy (being the smallest, he is unable to run for cover as fast as his compatriots) and dies in Noodles' arms. Noodles retaliates and stabs Bugsy with a switchblade several times before a policeman tries to stop him - Noodles, still in a fit of rage about Dominic, stabs the cop and is arrested. He is sentenced to 12 years. His friends turn out to see him delivered to the child reformatory.In the early 1930s, Noodles is released from prison and is picked up by Max. Max explains that he and the rest of the gang have set themselves up in an undertaking business. However, the mortician's parlor is a front for their real business, bootlegging liquor, which has made them rich. According to Max, they run the most popular speakeasy in the city; they hide the scotch they serve in the building's steam heating system. A party is held for Noodles on his return and Max introduces him to some new associates, Frankie Manoldi (Joe Pesci) and his partner Joe (Burt Young). Frankie and Joe want the gang to rob a diamond broker's they own in Detroit. During the heist, Noodles hits and rapes a woman, Carol (Tuesday Weld), who works there; she's a masochist who provokes Noodles into beating her; Noodles also does so despite a stern warning from Joe himself not to abuse her. The gang meets with Joe to give him the diamonds and kill him and his men on Frankie's orders. Noodles, unaware of the deal that Max made with Frankie to murder Joe, is quite angry with Max; his reasoning is that their gang should not be liable to anyone like Frankie and should operate independently. Also, Noodles is concerned that one day Frankie may want Noodles or Max to eliminate the other. Max assures Noodles it will never happen.The gang then begins to aid a local union leader, Jimmy "Clean Hands" O'Donnell (Treat Williams), who has made a career of standing up to corrupt labor leaders, particularly a man named Crowning. After rescuing Jimmy from Crowning's thug, Chicken Joe, who is about to burn him alive, the gang offers their assistance to Jimmy, who initially refuses their help, not wanting to deal with men who operate in bootlegging, drugs or prostitution.The gang turns their attention to a local labor strike being engineered by a celebrity police captain, Vincent Aiello (Danny Aiello). Aiello is being manipulated by the factory owners into allowing his officers to protect the scab workers the owners have allowed into their factory. The gang concocts a brilliant and diabolical scheme to switch Aiello's newborn son (his family's only boy after four girls) at the hospital - Noodles calls him just after he discovers the switch (the gang switched his boy for a girl in the nursery) and tells him to call off his officers and let the workers and management work out the strike. However, when Patsy tries to remember which baby they switched Aiello's boy for, he can't; he's lost the switch list with the child's number on it. The mix-up doesn't faze the gang, however, & they agree to simply give Aiello the number of a random boy from the ward, coldly laughing over the fates of some of the children they'd mixed up.During the time that the gang is expanding their business dealings, Noodles rekindles his romance with Deborah (now played by Elizabeth McGovern). He arranges for a lavish vacation for them both at a posh resort that is closed for the season. Noodles reveals his love for Deborah, however, she is still as reluctant to get romantically involved with him, and plans to leave for California to study acting. On their return trip, during a romantic encounter in their limousine, Noodles forces himself on Deborah and rapes her over her protests. Ashamed, he orders the driver to take her home. Some time later, Deborah boards a train to California; Noodles, from a distance in the station, watches her leave; she closes the compartment blind when she spots him.While calling Max & Noodles for assistance, Jimmy is nearly killed on the street by Chicken Joe. The gang retaliates, shooting at Crowning outside his club, killing his bodyguards, including Chicken Joe. With a wounded leg, Jimmy is crippled for life but is able to continue his career. While they celebrate with Jimmy in the hospital, Jimmy's attorney, Shark, tells the gang that Prohibition may soon end and they should think about entering legitimate business with their large fleet of bootlegging trucks, with Jimmy acting as their front. Max seems to like the idea, however, Noodles is unconvinced, still adhering to his old mantra of not working for anyone but themselves. Max suggests that Noodles' idea of business is too archaic and that they need to expand to make more money, but Noodles still adheres steadfastly to his street code.In late 1933, Prohibition approaches its end, and the gang find themselves out of work. Not wanting to go into legitimate work, Max reveals an audacious plan to rob the Federal Reserve bank in Manhattan. Noodles thinks the plan is too outrageous, knowing that it almost certainly would get him and the rest of the gang killed. By this time, the woman Noodles sexually assaulted in Detroit, Carol, has joined the brothel that Peggy runs (in conjunction with the gang's speakeasy) and has become Max's girlfriend. She tries to convince Noodles to get Max to abandon his plan or tip the police to get Max arrested to give him time to think over the scheme's absurdity. Noodles plans to tip the police about a liquor exchange Max has planned with Cockeye and Patsy, which is set to take place a short time after the gang's party in celebration of the end of Prohibition. Noodles does so and, when Max joins him in the office, provokes Max into a fight by suggesting his friend is crazy; it is a vulnerable fact of Max's life that his father was mentally unbalanced and died in a sanitarium. Noodles shows up at the site of the liquor buy and sees that Patsy and Cockeye have been killed and it appears Max has been burned beyond recognition. After returning to Fat Moe's bar and finding his girlfriend Eve murdered and Moe horribly beaten (depicted in the first scenes of the film), he retrieves the key to the locker at the train station. At the station, he finds that the money has been replaced with newspapers. Puzzled, Noodles buys a one-way bus ticket to Buffalo and leaves.During his sleuthing in 1968, Noodles finds out that his friends were moved to a different cemetery and an elaborate mausoleum was constructed for them. He finds the key to the train station locker on a plaque inside that states Noodles himself put the plaque and key there to honor his friends. He goes to the locker and finds the same leather case and more money inside. A note inside the case says "Advance payment for your next job". According to news reports, a senator named Chris Bailey is under investigation for corruption; several witnesses set to testify against Bailey have all died under mysterious circumstances. Noodles suspects a connection between Bailey and the money left to him. Before visiting the senator's house under invitation, he talks to Carol who tells him that Deborah is once again living in the New York City area and is now a famous stage actress. Noodles visits her and the two have a lengthy conversation. Deborah's most important revelation is that she and Senator Bailey are together and have a grown-up son, also named David, who very closely resembles Max when he was younger.Noodles goes to Bailey's Long Island mansion and meets directly with the Senator, who reveals himself to be Max. Max had faked his own death during the liquor exchange where he was "killed" and has, for the past 30 years, created the Bailey persona as a disguise. With the impending investigation for corruption, Max tells Noodles that he wants to be assassinated and that Noodles is the only person to do it (hence the money in the suitcase as an "advance for the next job"). Noodles refuses, saying that he feels betrayed and has felt guilty for the entire span Max was gone, which is punishment enough. He leaves through a secret passage; on the street outside Bailey's estate, he catches a glimpse of Bailey standing by the road. A garbage truck drives by, the augers in the back clearly visible, suggesting but not concluding for certain that Bailey has thrown himself into them to his death.The film ends in the 1930s time period, with Noodles in a Chinese opium den. Laying down after a few puffs from an opium pipe, he smiles as the closing credits run.(Note: It has been suggested by fans, critics and some film historians that the 1968 sequences were all part of an opium-induced dream experienced by Noodles.)

Tags: cruelty, murder, cult, violence, atmospheric, flashback, good versus evil, sadist

Review:
If you want to see this film the way Sergio Leone saw it, you have to make sure you get the director's cut.
He understood perfectly what Sergio Leone wanted and composed most of the music even before the movie was shot.Last but not least there is also the acting and the script.
He ended up doing a film in Italy for an almost-unknown director named Sergio Leone and an almost-unknown sound guy named Ennio Morricone.
The actual film, the one that Leone left, was not seen until years later when the director's version surfaced.
When he returns 35 years later our view of the bridge is from under a freeway -- the world has moved along, but the bridge and Noodles are just as they were.The length: If you're looking for a brief distraction that you'll barely remember 30 minutes later, this isn't the movie for you.
The time span considered is long, including Noodles's childhood shortly after the turn of the century, through the prohibition era, and finally the 1960's.The film is about relationships; the many years Noodles spends away from his friends receive only a cursory mention.
When the final piece is revealed, the true essence of the story becomes clear and a sad and beautiful tapestry comes into view.This film is a true masterpiece, expressing a profound statement about friendship and betrayal, with fantastic acting, writing, directing and music.
Sergio Leone's films are all love letters to America, the American dreams of an Italian who grew up at the movies, who apprenticed with Wyler, and Aldrich, signed himself Bob Robertson, and gave us Clint Eastwood, Lee Van Cleef, Charles Bronson as we know them.
That ellipse of a decade or so between conception and completed movie is paralleled in the film, itself, by Robert De Niro's ("Noodles'") opium dream of the  American twentieth century, its promises, and betrayals.
Naturally, Leone was betrayed, once again, himself, by America, and this truly amazing film, with its densely multi-layered, overlapping flashback structure was butchered upon its release, becoming a linear-plotted sub-Godfather knockoff in the process.
At times, the movie has overwhelming visual impact -- when Leone films the actors close-up, they look like portraits painted by the Great Masters, and in wider shots he frames the actors so that they interact electrically with the locations or sets.
Elizabeth McGovern does what she can with the role of Deborah, but it's probably the worst-written role in the movie, and again her strongly-Celtic face doesn't exactly conjure images of a first-generation Jewish immigrant.Received opinion has it that Once Upon a Time in America is a great movie, possibly because it is a very long gangster movie (like those other ones), or because it was an epic work of passion for Leone, or because DeNiro is in it (again, like those other gangster movies), or maybe it's a combination of those elements.
I have seen all the best gangster pictures like Godfather parts 1 and 2, Goodfellas and Scarface (the really old one and the Al Pacino one) and decided to watch this movie again for the first time in twenty years because I read the Leone turned down the chance to direct the Godfather and later on made this movie.I just don't understand how this movie is ranked 115 on the all time list of movies on IMDb. This movie is unbelievably boring it is like watching a snail run the 100 yard dash.
It is high time that American critics and fans alike start to debunk their unquestioned, sloppy veneration of films like Sergio Leone's 'Once Upon a Time in America'.
The deadening pace is somewhat to blame, certain sequences drag along stagnantly for far too long, signifying very little, hinting at a director with so little restraint and narrative economy that he often feels obligated to usurp every iota of screen time possible in order to show off his production, fatal for a film that contains figures so sullen and aloof.
It's been said that when one watches a "spaghetti" western (one of the "Man with no name" films with Clint Eastwood) filmmaker Sergio Leone's trademark cinema style and flair for clear storytelling is instantly recognizable.
Robert De Niro projects his subtitles like a pro, with his occasional outburst in the right place; James Woods gives one of his first great performances as Max; Elizabeth McGovern is the heart of the film; and Joe Pesci should've had more than just a one scene appearance, thought it's still good.
It's a story of life-long friends, in the tradition of the Godfather movies with obvious differences, and the story cuts back and forth to Noodles (De Niro) in his old age returning from exile, looking back on his childhood in Brooklyn, his rise to power with his partners, and the twists come quite unexpectedly.
Ennio Morricone, as it says on this site, has scored over four hundred films in forty years, including Leone's movies.
However, "Once Upon a Time in America" is too long, too disjointed, the story is not compelling, and the acting in the early parts of the film is atrocious (especially the child actors).
In Leone's westerns these long sequences effectively built up tension while here they are just boring cinematic filler.It seems that Leone lost objectivity in editing because a lot of scenes drag on unnecessarily, making the nearly 4 hour running time seem twice as long.
In the first hour alone there's more than 5 minutes devoted to a scene of a 12-13 year old girl dancing ballet while a young Noodles (the main character) secretly watches.
It boggles the mind why stuff like this was not edited down -- it doesn't move the story, its not cinematic and its not even acting, its 4-5 minutes of a kid eating cake.Lastly, whereas a movie like "The Godfather" comes across as realistic and believable, "Once Upon a Time in America" while ostensibly gritty and realistic is anything but.
Certain events in the story are completely unbelievable and hard to view as anything but fiction, which is not an asset when you are making a hard, gritty gangster movie.If you like long 4 hour movies I guess this is for you, but to anyone else I would say that there's a good reason this movie has largely been forgotten, so proceed at your own risk..
It is also full of clichés that try to make Jews actually kind and also physically tough, Italians mafiosos and thugs and of course Chinese docile fu manchus that run opium lairs.All these clichés might have been interesting or art 30 years ago, but today we have evolved.Bottom-line: this movie serves a narrow band of an audience which is primarily people who were in Hollywood thirty years ago and had a background in Jewish New York City and want to promote it.Boring, overlong and nonsense..
Magnified as always by the superb work of Ennio Morricone, and the perfect acting of De Niro and Woods, it was for Sergio Leone THE movie of his life, his long time cherished plan, his masterpiece to end with.
I am usually a great fan of Sergio Leone's work, and I love most things with DeNiro and even James Woods, but I just couldn't sit through this movie.The pacing wouldn't have been a problem if the story were better, but I felt that it just meandered through a lot of scenes and recollections that were unnecessary.
My only merits for this film are for the principles of camera work, general acting and basic cinematics, besides that, this is almost 4 hours of my life I won't get back, this film drags on so much that by the first hour I felt like I'd spent a full day watching it and on top of that I still had very little connection to the characters and their story hadn't even started.
Once Upon a Time in America is Sergio Leone's epic tale of the lives of four Jewish gangsters in New York City.
Once Upon a Time in America is Sergio Leone's epic tale of the lives of four Jewish gangsters in New York City.
Once Upon a Time in America, which bookends Once Upon a Time in the West as director Sergio Leone's best work, is a powerhouse of a movie.
I think this movie includes one of Deniro's best roles, and far and away James Woods best film work.
However, the amount of violence is less than what you see today.The movie also sports an interesting twist near the end involving the two major characters, played by Robert De Niro and James Woods.
Confused or not, this film always is fascinating to view, especially with intense actors such as the two men just mentioned, along with Elizabeth McGovern, Tuesday Weld, Joe Pecsi, Burt Young, Treat Williams and more.The child actors in here take up almost half the movie and are excellent.
I decided, on Christmas Eve, to reacquaint myself with an old friend- Sergio Leone's heavyweight gangster epic, which I had previously watched in two sittings, 10 years previously, at Uni.I was rewarded with a movie of tremendous vision and creative style as well as emotional integrity.
When you take an idiosyncratic, brilliant, stylish director like Leone, his composer counterpart, Morricone, and a cast including two of the foremost actors of their generation (de Niro and Woods) then you have an idea of the kind of quality this film has.
Let me tell you, because I think this Movie has it all.An Amazing Camera work, the Music from Morricone is Godlike, the Story shows highly claim, the Actors Performance is Perfect, the Dialogues are brilliant.I watched the Godfather and rated 9/10 but Once upon a Time in America is much better.
Sergio Leone, best known as the godfather of spaghetti Westerns, here makes a film about a gangster called Noodles.
Unfortuantly, the dialogue and characterisation are not as strong as the imagery, the conclusion to the plot doesn't quite convince (or indeed, pack a big enough punch to wholly satisfy after a movie of this length), and at times the film seems almost to endorse its central characters' crude, and sometimes sexually violent, world view.
An ugly rape scene has zero consequence - when the involved characters meet again, it is like nothing has happened.Usually the involvement of Ennio Morricone upgrades a movie immediately, but in this case the soundtrack is badly chosen and badly edited, same thing goes for sound effects.If you like slow-paced, long movies, there are a few good ones out there (Ben Hur, Lawrence of Arabia).
However,those willing to submit will find it more than worth it.Reminiscent at times of some very old gangster films such as The Roaring Twenties,one will find almost every gangster movie cliché one can find-one can imagine Leone half remembering bits and pieces from films he saw as a youth.
Leone's most ambitious epic moves across three separate time periods: the twenties, the thirties and the late sixties It starts in 1933, with the murder of a woman after merciless gangsters have briefly interrogate her (while Noodles hides out in an opium den), then returns to the disastrous night of the bloody betrayal, then jumps to Noodles' return to New York in 1968, then shifts back to the early 1920s to their adolescence This display in a series of flashbacks and flash-forwards is used throughout the film, until the climax where all the dissociated parts of the story fall into place "Once Upon a Time in America" tells the story of five precocious teenagers born in Brooklyn and the Bronx, Noodles (Robert DeNiro), Max (James Woods), Patsy (James Hayden), Cockeye (William Forsythe), and Dominic (Noah Moazezi), the youngest As kids in 1921 Prohibition New York, they take only superficial interest in minor street crime, spoiling things or stealing from drunks, until they start running their own rackets Noodles is sexually attracted to Deborah (Jennifer Connelly/Elizabeth McGovern), the mesmerizing ballet dancer, sister of their loyal friend Fat Moe (Larry Rapp), the son of a saloon-keeper But the gang's rivalry with Bugsy (James Russo), another street hoodlum, leads to Dominic being fatally wounded and Noodles going to jail for years for taking a bloody revenge in a blind rage When Noodles is released from prison a decade later, Max was there with a car and a hooker Noodles joins his three pals, who have become prosperous by continuing in the crime world including entwining with unions and the strikers, led by their leader Jimmy Conway (Treat Williams).The four best friends accept to assault a jeweler in Detroit, for a major mafioso Frankie Minoldi (Joe Pesci), and his sidekick Joe (Burt Young) And at the end of Prohibition in 1933, the top mob criminals find themselves having gathered $1 million In their vacation in Miami, Noodles was highly worried that Max's next plan is a step too dangerous to take and too riskyThe most tragic and moving part of the film is probably the romantic obsessions of Noodles Noodles and Deborah have deep and strong affinity for one another Noodles feels he has the right to Deborah's feelings, but she closed herself to him years ago when he responded Max's call over her own Noodles seem unaware of her decision...
Too many plot lines and incidental characters are introduced only for their purpose or contributions to be left unfinished so the viewer is ultimately unfulfilled.Having said that I was impressed with the acting - James Woods, Robert De Niro (and even Danny Aiello) who all put in stellar performances.Spanning several decades this movie was never going to be easy to squeeze into almost 4 hours on screen.
Needless to say, I've seen the movie many times through the 80s and 90s, first in the theatre, thank goodness, and later on television.I don't want to imply that the understanding of this film is a cumbersome task.
You can't consider yourself a film-fan, a movie-buff, if you haven't seen this one (or two or three) in each of its versions, several times.
At the end, there is the final smile by Noodles, doped up on opium, the only time in the movie that he looks completely happy and at peace.
I know it is left to our imagination as the garbage truck passes but I would have liked to have seen a little more closure, other than that I can only give it the praise it deserves.Pity Sergio Leone never lived long enough to see his masterpiece become the cult movie it now is..
What is remarkable about this film is not only the screenplay but the remarkable ability of director Sergio Leone to create three movies in one with disregard to any chronological sequence of events.
Upon his call the police comes and his friends are killed, than Eve, his girlfriend is murdered by the police.The movie begins in 1933 and ends with the same scene, with Noodles played by de Niro smoking opium on the bed at the Chinese place.
Using the idea of the "American Dream" as a catalyst, Leone employs themes of friendship, love, crime, and nostalgia to illustrate why individualism is overrated.Max (James Woods) gradually takes over Noodles' (Robert de Niro) childhood gang.
To sum up my review, I have created a formula for the movie: Good action sequences+ Great cast+ Excellent acting+ dramatic and touching storyline= "Once Upon A Time In America" (The Classic Gangster Epic- a 5/5 motion picture)!.
Sergio Leone made no movies from 1975 until this film came out...
They stay friends until adulthood, when two of them, Noodles (Robert de Niro) and psychotic Max (James Woods) begin to have differences, though they were the closest as children.It's hard to think of anything wrong with this film.
The final meeting between Noodles and Max is one of the best filmed scenes ever.Still, it would not be a classic without Ennio Morricone's score.
(only the long Version)The only real epic Masterpiece in Filming ever made.LEONE WAS THE MASTER !!!.
Once Upon a Time in America (1984) Robert De Niro, James Woods, Elizabeth McGovern, Tuesday Weld, Treat Williams, William Forsythe, James Hayden, Danny Aiello, Larry Rapp, Burt Young, Joe Pesci, Scott Tiler, Jennifer Connelly, Rusty Jacobs.Spoilers herein.At the start of the 80's decade, cinema had already gotten a strong start for making great films.
Objectively, Once Upon a Time in America is possibly the greatest gangster film I've ever seen along with The Godfather and Goodfellas.
Leone's methodical pacing is stunning.The acting is tremendous, can't praise James Woods and Robert De Niro enough, awesome!The photography is beautiful, it lacks colour giving it a gritty look, perfection!Morricone delivers another masterpiece, his score adds further depth and backups the director's story.See it wide-screen, this film is a stunning piece of cinema.
Once Upon a Time in America is a 1984 Italian-American epic crime drama film co-written and directed by Italian filmmaker Sergio Leone and starring Robert De Niroand James Woods.
Once Upon A Time In America is, as Leone hoped it will be, his best movie!
Sergio Leone's last film was also his best, with this epic life story of two best friends who work together as gangsters.
The usual brilliant camera-work of Leone's films, and the wonderful musical score by Ennio Morricone are a wonderful accompaniment to the strong violence and character's emotions.
This is one of the best ever gangster films, a true masterpiece from one of the world's greatest directors, and was a perfect sign off for Leone..
There will be a time when Leone's family releases an even longer version, restoring over 45 minutes more of this film.
Once I saw for the first time this movie, I actually didn't know anything at all of Sergio Leone, what really attracted me to watch this movie is my passion for gangster films.
I discovered a new way of creating a movie by a director, that actually was not so much involved in Hollywood style cinema (from what I have read).Once Upon a time in America, its a tale of friendship, love, passion, crime, betrayal and history.