Once Upon a Time in America

Once Upon a Time in America is a 1984 Italian epic crime drama film co-written and directed by Sergio Leone and starring Robert De Niro and James Woods. It chronicles the lives of Jewish ghetto youths who rise to prominence in New York City's world of organized crime. The film explores themes of childhood friendships, love, lust, greed, betrayal, loss, broken relationships, and the rise of mobsters in American society.
Leone adapted the story from the novel The Hoods, written by Harry Grey, while filming Once Upon a Time in the West. The film went through various casting changes and production issues before filming began in 1982.
==Plot==
In 1968, the elderly David "Noodles" Aaronson (Robert De Niro) returns to New York, where he had a career in the criminal underground in the '20s and '30s. Most of his old friends, like longtime partner Max (James Woods), are long gone, yet he feels his past is unresolved. Told in flashbacks, the film follows Noodles from a tough kid in a Jewish slum in New York's Lower East Side, through his rise to bootlegger and then Mafia boss, a journey marked by violence, betrayal and remorse.
==Cast==
*Robert De Niro as David "Noodles" Aaronson
**Scott Tiler as Young Noodles
*James Woods as Max
**Rusty Jacobs as Young Max and David Bailey
*Elizabeth McGovern as Deborah
**Jennifer Connelly as Young Deborah
*Treat Williams as Jimmy O'Donnell
*Tuesday Weld as Carol
*Burt Young as Joe Monaldi
*Joe Pesci as Frankie Monaldi
*Danny Aiello as Police Chief Aiello
*William Forsythe as Cockeye
**Adrian Curran as Young Cockeye
*James Hayden as Patsy
**Brian Bloom as Young Patsy
*Darlanne Fluegel as Eve
*Larry Rapp as Fat Moe
**Mike Monetti as Young Fat Moe
*Richard Bright as Chicken Joe
*Richard Foronji as Whitey
*Robert Harper as Sharkey
*Dutch Miller as Van Linden
*Gerard Murphy as Crowning
*Amy Ryder as Peggy
**Julie Cohen as Young Peggy
==Release==
The original version by the director was 269 minutes (4 hours and 29 minutes) long, but when the film premièred out of competition at the 1984 Cannes Film Festival, Leone had cut it down to 229 minutes (3 hours and 49 minutes) to appease the distributors. This was the version that was to be shown in European cinemas. However, for the US release on June 1, 1984, Once Upon a Time in America was edited down even further to 139 minutes (2 hours and 19 minutes) by the studio and against the director's wishes. In this short version, the flashback narrative was also changed, by re-editing the scenes in chronological order. Leone was reportedly heartbroken by the American cut, and never made another film before his death in 1989.
In March 2011, it was announced that the original 269 minutes version was to be re-created by a film lab in Italy under the supervision of Leone's children, who have acquired the Italian distribution rights, and the film's original sound editor, Fausto Ancillai, for a premiere in 2012 at either the Cannes Film Festival or the Venice Film Festival. The new restoration of the film premiered at the 2012 Cannes Film Festival, but due to unforeseen rights issues for the deleted scenes, the film's new restoration actually ended up being 251 minutes. However, Martin Scorsese helped with the film's restoration), stated that he is helping Leone's children get the rights to the final 24 minutes of deleted scenes to make a complete version of Leone's original 269 minute version.
On August 3, 2012, it was reported that the restored version of the film that premiered at the 2012 Cannes film festival has been pulled from circulation pending further restoration work.
==Reception==
===Critical response===
Ebert, in his review of Brian De Palma's The Untouchables, called the original uncut version of Once Upon a Time in America the best film depicting the Prohibition era. James Woods, who considers it to be Leone's finest film, mentioned in the DVD documentary that one critic dubbed the film the worst of 1984, only to see the original cut years later and call it the best of the 1980s. The review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes reports an 86% approval rating with an average rating of 8.62/10 based on 50 reviews. The website's consensus reads, "Sergio Leone's epic crime drama is visually stunning, stylistically bold, and emotionally haunting, and filled with great performances from the likes of Robert De Niro and James Woods."
The film has since been ranked as one of the best films of the gangster genre. When Sight & Sound asked several UK critics in 2002 what their favorite films of the last 25 years were, Once Upon a Time in America placed at number 10. In 2015, the film was ranked at number nine on Time Out's list of the 50 best gangster films of all time.
Category:1984 films
Category:American films
Category:Italian films
Category:English-language films
Category:Italian-language films
Category:Yiddish-language films
Category:1980s films
Category:Films
Category:American crime drama films
Category:Italian crime drama films
Category:Crime drama films
Category:American epic films
Category:Italian epic films
Category:Epic films
Category:Films based on American novels
Category:Films based on novels
Category:Films set in Brooklyn
Category:Films shot in New York City
Category:Films shot in New Jersey
Category:Films shot in Venice
Category:Films shot in Florida
Category:Films set in 1918
Category:Films set in 1930
Category:Films set in 1932
Category:Films set in 1933
Category:Films set in 1968
Category:Regency Enterprises films
Category:Warner Bros. films
Category:The Ladd Company films
Category:Films directed by Sergio Leone
Category:Rated R