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Once Upon a Time in America (1984)
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Overview
User Rating:
Release Date:
1 June 1984 (USA) moreTagline:
Crime, passion and lust for power - Sergio Leone's explosive saga of gangland America. [Australia Theatrical] morePlot:
A former Prohibition-era Jewish gangster returns to Brooklyn over 30 years later, where he once again must confront the ghosts and regrets of his old life. full summary | full synopsisAwards:
Nominated for 2 Golden Globes. Another 11 wins & 3 nominations moreNewsDesk:
(13 articles)
Enemies in Public: Top 10 Gangster Movies (From ReelzChannel. 1 July 2009, 9:39 AM, PDT)
Sergio Leone In London: Inside The Private Tribute With Dario Argento And Sir Christopher Frayling
(From CinemaRetro. 7 May 2009, 7:08 PM, PDT)
User Comments:
Leone's ultimate film moreCast
(Cast overview, first billed only)| Robert De Niro | ... | David 'Noodles' Aaronson | |
| James Woods | ... | Maximilian 'Max' Bercovicz / Secretary Christopher Bailey | |
| Elizabeth McGovern | ... | Deborah Gelly | |
| Tuesday Weld | ... | Carol | |
| Treat Williams | ... | James Conway O'Donnell | |
| James Hayden | ... | Patrick 'Patsy' Goldberg | |
| Joe Pesci | ... | Frankie Minoldi | |
| Larry Rapp | ... | 'Fat' Moe Gelly | |
| Danny Aiello | ... | Police Chief Vincent Aiello | |
| William Forsythe | ... | Philip 'Cockeye' Stein | |
| Burt Young | ... | Joe | |
| Darlanne Fluegel | ... | Eve (as Darlanne Fleugel) | |
| Dutch Miller | ... | Van Linden | |
| Robert Harper | ... | Sharkey | |
| Richard Bright | ... | Chicken Joe |
Additional Details
MPAA:
Rated R for strong violence, sexual content, language and some drug use. (edited version)Parents Guide:
View content advisory for parentsRuntime:
229 min | USA:139 min (re-cut)Colour:
Colour (Technicolor)Aspect Ratio:
1.85 : 1 moreSound Mix:
MonoCertification:
Finland:K-16 (1990) | Finland:K-18 (1984) | Canada:13+ (Quebec) | Canada:R (Manitoba/Nova Scotia/Ontario) | Iceland:16 | UK:18 (cut) | Brazil:14 | Germany:16 (f) (re-rating) (2003) | West Germany:18 (f) (original rating) (1984-2003) | Portugal:M/16 | Australia:R | France:-12 (re-rating) (2003) | France:-16 (original rating) | Hong Kong:III | Ireland:18 | Italy:VM14 | Japan:R-15 | Netherlands:12 (original rating) | Netherlands:16 (re-rating) | New Zealand:R16 | Norway:18 | Singapore:M18 | South Korea:18 | Spain:18 | Sweden:15 | USA:RFun Stuff
Trivia:
Joe Pesci suggested Larry Rapp for the role of Fat Moe, having worked with him in Dear Mr. Wonderful (1982). moreGoofs:
Continuity: In the very first scene, when the woman is shot, her shirt is covered in blood. When she is shot again, even more blood stains her shirt, but when she falls back, her shirt is completely free of blood. moreQuotes:
[first lines][In 1933, two goons torture a young woman]
Beefy: Where is he? Where's he hiding?
Eve: I don't know... I've been looking for him since yesterday.
[a second goon slaps her harshly]
Beefy: I'm gonna ask you for the last time: Where is he?
Eve: I don't know... What are you gonna do to him?
[Two shots are head]
Beefy: [to his partner] Stay here in case that rat shows up...
more
Soundtrack:
GOD BLESS AMERICA moreFAQ
What is the book Noodles reads as a kid when he's in the bathroom?Is this movie based on a novel?
How much sex, violence, and profanity are in this movie?
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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. Sadly, America didn't always repay the compliment. Leone's were "spaghetti westerns", money makers to be sure, but deemed disrespectful of the great tradition of Ford, Walsh and Hathaway. Many critics and Holllywood insiders called his earlier Eastwood films cynical and violent bottom-line commercial exploitation. By the time that they caught on to Leone's genuine popular appeal, the director had already moved on. And, his Once Upon a Time in the West was damned as pretentious, bloated, self-indulgent: an art film disguised as a Western, the Heaven's Gate of its day. That film's canny blend of pop appeal and pure cinematic genius gradually dawned on the powers that be (or were), and helped give rise to the renaissance of American filmmaking in the early seventies. It is worth noting that The Godfather could have been made by Leone, had he chosen. Leone had been pitching a gangster film that would encompass generations, for a generation or two, himself. Rather than do the Puzo version finally thrown back at him, he waited an eternity, and finally realized this, his last finished project. 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. Luckily, the critics had grown up enough in the meantime to finally get a glimmering of what Leone was up to, and demand restitution. Very few saw it properly in theaters, but the video version respects the director's intentions, more or less. Ironically, Leone had foreseen television screen aspect ratios as determining home viewing of the future, and abbreviated his usual wide screen format for this movie, so this most troubled last project was the first released on video to most properly resemble the true cinematic experience. For diehard fans of the Eastwood westerns impatient with this at first, watch those movies till you want and need more. This will eventually get to you. For art film fanatics who don't get the earlier Leones, travel in the reverse direction, and you will be pleasantly surprised. This is the movie that Leone spent a decade conceiving. It will deliver for decades of viewing to come.