Once Upon a Time in America (1984)

A former Prohibition-era Jewish gangster returns to the Lower East Side of Manhattan over thirty years later, where he once again must confront the ghosts and regrets of his old life.

Director:

Sergio Leone

Writers:

Harry Grey (novel), Leonardo Benvenuti,

Stars:

Robert De Niro, James Woods, Elizabeth McGovern

Top 250 #79 | Nominated for 2 Golden Globes. Another 13 wins & 4 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Robert De Niro	...	David 'Noodles' Aaronson
James Woods	...	Maximilian 'Max' Bercovicz
Elizabeth McGovern	...	Deborah Gelly
Joe Pesci	...	Frankie Manoldi
Burt Young	...	Joe
Tuesday Weld	...	Carol
Treat Williams	...	James Conway O'Donnell
Danny Aiello	...	Police Chief Vincent Aiello
Richard Bright	...	Chicken Joe
James Hayden	...	Patrick 'Patsy' Goldberg
William Forsythe	...	Philip 'Cockeye' Stein
Darlanne Fluegel	...	Eve (as Darlanne Fleugel)
Larry Rapp	...	'Fat' Moe Gelly
Richard Foronjy	...	Officer 'Fartface' Whitey (as Richard Foronji)
Robert Harper	...	Sharkey

Storyline

Epic tale of a group of Jewish gangsters in New York, from childhood, through their glory years during prohibition, and their meeting again 35 years later.

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Plot Keywords:

New York | Jewish | Gangster | Prohibition | Friend | 

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Taglines:

As boys, they made a pact to share their fortunes, their loves, their lives. As men, they shared a dream to rise from poverty to power. Forging an empire built on greed, violence and betrayal, their dream would end as a mystery that refuse to die.

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Genres:

Crime | Drama

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Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated R for strong violence, sexual content, language and some drug use

Details

Official Sites:

Official site

Country:

Italy USA

Language:

English Italian French

Release Date:

28 September 1984 (Italy)

Also Known As:

Érase una vez en América

Filming Locations:

Brooklyn, New York City, New York, USA

Box Office

Budget:

$30,000,000 (estimated)

Gross:

$5,300,000 (USA)

Company Credits

Production Co:

Ladd Company, The, Embassy International Pictures, PSO International

Technical Specs

Runtime:

229 min 139 min (re-cut) 259 min (2012)

Sound Mix:

Mono

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

Al Pacino and Jack Nicholson turned down the role of Noodles.

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Goofs

A 1950s New York housing project is visible when Bugsy shoots Dominic in the early 1920s.

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Quotes

[first lines]
[In 1933, two goons rudely question a young woman]
Beefy: Where is he? Where's he hiding?
Eve: I don't know... I've been looking for him since yesterday.
[second goon slaps her harshly; she falls onto the bed]
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 heard]
Beefy: [to his partner] Stay here in case that rat shows up...

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Crazy Credits

For his cameo, Joey Faye is listed in the credits as playing the "adorable old man."

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Connections

References The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse (1921)
Nomined once.

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Soundtracks

"Amapola"
Music and Spanish Lyrics by Joseph M. LaCalle (as Joseph M. La Calle)
English Lyrics by Albert Gamse
Courtesy of Edward B. Marks Music Corporation

User Reviews

Leone's ultimate film

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.