Synopsis for
Once Upon a Time in America (1984)

How you top one of the best openings in the movies ever (......... in The West) - darkness and footsteps. Leone's film like its predecessor was very long and I suspect cut but its first version was at least lucid and the shocking finale to the opening isn't fully explained until the end. We are in gangster land and death is cheaply bought. Anyone deemed to be a "rat" and the de Niro character starts out without friends and we see why.

So after the violent opening we jump forward to the later 60s and a older de Niro come back to face his ghosts and we then go back to his life as a child in the deprived background of New York and his drifting into crime with four friends and his love for Deborah (Jennifer Connelly first and Elizabeth McGovern the adult).

No rules and no-one is lovable but all are believable and the lost of one of the 5 is tragic even though they are criminals and the younger Noodles lands in jail for avenging the lost of his friend. Jump forward again and it seems although years before he had "escaped" - his enemies knew all the time where he was and had allowed him to grow old but now wanted something from him for their largess. He retrieves the money he thought he had stashed 30 years before but it was to buy something and he remembers the adult 4 gangsters making waves all over New York. They had stuck by him whilst inside and he was a made man.

Crime had changed but it was still changing loyalties, brutal dealings, unions and politics now. And quietly one of their number turned himself into a respectable man whilst carrying on as a gangster. He had ambitions but friendships remained until it stood in the "one" persons way and it was sold with everything else. Noodles met but couldn't relate to his childhood sweetheart and their coupling was awful and effectively "rape".

And Noodles decided that crime was not for him and after warring with himself "ratted" on the trio not realising he himself was being played.

And the beginning of the film - the manhunt with victims who wouldn't or couldn't talk is thrown into sharp contrast to the confusion at the beginning and an opium den and a ringing phone that will drive you mad.

And the final reckoning when Noodles is offered a chance of revenge - to apologise to "Deborah" and found out why he has been living on borrowed time. A sliver of friendship remained but "Noodles got his own revenge for the treachery and what happens at the end is up for discussion.

The metaphor of garbage collection - possibly - has never been so apt but joyous modern life drowns out old times and an odyssy comes to an end. Older - not wiser but sadder.

And the music. I turn away from the film sometimes but Morricone's excelled himself in this one and the soundtrack is worth getting and stands alone.

Robert De Niro, James Woods, William Forsythe, Joe Pesci, Treat Williams, Elizabeth McGovern and Tuesday Weld.

I am pleased Leone made this after the ridiculous - in my opinion - "Duck You Sucker". It was a fitting legacy.

----------- I hesitate to edit the above because I believe the writer might have seen the edited version of this film, which makes all the difference in the world. I accidentally saw the short version first thinking that it was the full one (a mistake in the printed TV program). I thought then that the film was at least wonderful to look at, but that it really make no sense at the end.

The shorter version was edited to be in a linear time-line. Theoretically, it makes it easier to follow, but it actually destroys what Leone was up to. Er, did someone mention "SPOILER ALERT" anywhere before here? If not then go before your mind be sullied. Because I shall try to explain why even Pauline Kael kinda missed it. In fact, I think this explanation might do for a lot of the 'anachronisms' in the film.

The film starts with a number of confusing shots, prominent among them is de Niro entering a Chinese theater which is a mere front for an opium den. But there is a phone ringing and the ringing goes on. And on. And eventually, it syncs with something that later becomes even more annoying because the damn ringing goes on!. This is the pivotal point of the movie. The opium den, did I ever say "SPOILER ALERT"! is more or less where everything, EVERYTHING in the movie is happening. It is all happening in Noodles opiated head.

So the first half of the film, more or less, is Noodles 'remembering' the past. Everything is a bit larger than it should be because Noodles was young. Or on dope. Then the drug wears off and Noodles needs some more hits, after which he 'remembers' the future, which is why a lot of this part really looks out of whack if you pay attention. He has a revenge fantasy of sorts. Then at the end, some more tokes and he lays back and smiles. Which is good, I suppose, because it is clear (so I think) that he will never get out of that opium den alive.