tfrizzell Review of Once Upon a Time in America

Once Upon a Time in America (1984)

The Very Definition of a Tortured Masterpiece.

[2 October 2003]

"Once Upon a Time in America" is probably the most difficult film I have ever encountered in terms of completing an overall accurate cinematic criticism. This movie just grows in myth and debate as the years come and go. Co-writer/director Sergio Leone (who became an international success with "A Fistful of Dollars", "For a Few Dollars More" and "The Good, the Bad and the Ugly" in the late-1960s) could not really figure out what to do with the complicated novel "Hoods" when adapted to the silver screen. He struggled through with writes, re-writes and several versions of this production. Every version seemingly has more questions than the one before. There are six screenwriters credited. In the end the final product (the very long running 229-minute version) is one of those films that cannot really be talked about. If you try to talk about this production with someone unfamiliar with it, you will leave them dumb-founded and completely confused. Elements of time, situations, heart of the story and characterization get mixed up into a long and winding road of a movie that is extremely deep and definitely complicated. An elderly Jewish man in the 1960s (Robert DeNiro with heavy makeup) comes back to his old New York neighborhood and goes on a quiet and sad journey of remembrance and personal loss. Flashbacks to the early-1920s start quickly as we see a young group of Jewish adolescents in New York (Scott Tiler, Rusty Jacobs, Adrian Curran and Brian Bloom among them) run around town and take advantage of hard-core criminal syndicates and dim-witted beat police officers. The group is wise beyond their years. They have street-smarts that put them into a high class of law-breakers. Early problems develop and brutal multiple murders take place by Tiler. He is sent to prison for the better part of the 1920s and returns in the 1930s in the form of Robert DeNiro. The other youngsters have grown up to become James Woods (in his first legitimate screen role), William Forsythe and James Hayden. DeNiro's reunion comes and goes like a lightning strike and the group gets back to old crime basics. By this time Prohibition is a way of life for the gangsters of major U.S. metropolitan areas and the quartet takes full advantage of that opportunity to run wild around the city and create immense profits for themselves. Killing men in their way and even at times raping women in their path becomes a norm as the production advances. Other characters leave almost as fast as they appear. Joe Pesci, Burt Young, Treat Williams and Danny Aiello make such short runs that if you are not paying attention closely you might miss them. The women make more pronounced impressions. Youngster Jennifer Connelly grows to become Elizabeth McGovern (DeNiro's childhood love who has aspirations of acting and singing professionally) and Woods finds companionship with the ultra-erotic and smart-mouthed Tuesday Weld (doing her best work by a mile). As the movie continues, DeNiro and Weld develop a bond of hate that turns into mutual respect and eventually they even become the oddest of friends. Woods and DeNiro have a mutual unspoken brotherly love that translates into one of the most important relationships in the history of the movies (DeNiro and Al Pacino would later share a similar bond in the vastly under-rated "Heat" some 11 years later). As all this happens though we begin to wonder if all we are seeing is the true reality. A dream-like beginning (which supposedly shows the fates of the four criminals) does not always fit with an amazingly strange final 30 minutes that seems to defy convention, time constraints for the characters and major cinematic screen-writing principles. Symbolism that has always been prevalent in the Italian cinema also comes into play here and these symbols may indeed hold the true answers to the mysteries within. And then again, maybe not. "Once Upon a Time in America" was Sergio Leone's final film and it grows in myth and legend due to that fact. Much like similar movies like "Giant" (James Dean's final performance) and "Eyes Wide Shut" (Stanley Kubrick's hypnotic final production), this movie just seems to go into a higher stratosphere of Hollywood that totally ignores the typical norms that are always in association with other big-name movie products. James Hayden even died of an apparent drug overdose shortly after this film was initially released while performing on Broadway. And thus the legends grow and multiply. Overall in the end I do believe that "Once Upon a Time in America" is arguably the finest movie of the 1980s. It is definitely a unique production that stands near the paramount of a decade that was mired in stupid comedies, teen flicks and endless horror movie installments. DeNiro is truly a revelation once again here and he dominates most in a production of seemingly endless wonderful performances. The movie is one of those that should be studied and analyzed over and over by those who really want to get to the root of cinematic history and development. Much like its running time, the excellence of "Once Upon a Time in America" is nearly immeasurable. 5 stars out of 5.