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Once Upon a Time in America (Two-Disc Special Edition)Rating:
Release Date: 16 December, 2003 Retail Price: $26.98 OUR Price: $19.99 You SAVE: $6.99! Cast: Complete Cast (17 total) |
Once Upon a Time in America (Two-Disc Special Edition) Reviews
really really good!
I don't expect anything more of a movie than to enjoy it and be entertained. I don't seek to psychoanalyze or offer up in-depth critique, it's only a movie. I either enjoy it or I don't. You kind of have to plan for, and be in the mood to take on, this movie. It's not a snack, it's a five course meal. One of my favorite movie scenes of all time is right here...when that beautiful, young blue-eyed boy waits outside "Peggy's" apartment with the deluxe cupcake. The only "flaw" I ever found is I find myself wanting to shout "answer that damn phone!" every time... But all in all, a fantastic movie.
Leone's Grand, If Excessive, Finale
Sergio Leone's last major movie is most likely his masterpiece, even if "The Good, The Bad and The Ugly" will remain his best-known work. Much like that Clint Eastwood movie, "Once upon a Time in America" has a director's edition that is bloated, epic and far more than it advertises. "Once Upon A Time" is a gangster movie in the same way that "The Good" is a cowboy flick - they both carry these genres at their hearts, but each is really more of a period piece.
In "Once Upon A Time", that period is actually the 20th century. The film takes place in three different decades; 1910s, 1930s and 1960s, and intercuts events in each freely throughout. The screenwriters clearly learned one of the many film lessons that can be gleaned from "Citizen Kane": biographies are much more effective when they are disguised as mysteries. The opening 30 minutes are baffling to the first-time viewer, as they are effectively taken from the middle and end of the film. The scenes set in the 60s are often incredibly slow-paced, which does make it refreshing when the pace quickens later, but also threaten to lull the viewer to sleep.
Once the film finally enters a flashback to its beginning, it gains momentum and definition, entering a coming-of-age gangster story not dissimilar to Vito's plotline in the second "Godfather". "Once Upon a Time", however, does not show the same restraint that was evident in the "Godfather" series: sex and violence are plentiful and brutal, and provide a sharp contrast to the otherwise elegiac tone.
What follows is perhaps one of the greatest gangster movies of all time, despite the fact that it is cut with some tedious exposition and static self-reflection. When it works, the film is brilliant. But even if it shouldn't have been submitted to a hack job, it certainly needed some trimming. If you've got four hours to spend watching a man's life, "Once Upon A Time" is an amazing film. But if you have trouble with incoherence and unnecessary length, this film is not for you.
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