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Once Upon a Time in America (1984)

A review by Damian Cannon.
Copyright © Movie Reviews UK 1997
This, Sergio Leone's last film, is a story spanning five decades and covering the entangled lives of two men, Noodles (Robert De Niro) and Max (James Woods). However, when this is refracted through the mechanisms of flash-backs, flash-forwards, dreams and memories the product is both extremely complex and very simple. Right from the beginning a high level of concentration is required - a woman walks into a room and finds that the lights don't work. Stumbling towards the bed, she is surprised by visitors, interrogated and shot with only the briefest explanation. Why? Without a soothing voice-over to guide us, we can only guess. Merciless gangsters seem to be after a man called Noodles, stopping at nothing in their quest. Somehow, he escapes to the railway station and freedom - where we come across the first, beautiful dissolve into another period. Suddenly, Noodles is old and the storyline slots into place.

In the second decade of the century a gang of Jewish childhood pals come together, forming friendships which will last forever. They all live on NYC's Lower East Side, an area steeped in gangsters, back-street dealing and corruption. These kids know how to play the game - rolling drunks, dallying in petty thieving and helping the big-boys. This isn't enough for Noodles and Max though - they dream of greater things and have the desire to get them. Moving onto big-time racketeering puts them into direct competition with the local crime boss - the only possible result is murder, portrayed graphically and stunningly. Noodles ends up in prison and the Prohibition becomes law - a ripe opportunity for making money, which the remains of the gang do. Jumping forward to Noodles release it turns out that there's a whole empire waiting for him (or, at least, a part share of it).

All of this build-up is shown in an almost balletic way - swooping shots, twirling romance and the rhythmical beat of life. Vivid sequences of robbery, murder, rape and torture stud the lives of Max and Noodles - so close to each other that they could be brothers, that hate and love can be the same thing. Oscillating between 1921, 1933 and 1968, Noodles reflects on his actions, lives those moments and grows-up towards those events. The tremendous power of the storyline is such that although individual scenes may be unclear, the entire narrative is never lost, providing a solid backbone. The motivations of the 'old' Noodles can be felt throughout - the guilt, betrayal and unswerving honour. These are the classic themes which Leone weaves into a rich tapestry.

The numbing length of this masterpiece causes two problems - it's impossible to summarise more than a fraction of the plot and most people probably won't want to attempt such an epic in the first place. But rest assured, almost every scene is necessary and once you start watching you just won't want to stop! The film casts a magical spell - a combination of superb photography, a captivating (and clever) score and mostly excellent acting. A special point concerns the wonderful ways in which the film moves between time-frames, such as a smooth dissolve when gazing into a mirror, the sudden appearance of a Frisbee and the filtering in of The Beatles' "Yesterday" onto the soundtrack. Once Upon a Time in America is a standard-bearer for the gangster film genre, enhanced by the touch of Leone and the chance to show a lifetime in detail (without having to fit it into 120 minutes).

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