Once
Upon a Time in America is a 1984 Italian epic crime film co-written and
directed by Sergio Leone and starring Robert De Niro and James Woods. It
chronicles the lives of Jewish ghetto youths who rise to prominence in New York
City's world of organized crime. The film explores themes of childhood
friendships, love, lust, greed, betrayal, loss, broken relationships, and the
rise of mobsters in American society.
Leone
adapted the story from the novel The Hoods, written by Harry Grey, while
filming Once Upon a Time in the West. The film went through various casting
developments and production issues before filming began in 1982.
The
original version by the director was 269 minutes (4 hours and 29 minutes) long,
but when the film premièred out of competition at the 1984 Cannes Film
Festival, Leone had cut it down to 229 minutes (3 hours and 49 minutes) to
appease the distributors. This was the version that was to be shown in European
cinemas. However, for the US release on June 1, 1984, Once Upon a Time in
America was edited down even further to 139 minutes (2 hours and 19 minutes) by
the studio and against the director's wishes. In this short version, the
flashback narrative was also changed, by re-editing the scenes in chronological
order. Leone was reportedly heartbroken by the American cut, and never made
another film before his death in 1989.
In
March 2011, it was announced that the original 269 minutes version was to be
re-created by a film lab in Italy under the supervision of Leone's children,
who have acquired the Italian distribution rights, and the film's original
sound editor, Fausto Ancillai, for a premiere in 2012 at either the Cannes Film
Festival or the Venice Film Festival. The new restoration of the film premiered
at the 2012 Cannes Film Festival, but due to unforeseen rights issues for the
deleted scenes, the film's new restoration actually ended up being 245 minutes.
However, Martin Scorsese (whose Film Foundation helped with the film's
restoration), stated that he is helping Leone's children get the rights to the
final 24 minutes of deleted scenes to make a complete version of Leone's
original 269 minute version.
IMDB
mark: 8.4/10
Director:
Sergio Leone
Stars:
Robert De Niro, James Woods and Elizabeth McGovern
Trailer:
Pictures:
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