Once Upon A Time In America

Any movie with Robert De Niro is a good movie to me. One of the most versatile and prolific actors of our times, RDN is that likable guy, whether he's a good guy or a bad guy.

I picked this movie up off of the library shelf, not knowing the movie, but seeing RDN's picture on the front cover. It's an older movie, came out in 1984. There will probably be a 25th anniversary silver screen edition coming out next year. Oh, well.

The movie has a cast of well known actors including James Woods, who seems to have dedicated his life to Disney movies, Elizabeth McGovern, who put out some great movies early in her career (Ordinary People, Ragtime, Racing With the Moon), Treat Williams, Joe F'in Pesci, Danny Aiello, and Burt Young (Adrian's brother Paulie in Rocky).

The movie is set to several time spans. Much of the beginning of the movie is set in the early 1900's as RDN's character Noodles is growing up. There he becomes friends with Max (Woods) and they begin doing odd jobs for the local mafia. They finally make it big during Prohibition with a method for retrieving cases of alcohol that are dumped overboard in the river.

Meanwhile, Noodles is in love with McGovern's character Deborah. As a kid, he is often shown peeking at her while she dances and at one point she undresses knowing he is watching through the peephole. There's another racy scene of them in the bathroom, keeping in mind, they are both still young teenagers. The movie has been criticized for its use of underage sex. However, the imagery is appropriate.

As they grew older, they got more involved in the mafia, crime, and politics. The movie ties it all together and shows how they got where they are, all in dramatic fashion.

There was a lot of controversy surrounding this film, in addition to the sexual imagery. The movie was made by Italian producer Sergio Leone, best known for his 'spaghetti westerns' such as Fistfull of Dollars, For A Few Dollars More, and The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly. However, the original cut when released at the Cannes Festival was 3 hours and 49 minutes. Warner Brothers demanded that the movie be cut dramatically for its cinematic debut. The movie lost 90 minutes, mostly of the ground-setting flashback scenes. In addition, the original version of the movie is non-sequential. The cinematic release is in chronological order, allowing the movie to lose much of its relevance.

It did take me much of my life to watch the entire movie. Actually it took about a week and half worth of ironing clothes at night to see the whole movie. However, I thoroughly enjoyed it. I give this movie 5 stars. I think that this is one that everyone should see at least once in their lifetime. And they did a great job of predicting what RDN would look like when he gets old. As I was watching it, I thought 'how did they get the old De Niro in the movie? Oh, yeah, that's makeup.'