Once Upon a Time in America
Composite Score: 83.37
Starring: Robert De Niro, James Woods, Elizabeth McGovern, Tuesday Weld, Joe Pesci, Burt Young, Danny Aiello, William Forsythe, James Hayden, and Larry Rapp
Director: Sergio Leone
Writers: Leonardo Benvenuti, Piero De Bernardi, Enrico Medioli, Franco Arcalli, Franco Ferrini, and Sergio Leone
Genres: Crime, Drama, Epic
MPAA Rating: R
Box Office: $5.47 million worldwide
Why should you Watch This Film?
Once Upon a Time in America is Sergio Leone’s gangster epic based on Harry Grey’s novel The Hoods. The film follows a Jewish street urchin and his friends who grow up into small time gangsters in the Lower East Side before tragedy befalls them and his return thirty-five years later when his past resurfaces. The film stars Robert De Niro as “Noodles”, the film’s central figure, and also features James Woods, William Forsythe, and James Hayden as his compatriots and Elizabeth McGovern as his doomed love interest. The film’s exploration of childhood, poverty, and crime and its consequences together with its unique narrative structure and strong acting has made it a classic in the crime genre.
Why shouldn’t you Watch This Film?
While most crime films do not have particularly redeemable protagonists, Once Upon a Time in America might take the cake for most openly reprehensible antihero. Over the course of the film, Noodles commits multiple rapes and assaults, exhibits a complete lack of ambition, and sells his friends out to the police – not a particularly lovable rogue by anyone’s standard. While the film doesn’t ever seek to turn him into a tragic hero or anything, his is the only story that ever gets any kind of major play, making him the focus of the film. Again, it’s not even that the other crime movies have some kind of high moral character in their protagonists, but most of them at least have a sort of code or credo that they try to hold to, flawed though it may be. Noodles is simply in it for himself, desiring what he wants when he wants it and doing what he can to get it. (Also, this film is nearly four hours long, so take that how you will.)
So wait, why should you Watch This Film?
Depraved though its protagonist may be, Once Upon a Time in America does better than a lot of other crime films at never really glorifying the life of crime. Because of the way that Noodles’s story unfolds, we see how every major crime move (not the crimes of passion, just the hits and robberies) feels almost forced upon him by his friends and/or necessity. Even though he does some terrible things, his involvement in organized crime feels more like a victimization than a praiseworthy choice. From his first kill at the end of the film’s first act to his betrayal of his friends, Noodles walks down a path that other people seemingly choose for him with his only outlets for freedom coming in violent and criminal outbursts – the perpetrator is also the victim. Leone does a great job exploring the more societal issue of crime by condemning not only the acts of the individual but also the situations that resulted in his arrival at those choices.
In order to make such an exploration work, Leone needed a solid leading man to play Noodles, and Robert De Niro was an excellent choice here. De Niro is one of the best crime actors of all time, and in this film he pulls double duty as the hesitant and violent gangster in the late 1920s/early 1930s and as the elder retiree forced to confront his past in the 1960s. Playing two eras of the same character is a difficult feat to pull off, but De Niro manages it well, putting all the spark you could ask into the young Noodles, playing the standoffish lead well, and drawing upon a more reserved performance, plays the elder with a sense of resignation and remorse that moves the audience nearly to sympathy despite his checkered past.
Robert De Niro’s leading performance helps sell Sergio Leone’s message about the consequences of crime and the system that perpetuates it, making Once Upon a Time in America a film worthy of its place among the Greatest Films of All Time. Even with a very nearly unredeemable protagonist, the film’s messaging and performances help keep its story tragically redemptive. This film is currently available to stream with ads via Tubi and Plex or to rent on most other streaming services for those of you looking to watch it in the near future.
