Once Upon a Time in America (Two-Disc Special Edition)

Product Description:
Movie DVD

Amazon.com essential video:
This movie has a checkered history, having been chopped from itsoriginal 227-minute director's cut to 139 minutes for its U.S. release. This longer edition benefits from having the complete story (the short version has huge gaps) about turn-of-the-century Jewish immigrants in America finding their way into lives of crime, as told in flashback by an aging Jewish gangster named Noodles (Robert De Niro). On the other hand, it's almost four hours long, and this sometimes-indulgent Sergio Leone film is no Godfather. Still, it is notable for the contrast between Leone's elegiac take on the gangster film and his occasional explosive action, as well as for the mix of the stoic, inexpressive De Niro and the hyperactive James Woods as his lifelong friend and rival. --Marshall Fine

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Customer Reviews

Rating: - Leone's "Godfather" Version, And About As Good
This Godfather-type film was done by Sergio Leone, of spaghetti-western fame, so you know you will see and experience several of his trademarks. Namely: (1) a lot of facial closeups; (2) some slow-motion or slow-moving dramatic scenes; (3) good overall photography and (4) a unique soundtrack.

The period sets here are magnificent. You get a real feel of the time, whether it's 1910, 1933 or 1967. The colors are awash in blacks, browns and grays and the DVD brings all these out very well, ... Read More
Rating: - Once Upon a Time in an Editing Room...
This movie is almost 5 hours long.For most movies, a running time half of that is pushing it.I fell asleep at some point in the film.At which point?I have no idea, because the movie flip-flops all over the place.For example, after having watched the movie I had no idea that Noodles' girl in Florida poolside is the same one murdered in the first scene...until I read some Amazon reviews here.It's hard to follow.

But...there are a lot of great scenes.My friends and I were screaming ... Read More
Rating: - De Niro and Woods deliver the best performances in a remarkable cast...
Leone's most ambitious epic moves across three separate time periods: the twenties, the thirties and the late sixties...

It starts in 1933, with the murder of a woman after merciless gangsters have briefly interrogate her (while Noodles hides out in an opium den), then returns to the disastrous night of the bloody betrayal, then jumps to Noodles' return to New York in 1968, then shifts back to the early 1920s to their adolescence... This display in a series of flashbacks and flash-forwards is ... Read More
Rating: - Spagetti Director
This is one of a number of Sergio Leone movies. I love them all, this I found almost by mistake after "Once upon a time in the West". The other movies he did with Clint Eastwood, as far as I'm concerned are classic gold. One indicator of how good this "Once upon a time in America" is,,,it came out in 1984, still cost 22 buck and I paid shipping.
Rating: - Brilliant masterpiece
I remember watching this movie as a young girl on HBO. Through the rose colored glasses of youth I watched and was awed and completely mesmerized by the story unfolding. Not until I purchased this film recently did I really see the movie for what it really was. The most beautiful part of the film is the music score by Ennio Morricone. Hauntingly tragic music that helps keep the movie moving. I really wish the ending had been different. But overall the movie is still stirring and definately gave Martin Scorsese ... Read More