Review of Once Upon a Time in America (1984) by Brad Z — 18 Sep 2009

An absolutely beautiful cinema experience. This movie does absolutely everything a gangster movie has the capacity to do and does it at least a little better than all the others. No other gangster movie is as real as "Once Upon a Time". Not only is it an incredibly in-depth character examination of disturbingly realistic men and boys, it's also won of the most wonderfully filmed movies I've ever seen. Rivals the Seventh Seal in terms of stunning cinemetography. To go along with beautiful imagery, we also get one of the greatest scores ever. At least rivaling Morricone's earlier work in other Leone movies, this score is definitely the best film score to feature a pan flute. Leone's last film is his undeniably his most complete and greatest.

DeNiro gets all the acting glory in this movie, but James Woods is a revelation, no to mention an intense performance from Tuesday Weld and a nice cameo from Burt Young. Elizabeth McGovern, however, is one of the few flaws in this movie. She's just not involving at all. Jennifer Connelly, who plays McGovern's 12 year old counterpart, totally outshines McGovern in her first film role. Besides Liz though, no missteps in the acting department.

When I first saw this movie, I had just read The Great Gatsby about a month prior and didn't care for it much. I felt that the core idea, stirving to be good enough for the woman you love, was nice, but the characters were uninteresting and I would have rather have seen the story unfold from Gatsby's perspective. DeNiro's character in Once Upon a Time in America has the same goal as Gatsby, but his character is far deeper and much more devastating in his quest for the love that he believes would save him. His plight in this movie is one of the most heartbreaking in all the history of film. The depths of longing and dreaming have never been explored as poiniantly as in Once Upon a Time in America. My absolute favorite movie.

10/10.