Once Upon a Time in America
| Once Upon a Time in America | |
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Theatrical release poster by Tom Jung
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| Directed by | Sergio Leone |
| Produced by | Arnon Milchan |
| Screenplay by |
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| Based on |
The Hoods by Harry Grey |
| Starring | |
| Music by | Ennio Morricone |
| Cinematography | Tonino Delli Colli |
| Edited by | Nino Baragli |
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Production
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Release date
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Running time
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229 minutes (European release) 139 minutes (US release) 251 min (extended director's cut) |
| Country |
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| Language | English |
| Budget | $30 million |
| Box office | $5.3 million |
| Once Upon a Time in America | ||
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| Soundtrack album by Ennio Morricone | ||
| Released | June 1, 1984 October 17, 1995 (Special Edition) |
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| Recorded | December 1983 | |
| Studio | Forum Studios, Rome | |
| Genre | Contemporary classical | |
| Label | Mercury Records | |
| Producer | Ennio Morricone | |
| Special Edition cover | ||
1995 Special Edition
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Once Upon a Time in America is a 1984 Italian-American epic crime drama film co-written and directed by Italian filmmaker Sergio Leone and starring Robert De Niro and James Woods. Based on Harry Grey's novel The Hoods, 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.
It was the final film of Leone's career and the first feature film he had directed in 13 years. The cinematography was by Tonino Delli Colli, and the film score by Ennio Morricone.
Leone originally envisaged two three-hour films, then a single 269-minute version, but was convinced by distributors to shorten it to 229 minutes. The American distributors, The Ladd Company, further shortened it to 139 minutes, and rearranged the scenes into chronological order, without Leone's involvement. The shortened version was a critical and commercial flop in the United States, and critics who had seen both versions harshly condemned the changes that were made. The original "European cut" has remained a critical favorite and frequently appears in lists of the greatest gangster films of all time.
The film is presented in non-chronological order, from 1920 to 1968, and it is largely told through flashbacks from the viewpoint of one person. The specific scenes and their order vary from version to version. The following description is that of the film's full European cut.
The film begins in medias res with gangsters entering an Indonesian puppet theater, looking for a marked man. The proprietors slip into a hidden opium den and warn a man named "Noodles", but he pays no attention. In a flashback, he watches the police remove three disfigured corpses from a street. He successfully kills one of the three thugs that are after him but learns that the thugs have murdered his girlfriend while looking for him and finds that someone else has stolen his money. He leaves the city.
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Wikipedia