Once Upon a Time in America
(1984)

Country: Italy, USA

Genre: Crime, Drama

Synopsis

A group of Jewish ghetto youths grow up to become gangsters in New York City's world of organized crime during the Prohibition era.

Notes

• Directed and co-written by the Italian filmmaker Sergio Leone (1929-1989), this was the third film in Leone's 'Once Upon a Time' Trilogy of historical epics, preceded by "C'era una volta il West" ("Once Upon a Time in the West", 1968) and "Gi? la testa" ("Duck, You Sucker", 1971).
• There are several different versions of this movie. Leone was persuaded to reduce his original 269 minute version to 229 minutes - this latter 'European' release was the version shown internationally. However, the American distributors, The Ladd Company, further shortened the film to 139 minutes, cutting many scenes (including making major cuts to the childhood scenes), and rearranging the scenes into chronological order, all without Leone's involvement. The European version has been released on DVD and blu-ray, and a 251-minute 'Extended Director's Cut', partly restoring the cuts that Leone agreed to his original version, was released on a two-disc Blu-ray and DVD (some missing minutes still could not be restored due to rights issues). The American cut was a critical and commercial flop, but the European version and Extended Director's Cut have been widely acclaimed as masterpieces.

Reviews and Other Resources

• Watch the Original US Trailer on YouTube