Once Upon a Time in America

 

Once Upon a Time in America is a film famous for its production issues as it is for its quality. Originally intended to be a six hour epic charting the lives of four Jewish gangsters, the American production company cut down Leone’s film to 139 minutes, and edited the film so the story was told chronologically. In contrast, the European cut was closer to four hours. Almost 100 minutes longer than the American version. As a result, the American cut was a failure whilst the European film was celebrated as a masterpiece.

Once Upon a Time in America has everything going for it. The period detail is immaculate, never before has New York been impeccably created in four different decades. The city’s changes are noticeable over the four decades the film is set. Its fascinating to see how the city changes from the days of horse and carriage to the roaring twenties and thirties where crime and bootlegging infests the city. Yet, the city has always been the same. It’s grimy and gritty and gangsters conducted their business and beatings in broad daylight whilst the public walked nonchalantly by.

The make up is sensational, the costumes brilliant, production design exceptional and music glorious (though the choice of Yesterday is a tad odd). All this immaculate detail allows you to be swallowed up by this world and the story of four Jewish gangsters. It’s the ideal recipe to dive into this story, fully immersed as the perfect design and eye-popping attention to detail serves as a perfect way to make the whole period and the entire city feel alive and make it feel you are living in New York in the same decades this film spans. All this makes the opening hour so enticing.

The set up as to why Noodles (Robert De Niro) would betray his friends is a perfect starting point, and over the course of the next 3 hours the reason for this will become clear. We embark on this journey way back in the 1910-20s where Noodles was just a kid, with his eye on Deborah, engaging in petty crime to make ends meet. It’s here the film is best, we engage with the young hoodlums, who despite their pretty crime, still have a childish nature (best exemplified when Patsy chooses the cupcake over sex) that makes then endearing. The death of the youngest member is devastating, but becomes the film’s only genuinely sad moment.

All the positives beg the question as to why it didn’t quite work for me. I felt distance to the main characters and the only emotional moment was the death of the youngest gang member. The longer the film goes on the more despicable Noodles becomes. The more unemphatic and distasteful he becomes the less engaging the film becomes because I feel the film wants to you empathise with him. However, the horridly graphic and needlessly overlong rape of the woman he supposedly loves leaves a very nasty taste for the rest of the film.

All Noodles interactions with women are negative (his parents are never seen). One is a prostitute, the other is a ‘she wanted it the whole the time’ type and other he rapes. You get the idea this is his only experience of sex and thinks this is how it works, and women are only commodities. This attitude sort of seeps into the film as the only women with speaking roles are either prostitutes, raped or have some wired fetish. Because of the change in climate and culture in Hollywood, this is perhaps a little more of a sensitive subject and becomes problematic as Leone’s goal is to make you empathise with Noodles and ultimately damages the film when viewed from a recent perceptive.

It’s not that I need a film to moralise and highlight rape is wrong, but Leone doesn’t really care for the victim (women have often received a raw deal in his films). It seems more focused on the impact on Noodles who, in his later years, reflects and regrets how his past life of crime has yielded very little in the way of happiness. The performances are all brilliant. De Niro almost makes his character sympathetic, but the way Noodles was written and his later actions make this impossible. It’s a shame really that the film’s grossest moment isn’t even highlighted when Noodles reflects on his unhappy life of unfulfilled potential.