Once Upon a Time in America (1984)
Average Rating: 8.4/10
Reviews Counted: 38
Fresh: 33 | Rotten: 5
Sergio Leone's epic crime drama is visually stunning, stylistically bold, and emotionally haunting, and filled with great performances from the likes of Robert De Niro and James Woods.
Average Rating: 7.4/10
Critic Reviews: 9
Fresh: 6 | Rotten: 3
Sergio Leone's epic crime drama is visually stunning, stylistically bold, and emotionally haunting, and filled with great performances from the likes of Robert De Niro and James Woods.
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Average Rating: 4.2/5
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Movie Info
Though some viewers might be put off by its length, graphic violence, and absence of likable characters, Sergio Leone's final film is also a cinematic masterpiece. Spanning four decades, the film tells the story of David "Noodles" Aaronson (Robert De Niro) and his Jewish pals, chronicling their childhoods on New York's Lower East Side in the 1920s, through their gangster careers in the 1930s, and culminating in Noodles' 1968 return to New York from self-imposed exile, at which time he learns the
Jun 1, 1984 Wide
Jun 10, 2003
Warner Home Video
Watch It Now
Cast
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Robert De Niro
David "Noodles" Aaronso... -
James Woods
Max -
Elizabeth McGovern
Deborah -
Treat Williams
Jimmy O'Donnell -
Tuesday Weld
Carol -
Burt Young
Joe -
Joe Pesci
Frankie Monaldi -
Danny Aiello
Police Chief Aiello -
William Forsythe
Cockeye -
James P. Hayden
Patsy -
Darlanne Fluegel
Eve -
Larry Rapp
Fat Moe -
Amy Ryder
Peggy -
Scott Tiler
Young Noodles -
Rusty Jacobs
David Max's son, Young ... -
Jennifer Connelly
Young Deborah -
Adrian Curran
Young Cockeye -
Brian Bloom
Young Patsy -
Julie Cohen
Young Peggy -
Noah Moazezi
Dominic -
James Russo
Bugsy -
Karen Shallo
Mrs. Aiello -
Mario Brega
Mandy -
Richard Bright
Chicken Joe -
Clem Caserta
Al Capuano -
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Joey Faye
Adorable Old Man -
Richard Foronjy
Whitey -
Frank Gio
Beefy -
Baxter Harris
Reporter -
Estelle Harris
Peggy's Mother -
Paul Herman
Monkey -
Olga Karlatos
Woman in the Puppet The... -
Marcia Jean Kurtz
Max's Mother -
Dutch Miller
Van Linden -
Gerard Murphy
Crowning -
Jerry Strivelli
Johnny Capuano -
Richard Zobel
Reporter -
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Cliff Cudney
Mounted Policeman -
Sergio Leone
Ticket Agent -
Arnon Milchan
Chauffeur -
Angelo Florio
Willie the Ape -
Bruno Iannone
Thug -
Marvin Scott
Interviewer -
Ray Dittrich
Trigger -
Paul Farentino
2nd Mounted Policeman -
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Linda Ipanema
Nurse Thompson -
Robert Harper
Sharkey -
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All Critics (38) | Top Critics (9) | Fresh (38) | Rotten (5) | DVD (30)
Sergio Leone's languid, lovely and lengthy ode to Lower East Side mobsters (more specifically, mobster films) ...
Leone is less interested in arousing an audience's easier emotions than in presenting, at a dispassionate distance, the horror of two men warily walking toward each other on a tightrope suspended above the snake pit of their , deepest compulsions.
Every gesture is immediate, and every gesture seems eternal.
A disappointment of considerable proportions.
While Leone's vision still has a magnificent sweep, the film finally subsides to an emotional core that is sombre, even elegiac, and which centres on a man who is bent and broken by time, and finally left with nothing but an impotent sadness.
Top CriticThere are times when we don't understand exactly what is happening, but never a time when we don't feel confidence in the film's narrative.
Here was a filmmaker who specialized in pure, blistering images, and this operatic earthiness just doesn't play as well as the horrifying, salacious stuff.
Sad and vast yet compelling throughout, this remain Leone's most towering achievement.
Handsomely mounted beyond a shadow of a doubt, but as the final statement in Leone's career, it mostly makes me think of how fantastic his Westerns were.
While The Godfather delivers certainty and a comforting dramatic resolution, Once Upon A Time In America delivers a profound kind of mystery.
In a post The Godfather world, for Leone to even consider taking on an epically scoped New York gangster film took tremendous courage if not foolishness, Coppola had set the bar at an impossible height.
Spaghetti western master Sergio Leone turns his eye toward an American gangster epic spanning 50 years with surprisingly positive results.
Sergio Leone's cut is wonderful! Avoid the butchered theatrical version unleashed in the U.S.--I actually walked out on that indecipherable mess.
Hugely complex, achingly sad and splendidly gorgeous.
Pure cinematic bliss.
Sergio Leone's swan song is an undisputed masterpeice, a self-reflexive crime-gangster epic with towering performances from De Niro and Tuesday Weld.
Haunting, thematically complex.
Audience Reviews for Once Upon a Time in America
Super Reviewer
Super Reviewer
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- Sharkey: You ever think of setting yourselves up in business? All those trucks used to haul liquor, soon be selling them for nothing. I'm talking about hundreds of vehicles controlled by a national organization. And supported by a powerful union headed by Jimmy. Whatever you ask, there's no way he can turn you down.
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- Cockeye: Newspaper guys never know what the fuck they want.
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- Young Peggy: You better stop squeezing me or I'm gonna poop in my pants!
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- Young Noodles: You'll put up and you'll shut up! You hear nothing, and you see nothing! Just like you did for Bugsy!
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- Max: Being inside can change you. I'd already made the deal with Frankie to get rid of Joe. With a man like Frankie Minaldi you don't say yes, and then no. I could not take the chance that you'd change your mind. You understand.
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- Carol: He laughs at you. He makes fun of you. He says Eve has got you by the balls. Every time you walk past this place, you shit in your pants. You'd do anything for the cops to pick you up, so you wouldn't have to do this. Well then, do it. Do it! Put him in jail. Put him in jail. Not long, just long enough so he can get the idea out of his mind. If you can't stand being away from him, put yourself there too. Better off than being dead. You know what to do. And if you don't, I will.
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Foreign Titles
- Es war einmal in Amerika (DE)
- Il était une fois en Amérique (FR)

