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Critics Consensus: 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.
Critic Consensus: 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.
All Critics (50) | Top Critics (13) | Fresh (43) | Rotten (7) | DVD (10)
The movie's four hours long, but no one had the time to write a single real character.
This would-be epic schlep, dragging almost 50 years of chronology over a sluggish 140 minutes, is far too slight of text and ponderous of presentation to sustain more than nodding-off dramatic interest.
Adding 22 minutes only enhances Leone's brilliant saga of guilt and betrayal
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.
Complex gangster epic has strong violence, sex.
A tale of haunting introspection, unremitting power and potent symbolism. "America" ruminates on the corrosive effects of greed, violence, objectification and pain, and forces us to face despicable acts of a stand-in for our nation's worst impulses.
While Sergio Leone's "Once Upon a Time in America" is not quite the masterpiece that some make it out to be due to its excess, there are still plenty of things to recommend about it.
The film, photographed by Tonino Delli Colli, is striking to look at, especially its New York street scenes, which were shot in Manhattan, Montreal and a back lot near Rome. The acting is stunning.
Just gasp at the scale, at the immaculate period reconstruction and at that incredible opening with its endlessly ringing phone.
A striking tale of loyalty, love, friendship and ambition, Once Upon A Time is a work of technical beauty and sombre emotion.
Available now in its four-hour director's cut, Leone's supreme masterpiece is a magnificent epic - superbly directed, full of fantastic performances and with a beautiful story of friendship and betrayal that culminates in a profoundly moving, achingly sad ending.
Super Reviewer
It's hard to judge this masterpiece when thinking about Coppola and Scorsese's more well known gangster flicks or even to compare it to Leone's earlier westerns. It's unlike any other of his films as far pacing, energy etc. On the other hand, it is a truly epic, amazing look at the life of two individuals. The detail and deepness to the story is great.
"Once Upon a Time in America" is a stunning, lengthy, and novel-esque narration of three pivotal years (1922, 1933, and 1967) in the lives of two Jewish New York Gang members, Noodles and Max. The non-linear depiction of events, the brilliant imagery, the soundtrack, and amazing acting on behalf of Robert De Niro and James Woods make this film perfect, and it honestly defies categorization. "Once.." is not merely a gangster tale, but is more like a Dickens' novel in the vein of David Copperfield or Great Expectations. Every minute of its nearly 5 hours of duration is worth it, and one feels disappointed that the tale is told when the credits role. I could not possibly more highly rate a film, and I believe that it is as rewarding, entertaining, and fulfilling as any novel can be, and it should be elevated to a much higher regard. 89 percent simply doesn't cut it. 100 percent does. Find 5 hours during a dark night to ABSORB this masterpiece and don't you dare miss as single minute of it.
A haunting, powerful, compelling, superbly-acted, visually beautiful and bold film from Sergio Leone. One of Robert De Niro's greatest performances as well. This crime epic is not only one of my favourites of the 1980s, it is in my top 5 favourite films of all-time.
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