Rating: 
Summary: An Epic Classic
Review: While this movie certainly is violent (you don't watch this or the Godfather for comedy relief) the acting and the overall feel to the movie is absorbing to the point the feeling shared by the characters is also shared by the viewer. From bonding as children to betrayal as adults this film makes you feel as though you have a part in every scene, not often that happens anymore. Warning to adults: Not for children or anyone who finds nudity offensive.
Rating:
Summary: A great, forgotten film
Review: This is one of the great, forgotten films. It did poorly at the box office because it was cut from four hours to two and a half and at that length, it was impossible to follow. When it was finally released in its four hour version, most people did not see it because it had gotten such a bad reputation in its shorter release.
Although the subject matter is violent, portraying Jewish gangsters from their youths around the turn of the century to nearly present day, the mood of the film is quiet and sad. There is a scene in which Robert DiNiro goes through a door as a young man and emerges, many years later, as a broken old man. The music being played during this sequence is "Yesterday" by the Beatles. Nothing could have portrayed the passage of time in a more poignant manner.
I have seen the film many times and would buy the DVD in a second.
Rating:
Summary: Wow! Best movie ever made!
Review: What a movie!
Ik think its an absolute classic.
The story is great, the acting is superb, the length is awsome (3 hr. 45 min.).
Rating:
Summary: Once Upon a Time..
Review: What an excellent film - does anyone know why this isn't on DVD across the world? I had to buy mine from Brazil but I did get the 227 min version, now I know there is a 250 min version I can't wait. Fabulous performance and although slow in places builds to an excellent finish.
Rating: 
Summary: An excellent picture
Review: An excellent picture indeed with lots of flashbacks and Twists.
An epic tale about the Jewish mafia in N.Y.C. It all centers around 4 childhood freinds who got involved in the mob. DeNiro has an exhilerating performance. Also James Woods was great for supporting actor. Elizabeth Mcgovern plays DeNiros girlfriend.
Danny Aiello and William Forsythe have excellent performances that bring to the screen. Even Frank Millileto who is played by Joe Pesci does a brilliant job in Sergio Leones film.Director: Sergio Leone. Cast: Robert DeNiro,James Woods,Elizabeth Mcgovern,Joe Pesci,William Forsythe and Danny Aiello
Rating:
Summary: The short version does this movie no justice.
Review: I have seen the long version (223 minutes) of this movie in Japan and would insist that it is the only way to see it if you plan to appreciate the director's work and understand the story. It only earns my "5 Star" rating if it is seen as a complete motion picture. Any other shortend version is cheap, watered down, confusing, and sterile!
Rating:
Summary: Leone's failed masterpiece
Review: Many of you have seen this, you should watch it again. Once Upon a Time in America is about a two-bit punk who, in the closing days of Prohibition, rats on his gang to get out of making one last booze run. He feels guilty about his choice, but his guilt is worsened when a subsequent gunfight kills all of his friends instead of resulting in the short sentences he thought they would get. Devastated, he goes and smokes opium. The movie begins and ends there, it is the story of how this sadistic punk re-tells his life to himself to exonerate his role in this act. He romaticizes the past, stacks the deck against his friends in the present, and imagines a future where the "truth" of his innocence comes out. Leone fools you into believing the contemporary scenes are real just as the De Niro character fools himself - the transition is masterfully handled by using the Beatle song "Yesterday"; how can a man in 1933 imagine the lyrics to a hit song written 30 years later? He can't, but the details he fills in his mind are real enough to convince him, and they have to be the same to fool us (besides, the song is kind of unreal anyway). But notice in the movie how present-day New York never becomes a "place" like the beautiful rendering of turn-of-the-century Lower East Side. Leone confirmed this interpretation in an interview once. I believe this has to be one of the most inventive plots I have ever seen in a motion picture, not only is it about how punks and all of us with some punk in us romanticize ourselves, but how the American culture does the same to the gangsters and cowboys of our fiction. We demand flaws in our heroes, so we can explain them, and ourselves, away. But (and there's always a but), I consider myself a pretty film literate guy and had to sit through this about six times before I "got" it. All of which begs the question why would you sit through this five times without getting it - Leone is a masterful director, many of the scenes just crackle with energy and the acting is superb, I guess that would be why. But Leone is also a very indulgent director and all that is on display as well. His trademark choreographing of violence is way over the top here, scenes can ramble on in mock-comic tones shedding obsure points to a plot no one is getting, and the shear length can be numbing (don't bother with the shorter edited version though, it's not worth it). And for once Leone wanted to end a movie without a gunfight, and the results were weak at best. Still (another way of saying but) it is a masterpiece despite being a rough road. It was the movie Leone always wanted to make; the faults lie only in that he tried too hard to make it everything. You can almost hear Leone in the the little boy looking up and saying, "I slipped."
Rating:
Summary: Some news about a dvd form of this movie
Review: I wanted everyone to know that I've been searching the internet and there is a dvd of this title that is available in Brazil. I guess it is region free encoding and NTSC form so it might be worth searching for if you're really interested in the movie.
My own opinion of the movie is that it is really too long for its own good and doesn't develop the characters and some scenes as strongly as I think it should have. Still, the acting is top-notch (especially James Woods and the youngsters) and the scope of the movie is still pretty amazing.
Rating:
Summary: Another great Sergio
Review: Though Once Upon a Time in America departs from Sergio Leon'e traditional stlye of Italian Westerns, it still stands as a great movie. The movie follows the life of Jewish gangsters from childhood until adulthood giving great incites to the characters and helps to define the movie.
Rating:
Summary: A MIX OF GOODFELLAS WITH GODFATHER
Review: This is undoudoutbly one of my favourivite films of all times, wanting to see this film for some time, after seeing all the over classic gangsta films. This film didnt dissapoint, it had the story of godfather (but not so long) and the action at times of goodfellas. The athuencity of the clothes, cars, and buildings made me actually feel like I was in New york. The seens of young noodles et al as kids were unbelieveble, and the musical score was one of the best ever.De Niro was trully fantatsic. A MUST FOR ANY FOR ANY GANGSTA FAN WHO LOVES GODFATHER, GOODFELLAS, A BRONX TALE, CARLITOS WAY, AMONG OTHERS. A TRUE CLASSIC
| 
