Rating: 
Summary: A Miracle
Review: To put it briefly is to put it best:Once Upon a Time in America is a miracle. In the "long" version, it is a great film--heartbreaking,insightful, and haunting. DeNiro's reticent, meditative character is absorbing. Leone and five other Italian writers composed this story about immigrant Jews on the Lower East Side who become gangsters stretching from the teens to the 60s. It is told largely by gesture, by expression, in the way movies should be made. Leone's microscopic alertness and patience to the unfolding of character in wordless scenes is stunning. Imagine six American writers doing the same about life in Mussolini Rome, say, in the 30s. Impossible. This should be on DVD and I do hope this happens soon; meanwhile, you can catch it on Direct TV at least once a month. You won't forget it.
Rating:
Summary: Landmark In History
Review: Almost 20 years have passed since Leone's gangster epic was first brought to our screens back in 1983. It's gritty realism and devoted marriage to cinema has yet to lose one shred of its impact and bravery of a time now gone, and will be as strong today as it truly ever will. After 16 years in the making, Leone along with his 322 page script set out to make what was to be his final masterpiece. Set over 4 decades in the Jewish district of New York, the film follows the deacy of five friends, Noodles, Max, Cockeye, Patsy and Dominic, and opens with a visually exciting entrance that will send shivers down your rewind finger. From here on in we are introduced into thier way of life and as the movie slowly unfolds, thier greed for more pulsates into a manic frenzy sending the film into a violent turn into the corruption of society. With a spot-on cast and a sharply written script, the near 4 hours it runs for is a healthy documentry into film-making. 1989 saw the death of Leone and the birth of the Director's Cut (the one to watch). A True Landmark in Cinema History!
Rating:
Summary: GODHEAD
Review: A POETIC THOUGHTFUL PIECE OF GENIUS. FORGET PRETTY MUCH EVERYTHING HOLLYWOOD DISHES UP AT THE MOMENT AND GO BACK TO WHEN THEY MADE GEMS LIKE THIS. INCREDIBLE CAST - ESPECIALLY JAMES WOODS. MUSIC THAT MAKES YOU HEART MELT. AND A STORY THAT GRIPES YOU ON SO MANY LEVELS THAT YOU FEEL YOU'VE LIVED IT BY THE TIME THE CREDITS ROLL. OPERATIC. ONLY SEE THE LONG VERSION.
Rating:
Summary: Best Film Ever Made
Review: I have watched this film over and over and I have enjoyed it every time. It evokes many emotions, both joyful and dark. The actors/actresses from DeNiro, to Woods, to Elizabeth McGovern, to Tuesday Weld do an unbelievable job and the young Scott Tyler (Noodles) was brilliant. The epic nature of this film is enhanced by the magnificent flashbacks. The storyline is compelling linking organized crime to the trucking industry and then to government and probably more true than not. If only some of the films produced today were as well done.
Rating:
Summary: Fabulous
Review: Next to the GodFather I & II, this is the best film I've ever seen. I might even say that it's better than the Godfather series. ... I bought the two VHS tape set of it and have watched it many times. It's one of the few movies I can watch over and over and never get tired of it. I can only hope that it is released on DVD soon! If you like the Godfather and/or the Sopranos, you'll love "Once Upon A Time in America".
Rating:
Summary: #1 Movie in my top 10 list
Review: Even though this movie did not get rave reviews and get all the attention that other movies of 1984 did this has got to be the best movie ever. The main reason that it did not go over well with the critics or get nominated at the Oscars is all the stink that was made when the director refused to cut the movie down from it's original length (over six hours) down to 2 1/2 hours. I have seen both versions and I have to say that too much is left out of the cut down version. The first time I saw it was on one of the movie channel on cable and did not know that they were showing the directors cut. I could not leave the movie, I ended up staying up until the wee small hours of the morning, but from that point on it has been my favorite all time movies.
Rating:
Summary: The greatest movie ever!
Review: What a movie! I saw it for the first time in 1985, when i was 15.
It caught my attention in so many ways.First of all the fantastic performances of Robert de Niro,James Woods and all the other great actors.Although there is some graphic violance in it
it is also full of beautiful,sentimental and melancholic moments.
Thanks to the fantastic score by Ennio Morricone(His greatest work,I think),you will never forget this movie.It's unbelievable,that this film didn't win a single academy award.Watch it several times,and you will experience it in all it's glory.Thank you Mr.Leone!
Rating: 
Summary: You'll love to hate it
Review: Excellent custumes and sets. Great music score, actors, cinemaphotograhy. Weak, plodding script confuses length of a scene with character development. This is not the formula for a enjoyable movie. Ultimately, this is a boring film. As I was watching this movie for the first time ever, I kept thinking that the only reason this movie is highly regarded is because it reminisces the era of the people who made it. Imagine all of the old Jewish men who immigrated to this country to become powerful businessmen. Some did it legally, some took the criminal track. Imagine if they could sip on a scotch in a dark room and reminisce wistfully back on their lives and all of their struggles. That's who this movie is for. But it doesn't translate on sceen to anybody else. Good movies have universal appeal to almost any group of people. This doesn't. I can't help feeling left out with the forced drama and frustrated by the misplaced, unnatural, over-emoted acting. Extending a dramatic scene with the music score ebbing back and forth only got me angrier. The whole rythym of the movie is off. And the end is so ridiculous, that me and my wife laughed til we cried at the sheer absurdity of it. But it all depends on your state of mind when watching it. Make sure you have plenty of time on your hands. Draw the curtains. And don't forget your glass of scotch. Just pick another film to watch.
Rating:
Summary: Simply, a great movie.
Review: Once Upon A Time In America is not a movie for those who only appreciate mindless entertainment. You have to think while watching this movie. Powerful and well acted this is a movie you'll watch again and again. The story, the majority of which is set in the New York of the 1920's, is a compelling tale about friendship, gangs, jewish immigrants and ultimately, betrayal. Robert DeNiro, I believe, gives his finest performance as the taciturn Noodles, who is setup by his friend and leader of the gang, Max (James Woods). Every actor in this movie gives a compelling performance. Especially so are those by the child actors who portray the main characters in their formative years and lay the ground work for the main body of the story (the gangs graduation from petty crime to running booze during prohibition). The music of Ennio Morricone should have won an Academy Award for the soundtrack, but the Ladd Company, producers of the movie, couldn't be bothered with submitting it to the Academy for consideration. Other decisions by this sorry production group doomed the movie to be a financial disaster at the box office, despite its story, music, sets and acting. But be warned: this is not a movie for the great unwashed. If you think that movies by the likes of Tom Cruise or The Rock are examples of great storytelling, pass this one up.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent Film!
Review: Once upon a time in 1984 the director Sergio Leone made his version of a gangster film which in my opinion greatly contrasts the works of cinematic extrimists like Copolla and Scorcese. The movies like "Casino", "Goodfellas" and even "Godfather" are filled with mindless gore, super realism and depressing violence. OUTIA is a film that also has violence, sex, gore, but above all it has emotion and a fairy-tale-like realism which balances all these elements. In fact this movie is like a fairy-tale and yet it is real. The cast and the music are unbelievable. In my opinion both versions of this movie are great.
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