Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!burl!ulysses!allegra!mit-eddie!godot!ima!ISM780!chris From: chris@ISM780.UUCP Newsgroups: net.movies Subject: Once Upon A Time In America (long) Message-ID: <13@ISM780.UUCP> Date: Fri, 30-Nov-84 00:14:56 EST Article-I.D.: ISM780.13 Posted: Fri Nov 30 00:14:56 1984 Date-Received: Sat, 1-Dec-84 06:46:53 EST Lines: 121 Nf-ID: #N:ISM780:18000037:000:6546 Nf-From: ISM780!chris Nov 28 20:08:00 1984 Once Upon A Time In America Sergio Leone has produced an interesting, infuriating, and ultimately disapointing work this time around. It is the flip side of his 1968 film "Once Upon A Time In The West". Where "Once Upon A Time In The West" is his celebration of all the american westerns he saw as a kid, "Once Upon A Time In America" is his celebration of all the gangster movies he absorbed. They are very similar in many ways: They are both long (West 2:45, America 3:45), They are both american icons seen through an italian sensibility, They both have good bad guys and bad bad guys, They both try to by mythic. The problem is that one works and the other doesn't. "Once Upon A Time In The West" is a masterpiece. It is one of the two movies that i wanted to see again as soon as it was over ("Seven Samurai" is the other). Images from it stayed with me for weeks after i saw it. (I still duck under the table when someone plays the harmonica. If you saw the film, you know why) It was one of the most satisfying films i have ever seen. "Once Upon A Time In America" tries for many of the same ambitions, but it falls short. The film follows a group of friends from their beginnings as kiddy gangsters to the strange places they end up when they are old. The story is told as a very intricate set of flashbacks/flashforwards that happen in three different time periods. The story moves from period to period and tells the story sideways. This is a little odd, but not incomprehensible. The first time period occurs around 1919. The major characters are played by teenage actors. The second time period is 1933, and is played by De Niro et al. The third period is 1968 and is played by De Niro et al trying to look old. The young actors that play the young characters are nothing short of amazing. I am usually disapointed by the kids that play young versions of actors, but this time the resemblance is nothing short of phenominal. The actor who plays a young De Niro has a career. He does a better De Niro than De Niro does. The characters made up to look old is much less convincing, their hands give them away completely. I kept having the thought that if the actors would wash all that makeup off, they would be much more comfortable. The closest i can get to giving my reaction to the film as a whole it is to say that the movie succeeds in the small, and fails in the large. I was never once bored during the whole four and a half hours (yup, a 30 minute intermission). There are scenes that are absolutely rivetting. But when it is over there is this lingering disatisfaction with it. The ending in particular isn't as high voltage as it is supposed to be. The final shot is interesting, but it doesn't have much to do with the story. I feel like there was a big buildup for a climax that never came. I think the problem lies in two different places. One is the script. The coming confrontation is built up to, but it doesn't have that sense of inevitability that is necessary in these things. In "Once Upon A Time In The West", everything in the entire movie is done to cause the final confrontation. When Harmonica and Frank circle each other, waiting to slap leather, they seem to be the personification of warring forces. The fight is literally bigger than they are. The ending of "America" has no such feel to it. It looks like all the characters could just walk away from it and go have a drink together. The impact is underwhelming. The other problem is De Niro. He is a very capable actor, but we never get to see why Noodles does the things he does. He always looks half bemused by it all. In fact the kid who plays young Noodles brings much more intensity to the role. When young Noodles knifes Mugsy to death, the kid has a very convincing berserk fury. A fourteen year old with a switchblade and guts kills a twentyfive year old killer with a gun. The scene is devastating. When De Niro blasts the guy who tortures Fat Moe the only thing shocking is the gore. We need to see why Noodles does things, not just what he does. For Leone fans, i can report that most of the director's bag of tricks show up. We get the giant glowing eyes shot, we get the ultra slow pacing (in places) and we get the female singer crooning during the emotional scenes. It isn't very violent for a Leone film, but that still translates to about 36 dead people during the course of the film. There is one way that time and changing mores have helped Leone. In "West", he had to be content with showing the tops of Claudia Cardinale's breasts. There is still a chilling love scene, but Henry Fonda is the reason it works. In "America", Leone shows us everything, in some very strange and sometimes very erotic shots. I'm sure that Leone enjoys the freedom to show more of the human body. This does bring one major Leone problem into the limelight. Leone films have a lot of violence against women in them. It is usually part of the plot, but there is a lot of it. In "America" he has two scenes that disturb a lot of people. They both involve violent sex. One is a not quite a rape during a jewelery robbery. The other is acquaintance rape in a car. Both scenes are very graphic and frightening instead of erotic. There is justification of sorts for why all this happens, but it isn't as if the plot depends on it. I support the right of a film maker to do whatever the film demands, but i think Leone has a very bad attitude towards women, and wish he would find other ways of propelling his plots forward. Leone doesn't seem to feel that his films attack women. After all, only three women are abused, and about 35 guys die in various ways. His nonviolent sex scenes are good enough that he really could get by without the rapes. The version I saw (at the Plitt in Century City) purports to be the original version shown in New York. One reviewer said that several minutes of sex and violence had been trimmed. What was left worries my about what was cut out. The version that toured the country in the spring and summer was cut down and straightened out into a linear plot. I don't know if this is going to show anywhere else. The place was pretty packed, but this is LA after all. This isn't a must see film. If you like Sergio Leone you will probably like this one, but this isn't a good place to start. Petition your local theater to get the long version of "Once Upon A Time In The West", and see that instead. chris decvax!vortex!ism780!chris decvax!cca!ima!ism780!chris