What is DL's opinion of Once Upon A Time In America?

I watched it once and can't remember a damned thing about it! Once Upon a Time in the West is good enough for me.

It's a very complicated film. It's beautiful to look at, and the 4-hour cut is probably the most coherent. But the overall subject matter is very unpleasant and ugly. Murder, gore (multiple) rape, pedophilia, child-murder, and not a single character to root for. It doesn't hold up to repeated viewings -- I have to really be in the mood to see it.

How did I forget all of those crimes?

The 4 hour cut is a well made, engaging film, but...

(spoilers)

The two main female characters are violently raped by the main character, and the rapes don't seem to serve the story at all.

The 4-hour cut is one of my favorite films. Engaging, moving, brimming with nostalgia... love it! The soundtrack is gorgeous.

Everyone is in top form and Tuesday Weld should’ve been nominated in Supporting and won, goddammit!

Actually the four-hour cut is also worthy of a Best Picture Oscar nod and quite possibly win.

Now I’m considering pulling out my Blu-ray copy for a rewatch.

One man's crimes is another man's OPPORTUNITY!

It's one of the greatest gangster movies ever made, and, accordingly, pretty grim. Lots of plot; it covers decades. The rape scenes are particularly disturbing. Casting Elizabeth McGovern as an evil bitch was inspired.

12-year-old Jennifer Connelly's film debut; one of the rare "innocent" moments in the film (until Leone ruins it by having her character strip naked -- body double, of course)

It’s worth it

I loved it. I found it really engrossing and I didn't notice the time as much as I did with The Godfather movies.

Absolutely the best sound track I've ever purchased.

Two things I remember from the film: a long scene in an opium den where a phone is ringing...and ringing...and ringing. I remember yelling at the screen "somebody answer that damn phone!" and 2) young Brian Bloom as one of the principals as a boy, with those beautiful eyes.

I actually find the ending scene incredibly sad.

It definitely pulls on the heartstrings but not in an overwrought manner.

Thanks r14. You've sold me.

I think the film is ok but the soundtrack by Ennio Morricone is sublime.

I love Morricone's scores r16.

Jill's Theme is another favorite

"Hey, you watch it, now. And my prices, they've gone up. I work in a high-class joint now, and I get paid - by the pound!"

I absolutely love this movie. It made me want to move to New York so badly, which I finally did in the late 90ies. Yes, it is complicated but the long version is absolutely worth watching. The cut version is crap. It's too bad that Leone never got around to assemble a Director's cut with all the original scenes included in the right order.

r19 I don't think outside the US and a few other places there was ever the cut version being shown. In Europe, I think they always showed the original cut. Also good that it is part of a trilogy; for his regards little regarded Once Upon a Time... The Revolution. Once Upon A Time In… Hollywood is a homage and sort of also an epilogue, e.g. the movie poster also references it. I guess the Blu-ray and the DVD in commentary and extras and booklet will also pay homage to Leone's work. The oeuvre tells the story of the American century and the American Empire through the lens of a foreigner and an Italo-American, in Tarantino. Once Upon a Time in the West has been said to be Tarantino's favorite movie.

It’s a great feeling to stumble upon the street in Brooklyn where the movie was shot....guess where.

I loved it. Watched it several times. The long version is best.

Yes it's a great movie, but go in with the right expectations. This is not a kind of sober, realist, arthouse epic. It's very lurid, very violent, has some atrocious acting and dubbing, very kitsch-y at times, cartoonish. You have to embrace that and fall under its spell. The long version is the one to watch, but NOT the extra-long version in which they added extra scenes that Leone never intended.

Yes kitschy, sentimental, violent, cartoonish, like almost all Leone movies. The rape scene is hard to watch. The reaction of the driver when he is offered money is a great moment in the movie. But it really gets to the heart of what America is all about. And while some find the final scene unsatisfying I think it's a great conclusion (or non-conclusion).

DL Fave Brian Bloom ("Young Patsy") is a most delectable piece of chicken (he was 13 at the time).

R24, I found that ending devastating. It really is a great movie.