Once Upon a Time in America
1984 · Directed by Sergio Leone
Original language: English
- drama
- crime
The story
A former Prohibition-era Jewish gangster returns to the Lower East Side of Manhattan over thirty years later, where he once again must confront the ghosts and regrets of his old life.
What it’s like
Amber-brown interiors, deep shadow and smoky haze give way to cold, bleached-out exteriors of 1930s and 1960s Manhattan, and Sergio Leone's camera moves with the slow, sweeping patience of his Westerns: long tracking shots through crowded tenements, rooftops and empty streets, and a recurring sense of time folding back on itself. Ennio Morricone's score is wistful and mournful, with a saxophone-and-strings melancholy that swells over quiet, lingering scenes. The pace is deliberate and often languid, with long silences and sudden jolts of violence that land hard and brief. Its register is elegiac and bittersweet, a slow tide of regret and lost friendship. Expect brutal, unflinching violence, including a rape and sexual abuse depicted on screen, along with shootings and deaths that carry real weight. This is a long, heavy film for patient viewers who want a melancholy, nostalgic crime epic, best watched late at night or on a reflective evening rather than as light background viewing.
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