Wednesday, October 7, 2009

1984: Once Upon a Time in America (Sergio Leone)

Released: June 1, 1984 (U.S.)

a.k.a.:
C'era una volta in America

Director:
Sergio Leone; Screenplay: Leonardo Benvenuti, Piero De Bernardi, Enrico Medioli, Franco Arcalli, Sergio Leone, and Stuart Kaminsky based on the novel “The Hoods” by Harry Grey; Cinematography: Tonino Delli Colli; Studio: Warner Bros.; Producer: Arnon Milchan; Music: Ennio Morricone

Cast: Robert De Niro (David “Noodles” Aaronson), James Woods (Max Bercovicz and Christopher Bailey), Elizabeth McGovern (adult Deborah Gelly), Jennifer Connolly (young Deborah Gelly), James Hayden (Patrick “Patsy” Goldberg), William Forsythe (Philip “Cockeye” Stein), Tuesday Weld (Carol), Larry Rapp (Moe “Fats” Gelly), Joe Pesci (Frankie Minaldi), Treat Williams (James Conway O’Donnell), James Russo (Bugsy), Amy Ryder (Peggy), Burt Young (Joe Minaldi), Danny Aiello (Police Chief Vincent Aiello), Noah Mozelli (Dominic)

- “But it went bad for him, and it went bad for me too…”

It has always been funny to me how Italian director Sergio Leone, a man whose name is synonymous with the term “spaghetti western,” would make his final statement in cinema by crafting a New York City gangster film centered on Jewish hoodlums. I don’t know which part of that statement makes me laugh more. That the man who made the classic Man With No Name Trilogy and the incredible western epic Once Upon a Time in the West, comes back in the 1980s and arguably trumps every movie he ever made – and does so with something far different from the westerns he was acclaimed for. Or even funnier might be the fact that here is a man from the country where the stereotypical “gangster,” as personified in The Godfather films, hailed from. It would only be natural to assume that he would follow a similar route in depicting a large, powerful Italian-American crime syndicate. Instead, Leone chose to focus on a tight-knit foursome of Jewish hoodlums as they grew up in Lower Manhattan and maneuvered to stay relevant in the underworld.

Leone quickly drops you right into the story, as early in the film there is a brutal torture-murder, showing that former gangster Noodles Aaronson (Robert De Niro) is on the run from somebody. Precisely who or what has summoned Noodles back to New York is unknown, but the viewer is quickly drawn into the mystery, finding out the details at the same time that Noodles himself does. As Noodles returns to his old haunts on the Lower East Side, he begins to fondly look back upon his childhood in the area and remember the core group of friends that he grew up with. As a kid, he and his friends began as a wannabes rolling drunks at a nearby bar. Soon they began to work their way up even higher, doing favors for local gangster bigwigs by helping them hide bootleg liquor shipments from the coast guard. This increase in local status comes at the expense of other neighborhood tough guys, resulting in trouble for the young gang. After a fight with one such neighborhood tough, one of Noodles’ pals is killed while Noodles himself is sent to prison.


When he emerges from jail as a man years later, Noodles finds his pal Max (James Woods) waiting for him. He quickly comes to learn that his old gang – Max, Patsy (James Hayden), and Cockeye (William Forsythe) – is riding high and making a killing during Prohibition. They are now major players in the underworld, even making alliances with powerful Italian gangs. Noodles’ life is still complicated, though. His lover affair with a childhood friend Deborah (Elizabeth McGovern) doesn’t work, resulting in his appalling rape of her before saying goodbye. Meanwhile, as Max hungers to move the gang into respectable white collar rackets, Noodles longs for nothing more than the easygoing status quo. As he says, he likes the stench of the streets. When Max begins to hatch a scheme to hit Fort Knox for one big final score, Noodles thinks his friend might be losing his mind. Rather than go through with participation in the heist, Noodles instead tips off police in order to catch his pals before they get hurt. Unfortunately, all three are killed in the ensuing battle over the robbery.

Or are they? Long after, when Noodles has left New York and abandoned his life of crime, he begins receiving mysterious letters and messages from someone that appears to have knowledge of his past. Noodles is drawn back to the city to investigate and makes a discovery that seems miraculous to him. There is a highly influential politician named Christopher Bailey that bears an uncanny resemblance to Max.


This synopsis overly simplifies the entire story and leaves many supplementary subplots and characters out. The film really has to be seen in its entirety in order to take in how huge and epic in scope it is. For many folks this is not an easy film to love. Even when I watched it for the first time in high school I was a little put off by the pacing of the first third of the film. Based on the topic of the story and director at the helm, I suppose I was expecting something along the lines of The Good, the Bad and the Ugly meets The Public Enemy. It's certainly not that. The early pacing, where many people are put off from the film, is actually now a favorite of mine. I love the depiction of the early lives of the kids growing up in the slums of Manhattan. It makes them very endearing personalities, so that you actually care what happens to them when you see them grow into men. There are truly touching scenes in these early sections, such as when Patsy buys a cupcake in order to lure favors from a promiscuous neighborhood girl. While waiting for her to come out, the temptation of the treat is too much for him to resist. He tries to placate himself simply to taking a swipe of the icing. When that doesn’t suffice, he goes for the cherry. When that too is not enough, he ends up furiously consuming the entire thing.

The other thing that works incredibly well for a movie of this length is how true everyone seems to stay to the personalities they exhibit as kids. When Noodles emerges from jail, the grown-up versions of his pals seem like I would have expected based on how they acted as children. Max sees himself as the leader and brains of the gang, always wanting to feel in charge. Noodles is the right hand man, possibly even the true power, but is content to take a step back and let Max play the big boss. Patsy is the suave, young-looking ladies man. Cockeye is the loyal bulldog. Just as they were as kids fighting their way up to overtake the dreaded Bugsy.


There are also scenes that are just incredibly powerful. In particular I am always struck by the scene in which the childhood gang is hunted down by Bugsy (James Russo) and the young Dominic is shot and killed (Noah Mozelli). Even more striking for me are the final scenes in the film, as an aged, graying Noodles travels to the mansion of Christopher Bailey to try and unravel this puzzle that he finds himself in. When he comes face to face with Bailey, who clearly has to be his old pal Max, it is one of the most gripping scenes I’ve ever seen. It’s downright sad. Noodles tells to the story to “Bailey” about what happened – about how he turned in a friend in order to save him – and it feels like someone finally being able to say goodbye to a longtime friend. It ranks among my favorite scenes of all time from any movie.


An interesting topic I at least want to address is a theory that has been proposed by some that the older version of Noodles returning to New York is actually a fantasy. It is interesting and not something that should be quickly dismissed. The thing that makes it so intriguing is that the movie both opens and ends in 1933, in the same location – Noodles at an opium den shortly after having called the cops on his gang. The hypothesis then is that in this drug-induced haze, Noodles begins to reminisce about his past and dream about a possible future. There has never been any definitive proof one way or the other, although it is said that Leone himself at one point endorsed such an interpretation. I don’t know of any way to prove or disprove it, but I think that the story works much better when it is thought of this way. It explains how it is that something as preposterous as a high profile gangster like Max could fake his death and then recreate himself as a public figure, all the while maintaining the exact same physical appearance. It also helps to explain how it is that Noodles’s love interest, Deborah, miraculously never ages throughout the entire film, a time frame spanning some 30 years. This could be a result of Noodles imagining her as he wants to remember her. And it would seem to validate the reasoning for beginning and ending the film with Noodles getting high in an opium den in the ‘30s. I's not essential to read the film this way, but this is my own take on it. Fortunately, it works quite well either way, reading it as a dream or literally.

I also cannot go the entire review without acknowledging the extraordinary score from Ennio Morricone. Everything that the man ever did was brilliant, but a strong argument can be made that his score here is the finest work he ever produced. Personally, I slightly prefer the music of Once Upon a Time in the West, but it would be hard to imagine this film eliciting the same response from viewers without Morricone’s contribution. The music perfectly fits the mood, which is what Morricone did best.

Rating: 10/10

Other Contenders for 1984: This was an outstanding year in cinema. There are a number of films that would be contenders in any year and that I actually prefer to winners in many other years of this countdown. The standout among the runners-up for me is Milos Forman’s Amadeus. I love everything about it – the sets, the costumes, the characters, and yes, the music. A great film and one that I can’t believe is being left out of the countdown, but that is how it goes. Other outstanding films from this year are: Blood Simple (Coen Brothers), Broadway Danny Rose (Woody Allen), The Killing Fields (Roland Joffe), Paris, Texas (Wim Wenders) and Stranger Than Paradise (Jim Jarmusch).

13 comments:

  1. Well, Dave, I have to go with “Amadeus”, one of Milos Foreman’s two best films (the being Cuckoo’s Nest). I believe I placed this film around number 9 or 10 on my best 1980’s list over at WitD. I have to admit Leone’s work did not even make my top 25 and that is a regrettable oversight on my part, I don’t know what I was thinking. I am a constant list maker yet I hate making list because I am usually never satisfied with how I rank everything. On any given day, rankings can change and to tell the truth ranking a film 21 or 22 is so subjective that it is of little value. Anyway, I am starting to babble.


    “I love the depiction of the early lives of the kids growing up in the slums of Manhattan. It makes them very endearing personalities, so that you actually care what happens to them when you see them grow into men. There are truly touching scenes in these early sections, such as when Patsy buys a cupcake in order to lure favors from a promiscuous neighborhood girl. While waiting for her to come out, the temptation of the treat is too much for him to resist. He tries to placate himself simply to taking a swipe of the icing. When that doesn’t suffice, he goes for the cherry. When that too is not enough, he ends up furiously consuming the entire thing.”

    This is a great description of one of my favorite scenes in the film. Leone does an amazing job if depicting this time in NYC. And as you mention Morricone’s score is perfect for the mood of the film, one of the great film composers needless to say.

    Another well thought out and enjoyable review.

    #1 Amadeus

    Runner-ups in no order

    Once Upon a Time in America
    A Soldier’s Story
    Blood Simple
    Beverly Hills Cop
    1984
    Broadway Danny Rose
    The Killing Fields
    Stranger Than Paradise

    ReplyDelete
  2. I do agree with both of you, Dave and John, on the greatness of Foreman's AMADEUS, and it's a strong runner-up which pushes very close to the top spot. But in the end, I fully support Dave's #1 choice. It's one of the greatest of epic films, an elegiac masterpiece which as Dave notes is not a film that's easy to love on initial viewing. Morricone's score is one of the greatest ever written in the history of the cinema, and more than any other element in this film it fuels the emotional response. The theme piece is electrifying.

    Dave, you make some excellent, valid points here:

    "The film really has to be seen in its entirety in order to take in how huge and epic in scope it is. For many folks this is not an easy film to love. Even when I watched it for the first time in high school I was a little put off by the pacing of the first third of the film. Based on the topic of the story and director at the helm, I suppose I was expecting something along the lines of The Good, the Bad and the Ugly meets The Public Enemy. It's certainly not that."

    My Own #1 Film of 1984:

    Once Upon A Time in America (Leone, USA)

    Runners-Up:

    Amadeus (Foreman, USA)
    Carmen (Rosi, Spain/France)
    Heimat (Reitz, West Germany)
    La Femme Publique (Zulawski, France)
    Colonel Redl (Szabo, Hungary)
    Blood Simple (Coens, USA)
    Stop Making Sense (Demme, USA)
    Stranger Than Paradise (Jarmusch, USA)
    Broadway Danny Rose (Allen, USA)

    ReplyDelete
  3. Dave, I regret to report that I haven't seen Once Upon A Time in America at full length. I guess I was put off by its troubled reputation. But would it have been more weird if Leone ended his career with the story he was supposedly working on when he died, about the 900 day siege of Leningrad during World War II?

    Anyway, with that important caveat in mind my top five are Blood Simple, Under the Volcano (John Huston begins his strong stretch run), Amadeus, Ghostbusters (one of the best pop comedies of modern times)and Spielberg's underrated sequel, Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom.

    ReplyDelete
  4. John, I can't argue with the selection of Amadeus. It's such an incredible film and I would certainly rate it the best that Foreman ever made (although I've never been a big fan of Cuckoo's Nest)

    Sam - I had a feeling this would be your selection. I assume that you easily consider this Leone's best?

    Samuel - Definitely check this out. The only version I've ever seen is this "full length" one (although there are rumors of there actually once being an even longer version). It might start slow or be hard to get into, but once I was drawn into the story I was completely hooked. I actually have not seen Under the Volcano, but I agree with you that Huston finished his career strong.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Nice review of an outstanding cinematic achievement. I felt the movie wouldn't have been as powerful without its epic length and its melancholic tone. Every frame is filled with a sort of deep sense of nostalgia & sadness - a deep craving to return to the days lost to the mists of time. The sort of elegiac tone that the Coens' too used brilliantly in No Country for Old Men.

    Robert De Niro was extremely effective even though the role here was miles apart from his more legendary turns in the likes of Taxi Driver & Raging Bull - principally because he has given such a restrained and nuanced turn. And James Woods' volatile turn might have formed the template that Joe Pecci used with iconic effect in his volcanic turn in Goodfellas.

    By the way, I wasn't aware of the theory that you mentioned about the older version of Noodles being a fantasy. Thats an interesting thought indeed!

    ReplyDelete
  6. Shubhajit - The opium theory certainly makes your rethink events in the film, doesn't it? :) As Sam and I discussed at WitD, the theory might not necessarily incorporate every detail into it, but we both agreed that it improves the film narratively to look at it that way. I personally buy it and think the theory works, although as I said it's not essential to enjoying the movie.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Haven't seen this one. My favorites of 1984:

    Stranger Than Paradise (Jarmusch)
    Where The Green Ants Dream (Herzog)
    Broadway Danny Rose (Allen)
    Love Streams (Cassavetes)
    Ballad Of The Little Soldier (Herzog)

    ReplyDelete
  8. just another film buff - Excellent choices there. I too love Broadway Danny Rose (and just about all of 80s Woody Allen).

    Definitely check out Once Upon a Time if you get the chance. It's long, it might take some effort to enjoy, but it's definitely worth it.

    ReplyDelete
  9. An odd, often enticing picture, which I saw as a result of Allan's countdown. My thoughts are over there, on that thread.

    My pick would be Stranger Than Paradise; though I don't think of myself as a Jarmusch fan, this film burns (slowly) with style.

    ReplyDelete
  10. once movie is a romantic musical drama features the story of a young guy who works part-time helping his father run a small, vacuum cleaner repair business, nice movie I wanted to watch it so I made
    once movie download
    into my pc.

    ReplyDelete
  11. I thoroughly enjoyed Once Upon a Time in America. I have seen it over and over, and tried to make some sense out of the end of the movie, but could never quite be able to put it all together. Now that I read this review and I can see clearly it was an opium-enduced dream, thats the only way you can make sense of the last half. Everyone in the movie was spectacular....especially Robert DeNiro and James Woods. I loved the haunting music throughout the movie and the love song of Amapola played when he sees his childhood sweetheart as a grown woman. It is up there with my favorite movies...along with The Deer Hunter and The Killing Fields. I have a hard time to decide which is the winner of the three, but I am leaning towards Once Upon A Time In America.....I just loved it!

    ReplyDelete
  12. This is a good,but flawed movie. Why? Because of the vicious rape by Noodles on Deborah, which is NOT in the book. The infamous bank raid scene where Noodles indulges in very rough public sex with Carol is laughable, because to my knowledge none of the real life gangsters would actually have contemplated such a deed.

    They were too busy trying to get any cash available, and then leave the premises preferably alive....

    Leone admitted the film was a fantasy, and not true to real life. Even so,extreme sexual violence in films cannot be justified unless it is central to the plot, like "Monster" which does portray the effect of such events with ghastly consequences.

    ReplyDelete
  13. The film is about relationships; the many years Noodles spends away from his friends receive only a cursory mention. The film, like life and memories, unfolds slowly and reflectively.

    ReplyDelete