ONCE UPON A TIME IN AMERICA directed by Sergio Leone (Italy/USA, 1984)
Set in the criminal world during the era of prohibition, the full version of this movie stands up besides Martin Scorsese’s great works of the 70s and 80s and is often regarded, a little misleadingly, as a companion piece to Francis Ford Coppola’s Godfather trilogy.
Yet the fact that the film required eight official screenwriters (including Leone who didn’t speak English!) is illustrative of its troubled birth and the problems persisted long after it was completed.
Given his esteemed track record, it is astonishing that Sergio Leone didn’t have full control of his work. The bum deal he signed meant that he could do nothing about the savage cuts to his original 229-minute version.
The producers decreed in their infinite lack of wisdom that a convoluted plot spanning four decades was a non starter in commercial terms.
Probably the absence of respect for this great Italian director was partly due to the fact that his ‘spaghetti westerns’ were not taken seriously. Even Robert De Niro admitted he wasn’t familiar with these movies when he was first approached to play the lead role as David “Noodles” Aaronson. Continue reading
