Once Upon a Time in America

Pros: sets, music, visual compositions
Cons: demands patience, work (thought), and a strong stomach

Sergio Leone's final film (1983) "Once Upon a Time in America" is a film that polarizes viewers. Many of those who love cinema love it. Although it is a "genre picture" (species: gangster film), many of those looking for "popcorn movies" with heroes ...

Pros: cast, direction, plot
Cons: none

Director Sergio Leone's final film has been critiqued and debated-over since its release in 1984. Once Upon a Time in America is a multi-faceted piece, featuring a stellar cast. Taken from a novel by Harry Grey, the story chronicles the...

Pros: Gangsters, Gals, Gunplay, Cash, Classic Cars, Prohibition
Cons: Glacial pace, overlong, score does not fit the pictures

Once Upon a Time in America (1984) Sergio Leone made several films that have come down as winners, particularly the Clint Eastwood "Man with No Name" trilogy and Once Upon a Time in the West, spaghetti westerns all but his ...

Pros: Leone's Direction, Script, Cinematography, Look, Editing, Score, & Cast notably de Niro & Woods.
Cons: None Though its Length & Graphic Sex & Violence Aren't for Everyone.

The name of Italian director Sergio Leone is an iconic one in cinema. Whether it's the westerns he made with the Man-with-No-Name Trilogy of A Fistful of Dollars/For a Few Dollars More/The Good, the Bad, & the Ugly and the epic-western ...

Pros: Excellent direction and characters, evokes the beauty of violence and pain
Cons: four hours long, violent and vulgar content

A forewarning: this is a violent and vulgar review of a violent and vulgar film. Sergio Leone's classic gangster masterpiece "Once Upon a Time in America" takes us on an epic biographical voyage of the life of a Jewish Gangster named Noodles ...

Pros: Great acting, beautiful direction, superb score
Cons: Flawed plot, four hours long

I’ve loved this movie since I was a child. I was about 12, going through my so-called “Taxi Driver” ...

Pros: The direction; the acting; easily an inspiration to many of the genre.
Cons: If any, a long running length.

Once Upon a Time in America (1984) Robert De Niro as David 'Noodles' Aaronson James Woods as Max Bercovicz Elizabeth McGovern as Deborah Tuesday Weld as Carol Treat Williams as Jimmy O'Donnell William Forsythe as Cockeye James Hayden as Patsy ...

Pros: Great movie on every level.
Cons: Stupid DVD

Once Upon a Time in America is Sergio Leone's last movie. On the surface, it's a gangster epic, not unlike the Godfather, except it's about jewish gangsters and the film itself has the feel of long drug trip; Leone was a genius in the way he brings the ...

Pros: One of the Top 10 crime flicks of all time...
Cons: May be too intense for certain audiences...

Sergio Leone's crime saga is a twisted panoramic vision of the Jewish-American Dream. The tale of five tough Jewish kids on the Lower East Side of Manhattan brings us through their formative years, their rise to riches during Prohibition, their attempt...

Pros: cinematography, sets, direction, cast
Cons: lengthy, slowly paced, violence, rape

Legendary Italian director Sergio Leone made six important films during his career, five of which were westerns. The exception was his final film, Once Upon a Time in America, which instead explored the cinematic mythology of American organized...

Pros: Superb Direction Utterly moving score Flawless acting and cinematography
Cons: Too long for some Visual rape scene... Lack of likeable characters.

Betrayal, friendship, humor, shattered dreams, death, love, and regret. 'One Upon A Time In America' ...

Pros: music, childhood scenes
Cons: slow pacing, loses steam in second half

Upon its recent release on DVD, 'Once Upon a Time in America' is being re-examined (and examined for the first time, for despite Robert DeNiro's involvement, the casual movie buff has not heard of this film) by critics and non-critics alike. In the film' ...

Pros: Wonderful...cinematography, direction, acting, and a deeply satisfying screenplay.
Cons: The film often stumbles and falls into repetition.

By Max Scheinin.

Sergio Leone's Once Upon a Time in America, which is quite possibly the man's masterpiece and one of the most neglected films of the 80s, begins with several shocking acts of brutally forceful violence, and even in these...

Pros: Effective Camera Work. The Scenes depicting 1920's Manhattan are superb
Cons: Plot is vague. Conflict is not clearly defined.

I received this movie as a gift for Father's Day. Having a great interest in most movies that take place in New York City, and in crime genre movies in particular I looked forward to watching this film intently.

The first thing that struck my...

Pros: Variety
Cons: Must pay strict attention

I saw this movie for the first time on video a couple of years ago. Since than it has been on my list of favorite films. The structure of the film is somewhat confusing and I wouldn't recommend it for one with a short attention span. But for a true...