Italian director Sergio Leone returned to the screen after a 12-year absence, and the result is this ambitious, sprawling, insightful, frustrating, and ultimately challenging gangster film. Its structure is incredibly complex, flashing back and forth from the 20s to the 30s, to the 60s,
basically following a group of Jewish boys who meet in the 1920s on Manhattan's Lower East Side. The story concentrates on the mercurial, borderline psychotic Max (James Woods) and Noodles (Robert De Niro), who has loved Deborah (Elizabeth McGovern) since they were children. The gang is virtually
destroyed in 1933, but Noodles escapes and goes into hiding for 35 years, returning to New York in 1968 after receiving a mystifying letter. Though it's a confusing movie that has sparked debate and criticism, ONCE UPON A TIME IN AMERICA is visually stunning, rich in detail, and filled with
outstanding performances.
