Once Upon a Time in America

Sergio Leone, who reinvented the gunslinger genre in spaghetti westerns like The Good, The Bad and the Ugly, only directed one film in the fifteen years before his death. That would be this Prohibition-era drama, but in many ways the perfect capstone to his career, blending the spirits of Goodfellas and Great Expectations with one of his own vengeance-laden Western morality tales. Robert De Niro and James Woods star as two childhood friends who rise together in the world of New York’s Jewish street gangs; De Niro’s acting is particularly strong, maintaining a sad dignity for most of the film in spite of his character being stuck with the name “Noodles.” America does have some glaring flaws, including a plot twist that erases any goodwill De Niro might have earned, and a final act that’s soap-opera nonsense. But it’s still a worthy film, and this DVD is especially welcome for being the uncut four-hour director’s cut—once upon a time, the only Once Upon a Time in America in America was a version more than 90 minutes shorter and nearly incomprehensible.