It is a bit of a jumble coming out of an opium dream. This most affects the opening, which is an extended action sequence told with the expressionism of a silent film and the nihilism of post-war Italian neorealism. But they also restructured the film, cutting the flashbacks-within-flashbacks to present the story chronologically. financial backers, The Ladd Company, founded by actor Alan Ladd’s son, cut 90 minutes from the already-edited film, bringing it to two hours and 19 minutes. But American audiences saw an even more butchered cut in 1984. After the initial run, he planned to edit the two parts down for a general release which would run as one four-hour and 29-minute film.įilm distributors convinced Leone to release a “Director’s Cut” feature at a running time of 3 hours and 49-minutes, with no intermission, which was the version shown at the 1984 Cannes Film Festival (Martin Scorsese led the push to restore the original version, which was shown at Cannes in 2012, though it’s still missing 18 minutes). Leone’s original vision for the film was two 180-minute motion pictures which would be shown on consecutive days. He wanted to put it out in two parts, much like the initial saga of The Godfather was extended into a sequel. The truth is, Leone did have up to 10 hours of finished cinematic material, which he cut down to six hours. How Long is Too Long for Once Upon a Time in America? Pop culture history makes it sound like Once Upon a Time in America had a short version that ran 10 hours and a long version that ran a week. It is not shown regularly on any kind of broadcast channel, and even the film’s own producers thought it was too long for people to sit through. For one thing, Leone’s film has never been as accessible. It’s true, even the most devoted gangster fan and cinephile doesn’t watch Once Upon a Time in America as often as The Godfather, and it’s got Robert De Niro at his most gangta. I don’t think I have ever seen the film so clear, and it is a perennial to me, as is The Godfather.
The version which is right now available on Netflix has been amazingly restored by Italy’s Bologna Cinematheque L’Immagine Ritrovata lab. It tells a full history, from childhood to old age, street hustles to political suicides, community toilets to opium dens. Sergio Leone’s Once Upon a Time in America is as epic as The Godfather, gorier than Goodfellas, and as streetwise as Mean Streets.
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