| Once Upon A Time In America |
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| Genre: | Drama |
| Year: | 1997 |
| Rating: | R |
| Length: | 3 Hours 49 Minutes |
| Cast: | Robert DiNiro, James Woods, Tuesday Weld, Joe Pesci |
| Credits: | Directed by Serio Leone |
Master of the spaghetti western, Sergio Leone turns his sights on Jewish mobsters in what turned out to be his final film, Once Upon a Time in America. Robert De Niro and James Woods star as best friends and partners in crime in New York City, and the three-and-a-half-hour epic flashes back from the '60s to follow their careers from boyhood to their rise and fall during the Prohibition era. Everything's larger than life here: Leone pulling out all the stops to tell a story on a grand scale, with lavish production design and costumes and a magnificently lush musical score by longtime collaborator, composer Ennio Morricone. An epic love story winds its way through the film as well, with Elizabeth McGovern costarring as the true love of one of the gangsters. Leone's flair for visual storytelling is on display throughout, and Once Upon a Time in America features some brilliant camera work and superbly choreographed violence. The film was originally released in a studio-shortened version that diluted its real grandeur; the restored version, however, is simply a masterpiece. Gregory Baird
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