---
product_id: 51818502
title: "Once Upon A Time In America"
price: "514 kr"
currency: NOK
in_stock: true
reviews_count: 13
url: https://www.desertcart.no/products/51818502-once-upon-a-time-in-america
store_origin: NO
region: Norway
---

# Once Upon A Time In America

**Price:** 514 kr
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- **What is this?** Once Upon A Time In America
- **How much does it cost?** 514 kr with free shipping
- **Is it available?** Yes, in stock and ready to ship
- **Where can I buy it?** [www.desertcart.no](https://www.desertcart.no/products/51818502-once-upon-a-time-in-america)

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## Description

Once Upon a Time in America has a chequered history, having been chopped from its original 229-minute director's cut to 139 minutes for its theatrical release. The longer edition presented here benefits from having the complete story (the short version has huge gaps) about turn-of-the-century Jewish immigrants in America finding their way into lives of crime, as told in flashback by an ageing Jewish gangster named Noodles (Robert De Niro). On the other hand, it's almost four hours long, and this sometimes-indulgent Sergio Leone film is no Godfather . Still, it is notable for the contrast between Leone's elegiac take on the gangster film and his occasional explosive action, as well as for the mix of the stoic, inexpressive De Niro and the hyperactive James Woods as his lifelong friend and rival. -- Marshall Fine Two boyhood friends grow up to become the kingpins of a prohibition-era criminal empire until their own greed and ambition cause their downfall. Based on Larry Grey's novel, "The Hoods."

Review: SERGIO VS THE STUDIO - This epic film rightly belongs at the top of the Gangster genre as does 'Once Upon A Time In The West' in the Western genre. Call Sergio Leone's final work boring, long, overrated, confusing, etc... then you've probably watched too many box office blockbusters; 'The Godfather' (the one with Brando) being one of them! Leone was offered the chance to direct 'The Godfather' and turned it down cos he didn't like the script and wanted to concentrate on this project. Upon release of OUATIA, Sergio went to war with the studio over his envisioned non-linear (229 minutes or more) version, and THEIR pointless, alternative 144 minute, short-linear-version (American audiences only). All this after many years in development. It was in Leone's mind before plans for 'Once Upon A Time In The West'(1969). Only after the release of the DVD in 2003, could american audiences see the full/better version. THEY also "forgot to enter Ennio Morricone's score" (for Academy Award); as producer Arnon Milchan says on the included DVD segment of 'Once Upon A Time: Sergio Leone'. What a crime! We Brits gave Ennio's score a BAFTA award in 1985 instead. TOO GOOD for an Oscar in my opinion! De Niro is excellent in his role as the gangster without glory. My favourite De Niro character is 'David "Noodles" Aaronson'. His definitive gangster role, along with young Vito Corleone in 'The Godfather Part 2'. Nevermind roles like Jimmy Conway in 'Goodfellas' or Johnny Boy in 'Mean Streets', this De Niro character is sly, thoughtful, and mysterious. Also some great career defining roles from James Woods, Tuesday Weld, Elizabeth McGovern (of Downton Abbey fame), Danny Aiello (excellent as police chief), and the younger actors playing the leads (great as little thugs). I thought a young Jennifer Connelly was excellent as the young Deborah (her first big screen role). I found this different from other gangster films. The authentic detail and photography gives you a feel of the period, especially in the 20's and 30's sections. You can almost smell the grime in various street locations, and admire the beauty in scenes like the restaurant where Noodles dines with Deborah and the breathtaking panoramic shot of the Williamsburg Bridge in Brooklyn with the young gang strolling in the foreground. The music also connects you to the period too. Another excellent, eclectic score from Mr Morricone. Violence is vulgar/obscene in this film and sometimes uncomfortable to watch, adding to the ugliness and meaning of the genre. The 'diamond robbery scene' and the 'raping of Deborah' an example. Not suitable for the squeamish types. Leone and De Niro were targeted by female members of the audience at the screening of the film at the 1984 'Cannes Film Festival' who said that the rape scenes were "blatant, gratuitous violence". Elizabeth McGovern's (Deborah) take on the situation was: "my scene didn't glamourise violent sex: it is extremely uncomfortable to watch and is meant to be.....he is making a GANGSTER FILM, and to a certain extent you can't make that kind of film unless you profile an extremely violent lifestyle". The DVD version has the inconvenient stop right after the wasting ("Kids Stuff"!) of Joe (Burt Young) and his gang, and not at the 'Intermission'. Did it spoil YOUR viewing? Either love it or loathe it, this film is without a doubt an excellent finale for one of the greatest, much missed film directors of all time! I was MOVED by this film and it is one of my all time faves! WELL DONE SERGIO! THIS FILM IS UGLY AND SMELLY AND THE CHARACTERS ARE NOT MEANT TO BE LIKEABLE! THE WAY A 'GANGSTER FILM' SHOULD BE!! "I didn't remake The Godfather. The stories and the anecdotes I tell aren't horses' heads bleeding on satin sheets! They are something much more complex and profound!!" Sergio Leone
Review: Four hours will never be better spent. - My oh my.There is a distinct polarisation of opinion of this film on the desertcart website.As you can see from the five stars i believe this is a truly great film, a classic ,a masterpiece.Yes it,s long, yes it,s slow, yes the lead characters are amoral thugs but none of this matters.This labyrinthine tale of Jewish gangsters subsides to an emotional core that is sombre and elgaic and ultimately moving.Those who don,t get it....well i suggest they consult a doctor because they may well have a lump of sandblasted tar instead of a heart. Sergio Leone,s interpretation of Harry Grey,s "The Hoods" takes an average pulp thriller and transforms it into a complex epic that slips easily between three time periods and gradually reveals a monumental betrayal.The genesis and evolution of the characters story is beleivable and though the fact that the screenplay was produced by Italians means the dialouge is occasionally clunky it,s never unrealistic or unintentionally humourous. Robert De Niro plays the adult "David "Noodles" Aaronson" who in one of the films lighter scenes(played by the child actors who potray the characters in their younger years , obviously) meets Max played by James Woods who quickly becomes fellow leader of the gang Noodles ran.Noodles has the hots for the daughter of the local bar owner, Deborah played by Jennifer Connelly, and it,s the dichotomy between Noodles deep friendship with Max and his love for Deborah that provide much of the films narrative momentum.The gang gradually progress to become criminals of some repute,most of which occurs while Noodles is in prison for kniving a rival gang leader, but they are still employed by a mob boss played by Joe Pesci to intervene in industrial disputes or murder fellow mobsters. Max has a fixation with robbing the federal reserve which Noodles knows is a scuicide mission,so in order to save his friend he turns them in to the police but the arrest goes horribly wrong and they all perish.Noodles is now alone and pursued by henchman of a vengeful mob boss. Wisely he decides to escape taking all the gangs ill gotten gains only to discover it,s all gone.He has no alternative but to leave town on the first bus out which goes to some back of beyond town where he spends the next thirty years.....until a letter arrives offering him money for one last job.Knowing they,ve found him he returns only to discover things are not what they seem. This is a sumptuous film,beautifully shot which looks great on DVD compared to my old grainy video copy.Leone,s trademark technique of lingering on characters faces is used extensively but all the actors are superb and carry it off easily,particually De Niro playing the old stooped Noodles.Some of the scenes as he visits old haunts and comes across old acquaintances are astonishingly poignant.Ennio Morricone,s extraordinary evocative score plays a major part in this.Apparantly it was played on set to help the actors find the right mood.It worked beautifully. Noodles is not a particually sympathetis character but his violent past clearly haunts him.His betrayal, his rape of Deborah when he realises she intends to leave him behind in her life,the men he killed all weigh heavily on his mind and its testimony to Leone that he manages to make the audience care about these misanthropic people. The complaints about the point at which the film cuts to the scond disc are fully justified.Whoever made this crass decision should be ashamed.The commentary by film critic Richard Shickel is a tad dull and at times a bit patronising but theres a doccumentary to add a bit more depth.But i buy DVD,s for the film and they don,t come better than "Once Upon a Time in America".Ignore the grumpys, this a terrific film and anyone who complains because the ending is ambiguous should really stick to Michael Bay movies."Once Upon a Time in America " is magnificent cinema.Peerless.

## Technical Specifications

| Specification | Value |
|---------------|-------|
| Contributor | Arnon Milchan, Burt Young, Danny Aiello, Elizabeth McGovern, Enrico Medioli, Franco Arcalli, James Woods, Larry Rapp, Leonardo Benvenuti, Nino Baragli, Piero De Bernardi, Robert De Niro, Sergio Leone, Tonino Delli Colli, Treat Williams, Tuesday Weld, William Forsythe Contributor Arnon Milchan, Burt Young, Danny Aiello, Elizabeth McGovern, Enrico Medioli, Franco Arcalli, James Woods, Larry Rapp, Leonardo Benvenuti, Nino Baragli, Piero De Bernardi, Robert De Niro, Sergio Leone, Tonino Delli Colli, Treat Williams, Tuesday Weld, William Forsythe See more |
| Customer Reviews | 4.6 out of 5 stars 3,934 Reviews |
| Format | PAL |
| Language | English, French |
| Manufacturer | Warner Bros. Home Ent. |
| Number of discs | 2 |
| Runtime | 3 hours and 38 minutes |

## Product Details

- **Colour:** Colour
- **Format:** PAL
- **Language:** English, French
- **Runtime:** 3 hours and 38 minutes

## Images

![Once Upon A Time In America - Image 1](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/61YqDK-b0XL.jpg)
![Once Upon A Time In America - Image 2](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/71FJKiVb2xL.jpg)

## Customer Reviews

### ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ SERGIO VS THE STUDIO
*by J***N on 27 November 2008*

This epic film rightly belongs at the top of the Gangster genre as does 'Once Upon A Time In The West' in the Western genre. Call Sergio Leone's final work boring, long, overrated, confusing, etc... then you've probably watched too many box office blockbusters; 'The Godfather' (the one with Brando) being one of them! Leone was offered the chance to direct 'The Godfather' and turned it down cos he didn't like the script and wanted to concentrate on this project. Upon release of OUATIA, Sergio went to war with the studio over his envisioned non-linear (229 minutes or more) version, and THEIR pointless, alternative 144 minute, short-linear-version (American audiences only). All this after many years in development. It was in Leone's mind before plans for 'Once Upon A Time In The West'(1969). Only after the release of the DVD in 2003, could american audiences see the full/better version. THEY also "forgot to enter Ennio Morricone's score" (for Academy Award); as producer Arnon Milchan says on the included DVD segment of 'Once Upon A Time: Sergio Leone'. What a crime! We Brits gave Ennio's score a BAFTA award in 1985 instead. TOO GOOD for an Oscar in my opinion! De Niro is excellent in his role as the gangster without glory. My favourite De Niro character is 'David "Noodles" Aaronson'. His definitive gangster role, along with young Vito Corleone in 'The Godfather Part 2'. Nevermind roles like Jimmy Conway in 'Goodfellas' or Johnny Boy in 'Mean Streets', this De Niro character is sly, thoughtful, and mysterious. Also some great career defining roles from James Woods, Tuesday Weld, Elizabeth McGovern (of Downton Abbey fame), Danny Aiello (excellent as police chief), and the younger actors playing the leads (great as little thugs). I thought a young Jennifer Connelly was excellent as the young Deborah (her first big screen role). I found this different from other gangster films. The authentic detail and photography gives you a feel of the period, especially in the 20's and 30's sections. You can almost smell the grime in various street locations, and admire the beauty in scenes like the restaurant where Noodles dines with Deborah and the breathtaking panoramic shot of the Williamsburg Bridge in Brooklyn with the young gang strolling in the foreground. The music also connects you to the period too. Another excellent, eclectic score from Mr Morricone. Violence is vulgar/obscene in this film and sometimes uncomfortable to watch, adding to the ugliness and meaning of the genre. The 'diamond robbery scene' and the 'raping of Deborah' an example. Not suitable for the squeamish types. Leone and De Niro were targeted by female members of the audience at the screening of the film at the 1984 'Cannes Film Festival' who said that the rape scenes were "blatant, gratuitous violence". Elizabeth McGovern's (Deborah) take on the situation was: "my scene didn't glamourise violent sex: it is extremely uncomfortable to watch and is meant to be.....he is making a GANGSTER FILM, and to a certain extent you can't make that kind of film unless you profile an extremely violent lifestyle". The DVD version has the inconvenient stop right after the wasting ("Kids Stuff"!) of Joe (Burt Young) and his gang, and not at the 'Intermission'. Did it spoil YOUR viewing? Either love it or loathe it, this film is without a doubt an excellent finale for one of the greatest, much missed film directors of all time! I was MOVED by this film and it is one of my all time faves! WELL DONE SERGIO! THIS FILM IS UGLY AND SMELLY AND THE CHARACTERS ARE NOT MEANT TO BE LIKEABLE! THE WAY A 'GANGSTER FILM' SHOULD BE!! "I didn't remake The Godfather. The stories and the anecdotes I tell aren't horses' heads bleeding on satin sheets! They are something much more complex and profound!!" Sergio Leone

### ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Four hours will never be better spent.
*by R***E on 4 February 2004*

My oh my.There is a distinct polarisation of opinion of this film on the Amazon website.As you can see from the five stars i believe this is a truly great film, a classic ,a masterpiece.Yes it,s long, yes it,s slow, yes the lead characters are amoral thugs but none of this matters.This labyrinthine tale of Jewish gangsters subsides to an emotional core that is sombre and elgaic and ultimately moving.Those who don,t get it....well i suggest they consult a doctor because they may well have a lump of sandblasted tar instead of a heart. Sergio Leone,s interpretation of Harry Grey,s "The Hoods" takes an average pulp thriller and transforms it into a complex epic that slips easily between three time periods and gradually reveals a monumental betrayal.The genesis and evolution of the characters story is beleivable and though the fact that the screenplay was produced by Italians means the dialouge is occasionally clunky it,s never unrealistic or unintentionally humourous. Robert De Niro plays the adult "David "Noodles" Aaronson" who in one of the films lighter scenes(played by the child actors who potray the characters in their younger years , obviously) meets Max played by James Woods who quickly becomes fellow leader of the gang Noodles ran.Noodles has the hots for the daughter of the local bar owner, Deborah played by Jennifer Connelly, and it,s the dichotomy between Noodles deep friendship with Max and his love for Deborah that provide much of the films narrative momentum.The gang gradually progress to become criminals of some repute,most of which occurs while Noodles is in prison for kniving a rival gang leader, but they are still employed by a mob boss played by Joe Pesci to intervene in industrial disputes or murder fellow mobsters. Max has a fixation with robbing the federal reserve which Noodles knows is a scuicide mission,so in order to save his friend he turns them in to the police but the arrest goes horribly wrong and they all perish.Noodles is now alone and pursued by henchman of a vengeful mob boss. Wisely he decides to escape taking all the gangs ill gotten gains only to discover it,s all gone.He has no alternative but to leave town on the first bus out which goes to some back of beyond town where he spends the next thirty years.....until a letter arrives offering him money for one last job.Knowing they,ve found him he returns only to discover things are not what they seem. This is a sumptuous film,beautifully shot which looks great on DVD compared to my old grainy video copy.Leone,s trademark technique of lingering on characters faces is used extensively but all the actors are superb and carry it off easily,particually De Niro playing the old stooped Noodles.Some of the scenes as he visits old haunts and comes across old acquaintances are astonishingly poignant.Ennio Morricone,s extraordinary evocative score plays a major part in this.Apparantly it was played on set to help the actors find the right mood.It worked beautifully. Noodles is not a particually sympathetis character but his violent past clearly haunts him.His betrayal, his rape of Deborah when he realises she intends to leave him behind in her life,the men he killed all weigh heavily on his mind and its testimony to Leone that he manages to make the audience care about these misanthropic people. The complaints about the point at which the film cuts to the scond disc are fully justified.Whoever made this crass decision should be ashamed.The commentary by film critic Richard Shickel is a tad dull and at times a bit patronising but theres a doccumentary to add a bit more depth.But i buy DVD,s for the film and they don,t come better than "Once Upon a Time in America".Ignore the grumpys, this a terrific film and anyone who complains because the ending is ambiguous should really stick to Michael Bay movies."Once Upon a Time in America " is magnificent cinema.Peerless.

### ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ A masterpiece of cinema
*by L***. on 24 April 2019*

Ok, when reviewing an auteur like Sergio Leone, you can only compare his films with other movies he has made, and not with other films of the era. Sergio Leone has to be my favorite director, with Jean Pierre Melville second, and both men were Americaphiles, but Melville's films never left France while Leone rewrote the American Western. I first saw this movie in 1984 in New York, where I saw the American edit, which shows the story in chronological order, ie: the gang's childhood first, and then as adult criminals. I was also living in the Lower East Side, where a lot of the story is set. There was still enough of the old neighbour left at that time and a fading Jewish community to compare the movie with the real locations, and this film captures life in a Jewish Shtetl (ghetto), as if it were yesterday. The sets and locations are amazing, and most of this could not be filmed today, even with the best CGI. But is this a good film? Before this, Sergio Leone had made five westerns, all of which are masterpieces. This movie was the last of his Once upon a time trilogy, the first, Once Upon A time in the West, and then A Fist full of Dynomite, a rather bad title for a film that should have been called, Once Upon a Time in a Revolution. This Once Upon a Time, is based on a book called The Hoods by Harry Grey, a fictionalised version of real people and real events in the Prohibition era. It is more or less the story of Meyer Lansky, Bugsy Siegel and other Jewish mobsters of the time. Leone spent years trying to develop this book into a film, and the screenplay has six writers! And this is of this film's problems, there is too much story here. Although we need to know the rise and fall of a criminal gang, there is way too much time spent on their childhood, however there isn't too many films that spends as much time as this on a childhood life in a ghetto, only City of God comes close, so just for that, it is a true original. This really is a film of two parts, childhood and adulthood. The adulthood part of this movie is pretty much a rise and fall story, with a "who done it?" plot, and that is how the movie starts, or at least, this edit starts. On first seeing, the first 30 mins is a mystery. The whys? and whats? of the plot very slowly unfold, until we are get to the childhood part, and only then does the story start. The story covers a lot real events in New York crime history, but with a lot of changes to names and times to protect the guilty, as the original book was published in 1952 when many of these people were still alive, and like the Godfather, the guilty know who they are, so I look at this movie as a piece of ficalinsed American criminal history. This film doesn't also look beautiful, it sounds beautiful too. I have seen Ennio Morricone in concert 3 times, and the music from this film has to be his most popular, and to hear it live is something I can't explain, but only to say, it is an amazing experience. The music was composed 8 years before production, and the actors would hear the music while on set, and I believed this helps the acting a lot, as acting is all about rhythm. Robert De Niro is at his method acting best here, as well as all the rest of the actors, many of whom turn up again in other gangster classics. Sadly, this movie was a financial flop. Although critics liked it, it didn't make any money and was Sergio Leone last film as he died 5 years later in 1989. He was planning on making a film about the siege of Leningrad that had a budget of 100 million dollars, but had no script! You can see how much he loved this movie, and it is a masterpiece, but it does have its flaws. Before directing this movie, Sergio Leone hadn't really directed a film since 1971. He did produce a few films in this time, but he had made so much money with his Dollars films, which in today's money made billions, he never had to make another film again in his life, and here is the problem. By the time of this release, cinema audiences had changed, and since Star Wars, demanded quicker stories and plots, also, there is a rape scene in it that doesn't need to be there. It is uncomfortable viewing, and doesn't drive the plot or story, but still it is great film, and you can only judge it for the times it was set in. I love all of Sergio Leone's films, and this movie is as good as his others, although my favorite is Once Upon a Time in the West, I can watch all again and again, and still find something new in them. This movie is a lesson in excellence, and should be viewed as such.

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