Once Upon A Time In America

RS: 4of 4 Stars

Drama

This 1984 gangster epic is the last film directed by Sergio Leone, master of the spaghetti Western. Tracking the criminal rise of two Jewish immigrants, played by Robert De Niro and James Woods, over nearly fifty years, the film is Leone's dream and nightmare of America.

The good news is that this two-disc set contains a 227-minute cut of the film and not the butchered 139-minute version released in 1984. The bad news is it's not the 265-minute cut shown on Italian TV or the purported eight-hour cut that is now the stuff of legend.

PETER TRAVERS
(June 4, 2003)