Once Upon a Time in America (1984)

IMDb plot summary: A former Prohibition-era Jewish gangster returns to the Lower East Side of Manhattan 35 years later, where he must once again confront the ghosts and regrets of his old life.

Directed by Sergio Leone. Starring Robert De Niro, James Woods, and Elizabeth McGovern.

Once Upon a Time in America is a Sergio Leone film following a gangster looking back at various points in his life that led him to where he is now. The storytelling jumps around in a nonlinear fashion as we follow our protagonist, played as an adult by Robert De Niro, and his life of crime and the relationships he forms with people around him. While Leone primarily did westerns, this big sprawling crime drama is... basically a western. I hadn't realized until this watch just how similar the bones of the two genres are. (I probably should have, given that I don't particularly care for either.) Leone's filmmaking is always lovely, with gripping cinematography and of course an amazing score by Ennio Morricone, and I cared more about this movie than I do most 4-hour crime epics. That being said, this still really isn't my kind of movie. De Niro's not a likable protagonist but also not a compellingly unlikable one, so I have trouble really caring what his relationship is like with his former gang members or if he's ever going to get with the girl he loved his whole life. Well-made but this just isn't my thing.

How it entered my Flickchart:

Once Upon a Time in America < Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan

Once Upon a Time in America > Wrath of Man

Once Upon a Time in America > Hitchcock

Once Upon a Time in America < The Man Who Knew Too Much (1956)

Once Upon a Time in America < House of Flying Daggers

Once Upon a Time in America > No Country for Old Men

Once Upon a Time in America > Lazer Team

Once Upon a Time in America < The Commitments

Once Upon a Time in America < Onibaba

Once Upon a Time in America < Wedding Crashers

Once Upon a Time in America > First Blood

Once Upon a Time in America > Kill!

Final spot: #2167 out of 3608, or 40%.