MovieChat Forums > Once Upon a Time in America (1984) Discussion > Not the classic I was hoping for

Not the classic I was hoping for

posted 3 years ago by spurtle467 (1498)
3 replies | jump to latest

It was a good enough movie, entertaining with some nice accompanying music. I'd rate it maybe no higher than a 7 out of 10 for those reasons. Unfortunately there are some things that let it down that prevent it from being any higher.

At times it feels dated and I was thinking how in comparison to say, The Godfather films, you could swap the ages of the two around and wouldn't know any different. The look and approach in places feels cheap and aged, even cheesy, and maybe that's a directorial decision but it didn't really work for me.

Some of the acting felt a little iffy, particularly grown up Deborah. She acted weirdly like a replicant off Blade Runner. Somewhat robotic the way she spoke and acted. Not her fault but I also had to laugh at their attempts at making the character 30 years older in the present time. She looked like someone half of older De Niro's age.

Although I complimented the music above, which had some nice original pieces, it too felt overplayed. They could have toned down on the use of that one piece that seemed to creep in during scenes with Noodles and Deborah all the time. Also the use of Yesterday by The Beatles near the beginning felt shoehorned and out of place. It made me cringe and I am a fan of TB.

I know after rating it 7 I've criticised it more than it perhaps deserves to be. Considering it sits in the top 100 on IMDB and being a fan of these types of movie, I guess I was expecting more, and at over 3 hours I was thinking I'd be in for a classic of the genre that uses those 3 and a half hours carefully to hit all the right notes. Sadly it didn't.

[–] JackalopeCash57 (92) 3 years ago

Its funny that you referenced Blade Runner in your post; I have long maintained the notion that this movie reminds me a lot of Blade Runner.

- Both films have a very gloomy feel to them.

- Both films have multiple iconic actors in the cast.

- The main characters in each film (Decker and Noodles) are far from being "heroic." They are "designated protagonists" at best, even saying that is a generous description.

- The actors who portray the primary characters (Harrison Ford and Robert De Niro) both give very subdued and aloof performances; a far cry from the iconic/dynamic roles that we have often associate with each actor (For Ford - Han Solo, Indiana Jones, Richard Kimble. For De Niro - Young Vito Corleone, Raging Bull, Jimmy Conway)

- Both films suffered badly at the box office due to studio interference.

^Only the tip of the iceberg

[–] Cognoscente (2463) 3 years ago

You could write an article with the rest of the iceberg.

[–] rudeboymurray (3241) 3 years ago

I've only seen the full length cut - never the notorious truncated original cut - and on the basis of the four hour movie, I'd personally rate this as the greatest gangster film ever made, and one of the great movies of the 80s.

I don't exactly disagree with you on Elizabeth McGovern's performance - she isn't all that effective in the role. But everyone else is superb, from De Niro via the magnetic Tuesday Weld down to the kids, and the photography, sets, costumes and Ennio Morricone's achingly beautiful score are simply magnificent.

The use of 'Yesterday' is odd and I can see how it is somewhat jarring but it works for me.