Once Upon a Time in America (1984)
- Many of the practical effects used in the climax were achieved without any CGI.
- The incredible score for Once Upon a Time in America was composed in just a few weeks after the original composer dropped out.
- Before Robert De Niro was cast, several major A-list stars turned down the lead role because they felt the script was too risky.
Once Upon a Time in America is a 1984 American epic crime drama directed by Sergio Leone, his final film and widely considered his masterpiece alongside the Dollars Trilogy. Robert De Niro stars as David "Noodles" Aaronson, a Jewish gangster in New York whose life is depicted across three time periods: his childhood on the Lower East Side in the 1920s, his rise as a Prohibition-era bootlegger alongside his best friend Maximilian "Max" Bercovici played by James Woods, and his return to New York as an elderly man in the 1960s to confront the ghosts of his past. Sergio Leone's operatic, nearly four-hour director's cut โ drastically different from the studio's butchered theatrical release which rearranged the story chronologically โ was a meditation on memory, regret, and the American Dream as experienced by immigrant outsiders who built their version of America through crime.
Ennio Morricone's achingly beautiful score, featuring the haunting pan flute theme, was among his finest compositions. Once Upon a Time in America earned only $5 million in its mangled U.S. release but has since been recognized as one of the greatest crime films and one of the greatest American films ever made.
