Once Upon a Time in America
Short description
Once Upon a Time in America follows Noodles, a Jewish gangster on Manhattan's Lower East Side, across decades of the twentieth century. He and his friends begin as small-time criminals in the neighborhood, then build a bootlegging empire during Prohibition. The bond between Noodles and Max, his closest partner, is tested by ambition and betrayal. Years later, after serving a long prison term, Noodles returns to the old streets and confronts what became of his life and his friends.
Sergio Leone directed the film, his seventh feature after Once Upon a Time in the West and Duck, You Sucker, and co-wrote it with Franco Ferrini and Leonardo Benvenuti. Robert De Niro plays Noodles, with James Woods as Max and Elizabeth McGovern as Deborah; Joe Pesci, Burt Young and Tuesday Weld appear in supporting roles. Arnon Milchan produced, with Warner Bros. Pictures among the production companies.
The film is a crime drama running 139 minutes. It was released in 1984 at a budget of 30 million dollars and earned about 5 million worldwide, a poor result against its cost. Audiences have rated it highly since: 8.3 from over 407,000 votes on IMDb and 8.4 from roughly 6,200 on TMDB. Critics' rating of 8.6 from 56 reviews is slightly higher than both audience scores, suggesting strong critical approval alongside lasting public affection.
What's left behind the scenes
- The film is based on Harry Grey’s novel “Once Upon a Time in America” (The Hoods, 1952).
- "Once Upon a Time in America" is the only film by Sergio Leone not shot in his preferred 2.35:1 aspect ratio.
- One of the film’s characters, known to everyone as “Cousin,” constantly plays a small flute called a “Pano.” This is a reference to Charles Bronson’s character in Leone’s other film – “Once Upon a Time in the West” (1968), who also played constantly, but only on a harmonica.
- Sergio Leone was initially inspired by Harry Gray's autobiographical novella 'The Hoods' (it took the director years to acquire the rights to it), but as the scale of his vision grew, he brought Norman Mailer and Stuart Kaminsky on board as screenwriters.
- Robert De Niro suggested that the aging Max have a dazzling smile with pearly white teeth – this was to demonstrate his wealth and vanity. The producers refused to pay for the associated costs, so De Niro covered them himself.
- When Stuart Kaminsky began working, he was given a plot outline exceeding 400 pages. During the filming process, 10 hours of footage was cut down to 6. Initially, Sergio Leone wanted to release his film as two three-hour installments, but the studio did not support this idea. The film was reduced to its current length by a new editor, Zack Stenberg, who was specifically brought onto the team for this purpose.
- Claudia Cardinale unsuccessfully auditioned for the role of Carol.
- The scenes on the Miami Beach waterfront were filmed in St. Petersburg at Don Cesar Beach.
- One of the actors, James Hayden, passed away shortly before the premiere.
- Robert De Niro's friend, Joe Pesci, was one of the candidates for the role of Max. After an unsuccessful audition, the director offered him to choose any role in the film that he liked – and so Pesci played Frankie.
- In the mid-70s, Gérard Depardieu was one of the main contenders for the role of 'Max' or 'Lapsha,' and he promised to develop an American accent if necessary. A total of over 200 actors were considered for the leading roles!
- The film was released in Soviet cinemas in 1989 in three separate parts. The first part was seen by 27.6 million viewers, the second by 26.6 million, and the third by 23.1 million people.
- While preparing for the role of “Noodles,” Robert De Niro requested a personal meeting with the famous crime boss Meyer Lansky, whose image he was basing his performance on. Unfortunately, he was denied this meeting.
- The episodic role of a passerby in the scene where Lapsha leaves prison was played by the famous Soviet translator Boris Romanovich Izakov (author of translations of Ernest Hemingway, Somerset Maugham, Graham Greene, and others). He was visiting the United States and ended up on the film set through one of the crew members.
- The hotel to which the newly wealthy Lapsha invited Deborah was filmed in Venice. However, the road they returned home on was on the other side of the ocean – on the coast of New Jersey. The role of the driver was played by the film's producer, Arnon Milchan.
- Filming began on June 14, 1982, and ended on April 22, 1983.
- This film was never fully released in US cinemas, as it was believed at the time that audiences would not go to such a long film (227 minutes). Therefore, Leone was forced to cut the film down to 139 minutes, also removing all the violence. However, later a full version of 229 minutes was released on DVD in the US.
- Leone was so outraged that the film was cut down to 139 minutes for release in the United States, with all the scenes remounted in chronological order by Alan Ladd’s company, which destroyed the director’s intent and dissipated the aura of uncertainty so important to the film, leading him to abandon filmmaking for the rest of his life. “The tragedy of the film is that it will be destroyed in the country for which it was primarily intended,” the director fumed in the summer of 1984. – “But you know distributors, and Ladd is not the worst of them. One distributor from the Middle East said he would buy the film if we cut out all the scenes with Jews!”
- The film marked the cinematic debut of 14-year-old model Jennifer Connelly.
- In the scene where the elderly "Noodles" is watching television, an interview with a character named James Conway O'Donnell is shown. In the film "Goodfellas" (1990), Robert De Niro's character is also named James Conway.
Auditions in India
Casting calls in USA
Castingi w Polsce
Кастинги в Україні
