"Once Upon a Time in America" ??film review,

A detailed discussion of "Once Upon a Time in America" ??

The director of this film, Sergio Leone, is Italian and has been deeply influenced by Hollywood. He believes that Hollywood movies can best arouse the audience's emotions. Interest, so most of the films he directed were related to the United States. Leone is a serious and artistic director, famous for his spaghetti westerns (also known as "spaghetti" westerns). His representative works include "A Fistful of Gold", "A Few Dollars More" and "Okay" , bad, ugly". All three films starred the famous American actor East Wood and achieved worldwide success. His most proud work is the "American Trilogy" based on the history of the United States in the past century, namely "Once Upon a Time in the West", "Once Upon a Time in the Revolution" and "Once Upon a Time in America". "Once Upon a Time in the West" shows the life of early immigrants in the United States at the end of the 19th century and the story of their development of the West; "Once Upon a Time in the Revolution" uses politics as the background to describe the role of politics in the United States and the relationship between the United States and its neighbors. "Once Upon a Time in America" ??is a microcosm of life in big cities in the United States from the 1920s to the 1960s. The perspective of "Once Upon a Time in America" ??is unique, it is the image of America in the eyes of Italians. It can be said that this film is a criticism of the image of America created by Hollywood.

Leonet saw this novel in the 1960s and immediately saw that the original work was very "cinematic". The character in the book seemed like the voice-over of a Hollywood movie, so he decided to make it into a police film. It took 13 years from the preparation of the script to its release. During this period, five famous Italian writers were hired to adapt the script for him, including Leonardo Benvanuti, Piello De Bernardi, Fran Co. Fellini, Enrico Metioli, and Franco Arcani, and finally, Leone's screenplay uses parts of each writer's adaptations. "Once Upon a Time in America" ??embodies the director's "imagination" of the United States quite concentratedly. The original version of the film is 4 hours and 25 minutes long. The version screened at the Cannes Film Festival is 3 hours and 40 minutes long. It was released in the United States for only 2 hours and 30 minutes. After the film was released, it was not only approved by American audiences. Even critical American critics agreed that this film depicting the underworld has good style and beautiful production. The film was ranked first among the 10 best films of 1984 by the Los Angeles Times. French film critics reviewed the top ten films of the 1980s, and "Once Upon a Time in America" ??was also on the list.

The film only selects a few characters and events from the original work, and adopts a typical Hollywood narrative structure. The difference is that the film gradually unfolds the story through the memories of the protagonist Noodles, and the story always proceeds in an unreasonable debt dispute between Noodles and Max.

Noodles is a Jewish immigrant, a poor kid living in the slums of New York City's dynamic areas. He is a man of "righteousness" and is willing to go through fire and water for his friends. He is a romantic and fantasy-like person. He is impulsive, which determines that he will avenge his little brother and suffer the pain of prison. His character cannot change his lower-class social status, and determines his fate of guilt and regret throughout his life. His way out is to escape into a smoke-filled dream. Avoid reality.

Max is a practical and ambitious man, he is ruthless and good at hiding himself. He was cunning, indulgent, selfish and unscrupulous. It was no accident that the author pushed him onto the political stage and finally had him hanged in a garbage truck. Noodles and Max are a team of contradictions. When they first appeared on the street, they were evenly matched. However, from the moment they started working together, the film showed the two people's different personalities and behaviors, indicating that they were not in the same boat. The film uses melodrama's cause-and-effect relationship to successfully portray these two imperfect or unlovable characters. It is obvious that the director does not want the audience to identify with these two characters.

The film’s processing of time and space structure is quite distinctive. The main time the story takes place is during the prohibition period. In the United States, prohibition catered to a certain ascetic tendency of Christian Protestants and a behavior that focused on self-control, diligence, frugality and morality. The film begins exactly in the hotel, and then leads to the opium den opened by the Chinese in Chinatown, and the shadow puppet theater run by the Indonesians. The ancient Indian myth "Ramayana" is performed on the stage, which symbolizes the ancient Eastern civilization and backward culture. The phenomenon appeared in the United States, which symbolizes Western civilization, and the author deliberately arranged it this way. The film makes extensive use of the poor streets where immigrants live, illegal hotels, underground brothels, bootleg liquor trafficking, and the wanton behavior of gangsters as narrative carriers, metaphorizing that the United States was a Coney Island-like wonderland during that period, and also the director's reflection on the past. A re-invention of the American myth. The story begins and ends in the opium den. After the brothers died, the noodles ran to the opium den and used the illusion created by opium to instantly relieve their sorrow and boredom. That moment was perfect and happy, and it transcended time and space. At the end of the story, Noodles returned to Chinatown, watched the shadow puppets move, and hid in the hallucination of opium. This time he smiled. The guilt and regret of most of his life drifted away with the smoke. Time stayed in the moment when he fully enjoyed the joy. Noodles seemed to realize that the past was just a dream.

In "Once Upon a Time in America", a lot of flashbacks and flashbacks are used, intertwining time and space. This structure plays a big role in the film expressing specific content and emotions. At the beginning, the phone ringing in the opium den for dozens of seconds flashes back to the events that troubled the protagonist, and the audience then enters 1933. Thirty-five years later, Noodles returns to New York. The film flashes back to 1921 through a pair of eyes in the hole in the wall, tracing back to Noodles' life experiences from childhood to youth.

Noodles saw a piece of news on TV, and his memories led to a flashback. With Noodles' memories, the audience learned about the relationship between Max and O'Donnell. When Noodles faced the senator, he did not act like he did for the little boy. The brothers were so impulsive when they took revenge. The film uses flashbacks to recreate the beautiful moments in Noodles' memory, letting the audience clearly know that Noodles, who has been missing for half his life, retains not his roots in his heart, but the memories of the "good past". This narrative method not only did not make the audience bored during the three hours, but instead felt a stimulation that transcended time and space.

Music plays an important role in this film. The audience feels the power of music all the time while watching the film. Chang Di plays a slow, plaintive and slightly nostalgic mood. Whether it is the scene of Debra dancing, the scene of poor children playing pranks, or the scene of Noodles being violent to Carol while robbing a jewelry store, it is all accompanied by beautiful melody. The role of music is to explain the theme and use notes to tell a worthy story. Memories of the past. Songs and soundtracks such as "God Bless America," "Summer Time," "Yesterday," and "Day and Night" all reproduce the era of the narrative and add to the film's realism.

The photography of the film is very particular, and the light and dark processing of the picture is very appropriate. The memories are mostly shot in black and white. Some scenes, such as a moonshine boat sailing on the river, Noodles, Max and the brothers playing in the water, reveal a hazy beauty that is very contagious. Another example is when Noodles invites Debra to dinner, the scene is very bright and the scene is unexpectedly luxurious. The brilliant lights of the hotel shine on Noodles who is looking forward to love on the beach. The light and shade are appropriate and full of emotion, making the audience empathize.

"Once Upon a Time in America" ??is a rigorously created and highly enjoyable film, and its artistic achievements exceed that of its sister film. Someone once mistook the Italian director for an American, and Leone was quite proud of that.