Last night, I watched the movie ONCE UPON A TIME IN AMERICA for the 500th time. OK, 500 is an exageration but it is true I have seen it many times as it is my favorite movie of all time.
I watched it for the first time when it first opened in Japan. To be exact, it was a few months after the release because that is how long it used to take for new foreign movies to reach Ashikaga, my hometown.
For those of you who have not seen it, it was directed by the great Sergio Leone. It tells a story about a group of Jewish kids in the Lower East Side of New York City who later become gangsters. I am not a fan of the gangster films.
I have seen Godfather and Casino but I don't think I want to watch them again. This one is a different story.
The story begins in the early 1920s when the boys meet and it spans decades all the way to the 1960s. At the center of the group are Noodles and Max who, as adults, are portrayed by Robert DeNiro and James Woods respectively. The movie is very violent in places. After all, these characters makes their livings in the world of the organized crime. However, it ultimately is a love story between Noodles and Max. No, I am not talking about the hot, sweaty, chesthair-chafing Man-To-Man Love here. I am talking about the kind of pure, selfless and absolute love that a child has for his best friend.
I was very selfish and never had that kind of love for anyone in my life as a child but that is beside the point.
They go through a lot of things together and the relationship gets more and more complex through the years until it ends up in a tragedy.
I cannot begin to write out all the plot points as this is a movie of such a "grand" scale AND I am just too lazy.
The final shot of DeNiro in an opium den, smiling the biggest smile you've ever seen, in my opinion, is THE best single image from any movie. There is a big debate regarding the meaning of that smile among the film's fans as the film leaves a lot to the audience's own interpretations, but to me, that is the smile of a man who is reminiscing about his childhood filled with beautiful memories of his friends while the painful reality of the present was numbed for a moment by the opium.
The movie is well over 3 hours long (close to 4) and it's not one of those "Honey-pop-in-the-dvd-while-I-make-some-popcorn-do-you-want-a-pepsi-or-a-snapple"affairs. You really have to sit yourself down for the duration of the film and pay attention. I promise you will be rewarded with 3.5 hours of what the blurbs on news paper movie ads would call "pure movie magic". A movie that is not an end result of test screenings and consumer researches but a vision of the film makers.
Sergio Leone is a legend and you see why by all the lovingly crafted shots throughout the film.
Ennio Morricone is a master and I think this is the finest film score he ever did. I get teary eyed just listening to the first note of the theme music. As a matter of fact, when they gave Morricone a lifetime achievement award at last year's Oscars, they played the music from this film as the highlight of the musical montage of his work. Only they lost their collective minds and put some lame lyric to it and had Celine Dion sing it. She did sing the hell out of it, though, I must admit. I have a healthy respect for Ms.Dion as she always sings with such conviction. The lameness of her material and the utter lack of subtlety in her delivery don't really matter. When she sings that her heart will go on, I am fully convinced that it will! That's no small feat.
You also get to watch some big name stars of today and yesterday in smaller roles in this. Danny Aiello as the police chief, Tuesday Weld(!!) as Max's girlfriend, Joe Pesci and Burt Young as... you guessed it, gangsters, Treat Williams as a union leader and the beautiful Jennifer Connolly in her first film role as the young Deborah, an object of Noodles' undying love. She was 12 or so years old during the time of the filming.
I could go on and on about this movie without really saying anything about it...lol I just wanted to say how much I loved this movie and wanted you to think, "OK, I guess the man really loves that movie....". So, I don't want to hear you say "I will check it out sometime" because I know you won't! FINE! Be that way! You, Bastard people!!!! OK, that is a line from another movie I love called Waiting for Guffman.
Christopher Guest as Corky St.Clair says that line in a scene where he tells off a bunch of town officials. How funny was that movie??? RED, WHITE AND BLAINE!!!!!! I must find it on DVD....
I watched it for the first time when it first opened in Japan. To be exact, it was a few months after the release because that is how long it used to take for new foreign movies to reach Ashikaga, my hometown.
For those of you who have not seen it, it was directed by the great Sergio Leone. It tells a story about a group of Jewish kids in the Lower East Side of New York City who later become gangsters. I am not a fan of the gangster films.
I have seen Godfather and Casino but I don't think I want to watch them again. This one is a different story.
The story begins in the early 1920s when the boys meet and it spans decades all the way to the 1960s. At the center of the group are Noodles and Max who, as adults, are portrayed by Robert DeNiro and James Woods respectively. The movie is very violent in places. After all, these characters makes their livings in the world of the organized crime. However, it ultimately is a love story between Noodles and Max. No, I am not talking about the hot, sweaty, chesthair-chafing Man-To-Man Love here. I am talking about the kind of pure, selfless and absolute love that a child has for his best friend.
I was very selfish and never had that kind of love for anyone in my life as a child but that is beside the point.
They go through a lot of things together and the relationship gets more and more complex through the years until it ends up in a tragedy.
I cannot begin to write out all the plot points as this is a movie of such a "grand" scale AND I am just too lazy.
The final shot of DeNiro in an opium den, smiling the biggest smile you've ever seen, in my opinion, is THE best single image from any movie. There is a big debate regarding the meaning of that smile among the film's fans as the film leaves a lot to the audience's own interpretations, but to me, that is the smile of a man who is reminiscing about his childhood filled with beautiful memories of his friends while the painful reality of the present was numbed for a moment by the opium.
The movie is well over 3 hours long (close to 4) and it's not one of those "Honey-pop-in-the-dvd-while-I-make-some-popcorn-do-you-want-a-pepsi-or-a-snapple"affairs. You really have to sit yourself down for the duration of the film and pay attention. I promise you will be rewarded with 3.5 hours of what the blurbs on news paper movie ads would call "pure movie magic". A movie that is not an end result of test screenings and consumer researches but a vision of the film makers.
Sergio Leone is a legend and you see why by all the lovingly crafted shots throughout the film.
Ennio Morricone is a master and I think this is the finest film score he ever did. I get teary eyed just listening to the first note of the theme music. As a matter of fact, when they gave Morricone a lifetime achievement award at last year's Oscars, they played the music from this film as the highlight of the musical montage of his work. Only they lost their collective minds and put some lame lyric to it and had Celine Dion sing it. She did sing the hell out of it, though, I must admit. I have a healthy respect for Ms.Dion as she always sings with such conviction. The lameness of her material and the utter lack of subtlety in her delivery don't really matter. When she sings that her heart will go on, I am fully convinced that it will! That's no small feat.
You also get to watch some big name stars of today and yesterday in smaller roles in this. Danny Aiello as the police chief, Tuesday Weld(!!) as Max's girlfriend, Joe Pesci and Burt Young as... you guessed it, gangsters, Treat Williams as a union leader and the beautiful Jennifer Connolly in her first film role as the young Deborah, an object of Noodles' undying love. She was 12 or so years old during the time of the filming.
I could go on and on about this movie without really saying anything about it...lol I just wanted to say how much I loved this movie and wanted you to think, "OK, I guess the man really loves that movie....". So, I don't want to hear you say "I will check it out sometime" because I know you won't! FINE! Be that way! You, Bastard people!!!! OK, that is a line from another movie I love called Waiting for Guffman.
Christopher Guest as Corky St.Clair says that line in a scene where he tells off a bunch of town officials. How funny was that movie??? RED, WHITE AND BLAINE!!!!!! I must find it on DVD....
