Significant film of American gangland

Press, 1 July 1985, Page 4

Significant film of American gangland

ONCE UPON A TIME IN AMERICA Directed by Sergio Leone Screenplay by Leo Benvenuti, Piero De Bernardi, and Enrico Medioli Because of the godfatherly shadow of the Mafia,

American gangsterism has always been closely associated with Italians. So it seems only logical that an attempt at the ultimate gangster movie should be directed, written, and generally put together by people from Italy. It seems equally fitting that the making of “Once Upon a Time in America” (Academy) should be undertaken by Sergio Leone, who has already given his peculiar perspective to another era of American development with his spaghetti westerns (“A Fistful of Dollars,” “For a Few Dollars More,” and “The Good, the Bad and the Ugly,” and followed these with what he considered the definitive film of this genre, “Once Upon a Time in the West,” with Henry Fonda, Jason Robards, and Charles Bronson.

To me, “The Godfather”, directed and written by American-Italians, Francis Coppola and Mario Puzo, still is the only serious contender for top gangster movie of the post-Cagney-Robinson era, but this does not diminish the significance as a major movie in this field of “Once Upon a Time in America.”

As can be seen by his other work (the spaghetti westerns and such historical epics “The Last Days of Pompeii” and “The Colossus of Rhodes”), Leone is a fabulous romantic to whom the American gangster era of the 1920 s and 1930 s is as intriguing as any mythical period.

Both “The Godfather” and “Once Upon a Time” give us a broad, sweeping view of this aspect of American life, but Coppola is sufficiently close to it to present his version in a straightforward style which seems almost semi-documentary in comparison to Leone, who manages to romanticise this brutal era from his viewpoint on the other side of the Atlantic.

“Once Upon a Time” has the intrigue and violence of “The Godfather” — only more so — and the romanticism of “The Cotton Club” without the music.

Looking at Italian westerns or horror films, one

can see that they do not believe in doing things by halves — never sparing the boot or gore — and Leone keeps up that tradition. In fact, Leone manages to overstate virtually everything, whether it be rape, revenge, or romance (to the umpteenth version of “Amapola”). The beatings are more savage than necessary, the humour lets it all hang out, and the high-life restaurant scenes could only happen in a movie. What is ironic, although not so surprising on reflection, is that most of the gangsters in this New Yorkbased story are Jewish, with a touch of Irish, instead of the usually übiquitous Italian.

Perhaps it is because of Leone’s national pride — or the Italian Anti-Defamation League — that the Mafia does not rate even a mention. Nevertheless, there were oviously enough criminals of other ethnic origin to make this film’s plot quite feasible.

Leone has based the film on an obscure paperback entitled “The Hoods,” by Harry Gray, a retired Jewish gangster recounting true stories of his criminal experiences. The director worked on the original book for more than 10 years, with different writers adding to the screenplay at various times, and finally producing a script that is obviously a patchwork.

I have one synopsis of the film script which is different in many parts from the final work, and the fulllength film received heavy cutting to a manageable duration for screening in American cinemas.

The version being screened at the Academy is claimed to be close to the original three-hour, 40-min-ute film, although the story is still sometimes disjointed, indicating some heavyhanded editing. It might be argued that some of the remaining violence and lighter sequences could have been cut without spoiling narrative; on the other hand, a supposedly important scene with Louise Fletcher as a cemetery director is missing. Essentially, the story follows a group of five boys in the Jewish quarter of New York who follow a life of petty crime. As they grow older, they set their sights on more serious game, including the extortion racket.

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The group is led by two strong-willed but temperamentally different lads Noodles (Robert De Niro) and Max (James Woods). The boys’ financial takings increase steadily as they move up in the underworld of New York. A portion of their money goes into a suitcase which is kept in a locker, and the key goes into the hands of a friend who has the instructions not to surrender it unless all five of the boys are together and ask for it. A few crimes later, one of the five is killed by a rival gangster. Noodles kills him in turn, and serves six years

in jail. On his release, Prohibition is in full swing, and the boys lose no time in introducing Noodles to the world of speak-easies. Their various criminal activities lead to a final showdown in which Noodles informs the police of the others’ plans. The gang is killed in a shootout with the police, leaving only Noodles living with the knowledge that he was responsible for their death.

Before leaving New York, he goes to pick up the suitcase which is now supposed to contain $1 million, only to find that all the cash has been taken.

The time moves 35 years ahead to 1968, when a visibly aged Noodles returns to New York, and the last portion of the film is devoted to trying to tie together the many loose ends of the plot.

The above resume is given in chronological order, but is actually delivered in various overlapping

sequences in the film, which add to both its interest and confusion.

Early on, we see Noodles drift off in a pipedream in a Chinese opium den, and the film ends in the same place, hinting that the whole story may only have been a dream. On the other hand, this may have been a neat device by the scriptwriters to avoid having to tie together the film’s too many loose ends, and the not completely satisfactory solution to the relationship between Noodles and Max.

Technically, the film is brilliant, and Leone’s eye for detail recaptures the atmosphere of the time. His street scenes in the Jewish quarter of New York are very similar to those recreated by Milos Forman in “Ragtime,” which also covered that period ol American history. De Niro, who portrays Noodles at the ages of 25 and 60, again shows how deeply he can immerse him-

self in a role. Also notable are James Woods (“The Onion Field”), as Noodles’s scheming friend, and Elizabeth McGovern as the girl whom Noodles idolises from a distance but can never quite attain. McGovern played a similar role, of the girl with ambi-' tions of becoming a film star, in “Ragtime,” although this time she takes the part more seriously.

Whatever doubts one has about the narrative, there is no question that Leone is a great cinematic storyteller who manages to weave a rich, though overromantic,tapestry of American gangland. To Leone, this is a world forever gone, which he tries to portray realistically and yet otherworldly. “While it is a realistic story,” the director said, “at times it borders on the absurd and the incredible. It is this unreality that fascinates me. This is a fable for our own times and told in our own terms.”