Once Upon A Time In America's Theatrical Cut Almost Destroyed The Film
Once Upon A Time In America is regarded as a masterwork, but its heavily trimmed U.S. theatrical cut almost destroyed its reputation. Director Sergio Leone rose to prominence with his Dollars movie trilogy, consisting of A Fistful Of Dollars, For A Few Dollars More and The Good, The Bad And The Ugly. These groundbreaking «spaghetti» Westerns broke the established rules of classic American Westerns — down to details like showing a gun firing and killing its target within the same frame — in addition to revitalizing the ailing genre for a time and making Clint Eastwood a star.
Leone went on to direct two more Westerns in Once Upon A Time In The West and Duck, You Sucker! The director then spent over a decade developing his passion projectOnce Upon A Time In America and was so focused on getting it produced that he passed on other offers like The Godfather. Once Upon A Time In America is based on the novel The Hoods by a former gangster named Harry Goldberg, with the story spanning over 50 years. It follows Noodles, played by Robert De Niro (who has made many movies with Scorsese) and Scott Tiler, who becomes part of a gang. The movie is framed by the old Noodles returning to New York in the later '60s to confront his past, with flashbacks to his younger self and the gang's rise and eventual fall.
Related: The Role That Inspired Clint Eastwood's Man With No Name Character
Once Upon A Time In America tells an epic story and is now considered a masterpiece. However, Leone famously had a difficult time editing the project, cutting down around ten hours' worth of material into a six-hour version. While he hoped to release this version in two parts, the producers nixed that concept and he went back to re-cut it again. His
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