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Ahoy, squirts! Quint here with today’s installment of A Movie A Day.
[For those now joining us, A Movie A Day is my attempt at filling in gaps in my film knowledge. My DVD collection is thousands strong, many of them films I haven’t seen yet, but picked up as I scoured used DVD stores. Each day I’ll pull a previously unseen film from my collection or from my DVR and discuss it here. Each movie will have some sort of connection to the one before it, be it cast or crew member.]
Today we follow both James Woods and Burt Young over from yesterday’s piece of ‘70s grit and grime filmmaking THE GAMBLER to today’s ‘80s mob epic ONCE UPON A TIME IN AMERICA.
I’m a big, big Sergio Leone fan, so you can imagine how excited I was to finally get to this film, one of the last big films of his I haven’t yet seen.
You know, that more Leone I watch and rewatch the more I come to believe that he might be the one director who gets the medium of film more than anybody else. There can be genius directors… the Hitchcocks, Welles’, Curtizs, Spielbergs, Jacksons, Scorseses, Fellinis, etc, but I think Leone is without equal when it comes to visual storytelling.
Watch his Man With No Name Trilogy, watch ONCE UPON A TIME IN THE WEST… and watch this movie and pay close attention to the flow of the editing, the length of shots, the character he puts into every frame, the faces he chooses to occupy each frame, the acting he gets from every single person in the film, from Clint Eastwood to featured extra #482. His films are a film school in and of themselves.
But you can’t imitate him. I’ve seen people try and it just doesn’t feel right. I really like ONCE UPON A TIME IN MEXICO, but Rodriguez didn’t pull it off. He made a hugely entertaining movie, no doubt, but there’s something missing.
Actually, the closest I’ve seen is the South Korean film THE GOOD, THE BAD AND THE WEIRD by Ji-woon Kim. That film feels effortlessly epic, the humor, drama and tragedy all balanced perfectly, dense and complex, but still iconic characters and the action incredible.
I don’t think ONCE UPON A TIME IN AMERICA is Leone’s most entertaining movie, but that’s no knock on it. I was riveted throughout and fully invested in each minute of the nearly 4 hour runtime, but the aim of the movie isn’t to give the audience a fun time, not like his spaghetti westerns. Here we are to witness one character’s life from childhood to old age, seeing him at his best and worst without flinching.
And we do see his worst… boy, do we.
Basically the flick opens with two hard-noses searching for Robert De Niro. They shoot a blonde in the titty, they beat the ever-lovin’ shit out of Larry Rapp, demanding to know where De Niro’s David “Noodles” Aaronson is, asking why Rapp is protecting him. He’s a rat. Rapp can’t take it and gives up Noodles, who is high out of his mind in a Chinese theater that doubles as an Opium Den.
Noodles escapes, running off to parts unknown to hide out.
The film plays with time rather liberally. We jump back and forth between multiple periods in Noodles’ life, sometimes for an hour at a time, sometimes for a few minutes.
We spend the most time with Young Noodles meeting his gang and how, as teenagers, they started rising through the crime ranks and Noodles at the prime of power, leading up to the betrayal we know is coming.
Those are our main big chunks, but we get a bit of Old Noodles returning to New York after 30 plus years and trying to piece a mystery together. He and his buddies had set aside a million bucks… it stayed in a bus station locker with only one key, held by an intermediary (“Fat” Moe) and could only be received if all the gang is there to pick it up. But when De Niro goes to flee, taking the key as the last surviving member of the gang he finds a suitcase stuffed with newspaper.
Thirty some years later he is sent a letter… he’s been found, but he wasn’t wacked. Someone knows where he is and wants him back in New York. Who is it? Who took the money?
In any other filmmaker’s hands, that mystery would be the point of the movie, but in ONCE UPON A TIME IN AMERICA that is really only a garnish on a giant steak.
What’s more important is the character of Noodles and how one’s life is dynamically shifted depending on what choices he makes. Not by coincidence most of these splits on the road of his destiny involve the character of Deborah Gelly.
As kids, young Noodles (played by Scott Tiler), spies on Young Deborah dancing. It could be considered him peeping, but there’s something very innocent about it. Even when she disrobes, she knows he’s there and is positioning herself in such a way that he doesn’t get to see much, but sees enough to make it worth the trouble of spying from the hole above the toilet. It’s still innocent.
Deborah is real. She is innocence incarnate, the chance Noodles has at a real life, free of crime and filth, but he bungles it every time.
There are at least 4 times I counted during the film where Deborah represented an out for Noodles. The first is as kids where Young Noodles and Deborah, played at this age by an incredibly young Jennifer Connelly. She drops the act of disinterest and kisses him. Her sister is incredibly sexualized, selling herself for sweets and money, but young Deborah is not that. Her purity and sweetness is what draws Noodles to her.
But he’s interrupted by his partner in crime, Max, who calls for him. And here’s his first choice. Does he stay and let the romance budding between him and Deborah florish or is it bros before hos? Max or Deborah? He can only have one. And like most stupid young people, he takes real love for granted… hell, he’s just a teenager, there’s going to be plenty of women, right?
Deborah becomes the regret of his life. She pops up again when we transition into adult Noodles, now played by De Niro with Deborah played by Elizabeth McGovern. Once again he has a choice. He went down the wrong path before and it cost him years in jail. What does he do now? Once again, he chooses his friend, Max (James Woods), and a career in crime as prohibition flourishes in the ‘30s.
And I see why. His group is incredibly likable. As kids and adults, I found I very much liked these guys and their friendship… that kind of true, deep friendship that only exists between people who grew up together.
But as these guys get more and more powerful, the adage “absolute power corrupts absolutely” comes true. There are divisions among the guys, arguments, but it doesn’t go crazy soap opera dramatic. Most of the tension is aleved by a smile and friendship showing through. However, even though big missteps are routinely avoided, they baby-step their way into becoming monsters.
The full extent of how monstrous they become isn’t revealed until the final 20 minutes, but it’s pretty shady.
There’s a whole lot of movie to cover here and I’m not even going to try to detail the story beat by beat. I will highlight some specific favorite moments, character and performances before I wrap this up, though.
First of all… Ennio Morricone’s score is unbelievable. Soft, emotional, but also pounding and fast when needed. The score to a film can be its soul and Morricone gives this film every bit as fascinating and complex as the characters within it.
De Niro is fantastic throughout. I especially like his more subdued work later on as an old man. He returns to New York in the late ‘60s under heavy make-up which isn’t too far off from what he ended up looking like. When he returns he’s essentially had 30 years to toss and turn in the bed he’s made for himself starting as a kid, blaming himself for the death of his friends, reflecting on what could have been.
James Woods really shines here, though. He’s incredible, both charming and sometimes psychotic. He’s De Niro’s right hand man… or maybe De Niro is his right hand man… either way, they are like brothers and Woods has a few moments that are absolutely amazing. One scene where he chastises De Niro for being so caught up on Deborah and shows that he doesn’t have the same trouble by telling Tuesday Weld, a clinging prostitute, to fuck off and throws her out of the room and another scene… his final confrontation with De Niro, which is much subtler, but even more raw than anything else in the movie.
You get great turns by Jennifer Connelly, the great Burt Young (Paulie!), Tuesday Weld looking crazy hot even in middle age (but if you really want to go ga-ga for Weld, check out PRETTY POISON with Anthony Perkins), Treat Williams (remember when he used be in big movies and was really damn good in them?), Joe Pesci, Danny Aiello (who has one of my favorite scenes in the movie, as a police captain whose wife finally gave birth to a son only to have Noodles and his gang switch the tags up at the hospital so his boy is now a girl), William Forsythe as the adult Cockeye and Elizabeth McGovern as the adult Deborah carries all the innocence and purity that began with Connelly as the younger version of the character.
The violence is operatic and graphic. There’s a particular kill, a bullet to the eye, that had me cringing on the couch. There’s no violence like Leone violence, even if I’d say that both Verhoeven and Peckinpah have outdone him in other movies. But there’s an elegance to the way Leone handles violence… that is at once very real, but very theatrical. That’s the thing. The man knows and uses iconography to brilliant effect.
Which brings us back to Leone. Throughout the writing of this entire review I’ve been trying to think of another filmmaker as visually amazing as Leone. And I don’t mean flashy, but how ever camera move means something, adds to the movie, the characters and the atmosphere. I don’t think he has an equal, or at the very least not an equal in my eyes. His style of visual filmmaking is what I think is best about the art of filmmaking. In my opinion nobody does it better.
Final Thoughts: This is an incredible movie, just be warned that it’s a big time commitment. The film clocks in at nearly 4 hours, but there is a 6 hour assembly that Leone put together originally and I’m fasincated at what that would be like. Apparently at least 45 minutes of this long cut was deemed “crucial to the story” by Robert De Niro. I wonder if that cut will ever get a release… maybe at the same time as Malick’s 6 hour long cut of THE THIN RED LINE… But if you haven’t seen this film or Leone’s ONCE UPON A TIME IN THE WEST, you owe it to yourself to give them both a spin to see what cinema can truly be when handled by a master.
Here’s what we have lined up for the next week:
Monday, November 17th: SALVADOR (1986)
Tuesday, November 18th: BEST SELLER (1987)
Wednesday, November 19th: THE HOLCROT COVENANT (1985)
Thursday, November 20th: BIRDMAN OF ALCATRAZ (1962)
Friday, November 21st: WHITE HEAT (1949)
Saturday, November 22nd: MAN OF A THOUSAND FACES (1957)
Sunday, November 23rd: EACH DAWN I DIE (1938)
Tons of Cagney coming up! Hell yeah! But even before that, we continue on our James Woods-A-Thon! See you tomorrow for Woods in Oliver Stone's SALVADOR!
-Quint
quint@aintitcool.com
Previous Movies:
June 2nd: Harper
June 3rd: The Drowning Pool
June 4th: Papillon
June 5th: Gun Crazy
June 6th: Never So Few
June 7th: A Hole In The Head
June 8th: Some Came Running
June 9th: Rio Bravo
June 10th: Point Blank
June 11th: Pocket Money
June 12th: Cool Hand Luke
June 13th: The Asphalt Jungle
June 14th: Clash By Night
June 15th: Scarlet Street
June 16th: Killer Bait (aka Too Late For Tears)
June 17th: Robinson Crusoe On Mars
June 18th: City For Conquest
June 19th: San Quentin
June 20th: 42nd Street
June 21st: Dames
June 22nd: Gold Diggers of 1935
June 23rd: Murder, My Sweet
June 24th: Born To Kill
June 25th: The Sound of Music
June 26th: Torn Curtain
June 27th: The Left Handed Gun
June 28th: Caligula
June 29th: The Elephant Man
June 30th: The Good Father
July 1st: Shock Treatment
July 2nd: Flashback
July 3rd: Klute
July 4th: On Golden Pond
July 5th: The Cowboys
July 6th: The Alamo
July 7th: Sands of Iwo Jima
July 8th: Wake of the Red Witch
July 9th: D.O.A.
July 10th: Shadow of A Doubt
July 11th: The Matchmaker
July 12th: The Black Hole
July 13th: Vengeance Is Mine
July 14th: Strange Invaders
July 15th: Sleuth
July 16th: Frenzy
July 17th: Kingdom of Heaven: The Director’s Cut
July 18th: Cadillac Man
July 19th: The Sure Thing
July 20th: Moving Violations
July 21st: Meatballs
July 22nd: Cast a Giant Shadow
July 23rd: Out of the Past
July 24th: The Big Steal
July 25th: Where Danger Lives
July 26th: Crossfire
July 27th: Ricco, The Mean Machine
July 28th: In Harm’s Way
July 29th: Firecreek
July 30th: The Cheyenne Social Club
July 31st: The Man Who Knew Too Much
August 1st: The Spirit of St. Louis
August 2nd: Von Ryan’s Express
August 3rd: Can-Can
August 4th: Desperate Characters
August 5th: The Possession of Joel Delaney
August 6th: Quackser Fortune Has A Cousin In The Bronx
August 7th: Start the Revolution Without Me
August 8th: Hell Is A City
August 9th: The Pied Piper
August 10th: Partners
August 11th: Barry Lyndon
August 12th: The Skull
August 13th: The Hellfire Club
August 14th: Blood of the Vampire
August 15th: Terror of the Tongs
August 16th: Pirates of Blood River
August 17th: The Devil-Ship Pirates
August 18th: Jess Franco’s Count Dracula
August 19th: Dracula A.D. 1972
August 20th: The Stranglers of Bombay
August 21st: Man, Woman & Child
August 22nd: The Little Girl Who Lives Down The Lane
August 23rd: The Young Philadelphians
August 24th: The Rack
August 25th: Until They Sail
August 26th: Somebody Up There Likes Me
August 27th: The Set-Up
August 28th: The Devil & Daniel Webster
August 29th: Cat People
August 30th: The Curse of the Cat People
August 31st: The 7th Victim
September 1st: The Ghost Ship
September 2nd: Isle of the Dead
September 3rd: Bedlam
September 4th: Black Sabbath
September 5th: Black Sunday
September 6th: Twitch of the Death Nerve
September 7th: Tragic Ceremony
September 8th: Lisa & The Devil
September 9th: Baron Blood
September 10th: A Shot In The Dark
September 11th: The Pink Panther
September 12th: The Return of the Pink Panther
September 13th: The Pink Panther Strikes Again
September 14th: Revenge of the Pink Panther
September 15th: Trail of the Pink Panther
September 16th: The Real Glory
September 17th: The Winning of Barbara Worth
September 18th: The Cowboy and the Lady
September 19th: Dakota
September 20th: Red River
September 21st: Terminal Station
September 22nd: The Search
September 23rd: Act of Violence
September 24th: Houdini
September 25th: Money From Home
September 26th: Papa’s Delicate Condition
September 27th: Dillinger
September 28th: Battle of the Bulge
September 29th: Daisy Kenyon
September 30th: Laura
October 1st: The Dunwich Horror
October 2nd: Experiment In Terror
October 3rd: The Devil’s Rain
October 4th: Race With The Devil
October 5th: Salo, Or The 120 Days of Sodom
October 6th: Bad Dreams
October 7th: The House Where Evil Dwells
October 8th: Memories of Murder
October 9th: The Hunger
October 10th: I Saw What You Did
October 11th: I Spit On Your Grave
October 12th: Naked You Die
October 13th: The Wraith
October 14th: Silent Night, Bloody Night
October 15th: I Bury The Living
October 16th: The Beast Must Die
October 17th: Hellgate
October 18th: He Knows You’re Alone
October 19th: The Thing From Another World
October 20th: The Fall of the House of Usher
October 21st: Audrey Rose
October 22nd: Who Slew Auntie Roo?
October 23rd: Wait Until Dark
October 24th: Dead & Buried
October 25th: A Bucket of Blood
October 26th: The Bloodstained Shadow
October 27th: I, Madman
October 28th: Return to Horror High
October 29th: Die, Monster, Die
October 30th: Epidemic
October 31st: Student Bodies
November 1st: Black Widow
November 2nd: The Ghost & Mrs. Muir
November 3rd: Flying Tigers
November 4th: Executive Action
November 5th: The Busy Body
November 6th: It’s A Mad Mad Mad Mad World
November 7th: Libeled Lady
November 8th: Up The River
November 9th: Doctor Bull
November 10th: Judge Priest
November 11th: Ten Little Indians
November 12th: Murder On The Orient Express
November 13th: Daniel
November 14th: El Dorado
November 15th: The Gambler
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