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| ONCE UPON A TIME IN AMERICA (1984) |
The phone rings and rings and rings.
For nearly 20 minutes that open “Once Upon a Time in America,” the constant ringing of a phone fills the soundtrack as the film jumps from the 1930s to the 1960s. At first, it’s irritating. But as you settle into the film, you realize this is just a stylistic device by the director to unite different ti me periods covered by his story.
Sergio Leone’s 1984 gangster film masterpiece – the final motion picture directed by the Italian film maker before his untimely death from a heart attack in 1989 at age 60 – is one of the great overlooked and underrated films of our time.
Adapted from the novel “The Hoods” by Harry Grey, “Once Upon a Time in America” stars Robert De Niro and James Woods in the gripping story of Jewish youths who live in poverty and rise to prominence in the New York mob scene.
