This is the longest films I have ever watched at 4 hours and 11 minutes long, taking the number 1 spot from Watchmen director's cut which is 3 hours and 35 minutes long. Sadly, this De Niro's little known movie from the 80s falls short of my expectations.
As every gangster film lover will know, De Niro has an excellent record when it comes to participating in great gangster movies throughout the years. So I was pretty excited when I was given the chance to watch the most extended version of this film which is supposedly just as the director wanted it to be.
This particular film has kind of a troubled history because when it was first released, there were conflicts between the director and the studio. The theatrical release was a shorter version of about 2 hours which received horrible critics and was very different than the way the film was meant to be.
The American theatrical release was chronological and the film wasn't directed to be this way. Eventually, the movie was restored and released as it was meant to be, with 2 versions, one lasting 3h 49min and the longer one lasting 4h and 11 min.
I am not sure if it is worth it to watch the super extended version, maybe the one lasting 3h 49min is a better choice. I write this based on the fact that there were several scenes that looked awful and I bet these are the extra ones that were recovered, besides looking awful they added little substance to the story.
The story is basically about the friendship between several men beginning since they were children and continuing well into adulthood. The transition between the different periods of time (childhood, adulthood, and seniorhood) is nicely done and I can imagine why the chronological version is less preferable, it won't have several subtle touches that link these different periods from the POV of the characters.
These kids began to participate in criminal activities from a very young age and they will remain criminals for the rest of their lives, developing dark connections and increasing their money and success as they become adults.
As it is usually the case when it comes to gangster's stories, eventually there will be betrayals, scammers, doubled faced characters, and all sorts of threats that can cause havoc in the life of anyone involving in criminal groups. This movie isn't the exception.
Time will test how strong these friendships really are, and will prove if thirst for money can ultimately become a more powerful force than brotherhood itself.
The best
- It was nice to see these characters as children, adults and some of them as seniors.
- Good and subtle transition between the different periods of time.
- Charismatic children, the parts where we see these characters in their first criminal years were very entertaining.
The worst
- Maybe it was the extended version that I saw, but some scenes had low image quality and it was very noticeable when a scene was one of the restored ones.
- The movie felt very slow. I am sure watching the super-extended version of more than 4 hours was an important factor.
- The plot could have been more exciting.
More information: https://www.themoviedb.org/movie/311-once-upon-a-time-in-america Review: AAA In numbers: 7/10
