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365days365movies · 2 years

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31 (Films) to Life: Once Upon a Time in America (1984) - Recap: Part Two

There’s still so...so much more movie to review.

So, to hell with it; no navel gazing, let’s get back into it!

SPOILERS AHEAD!!! Check out Part One for more!

Recap: Part Two

Back to old Noodles, at the Riverdale mausoleum that holds his old friends. And at this point, I have to say…why is the score composed of a pan-flute? Like…that’s definitely a pan-flute, right? It’s iconic and noticeable, but…why a pan-flute? Anyway, when he goes there, he finds that it’s been erected…by him? Ah, but this is a message, as a key is hanging from that placard, leading to the old locker they kept their money in as children. And lo and behold, it’s a briefcase full of money, labeled as an advance payment for his “next job”? The plot thickens.

Old Noodles walks through downtown, as a Frisbee unexpectedly flies towards him AND…back to 1930, and Noodles is released from prison. He’s greeted by a now adult Max (James Woods), complete with a hearse for his transport, and a sex worker in the back for…well, you know why, They head to Fat Moe’s, now a speakeasy run by the gang, who’ve gotten wealthy during the Prohibition.

Included in the gang is Patsy (James Hayden), Cockeye (William Forsythe), Fat Moe (Larry Rapp), and Peggy (Amy Ryder), all grown up and happy to see him. But perhaps most prominently is Deborah (Elizabeth McGovern), who’s surprisingly there to see Noodles post-release, and has been waiting for him since his arrest. She’s a dancer at the Palace Theatre, as she’d always wanted to be, and invites Noodles to see her there. There’s definitely a romantic tension there, so we’ll have to see how that goes, especially since she doesn’t approve of his criminal lifestyle and associations.

Speaking of criminal associations, we’re introduced to Frankie Monaldi, AKA the inevitable Joe Pesci role. Sort of amazing that he hasn’t appeared in a movie I review up until now, since…y’know, it’s Joe goddamn Pesci. Also appearing is Joe (Burt Young), who presents the boys with an opportunity: a diamond heist. They carry it out as planned, with the assistance of teller Carol (Tuesday Weld), whose involvement is…unclear. See, she lets them in, although it appears to be trickery on her at first, but it becomes apparent that she’s in on the scene. She also…fakes sexual assault by Noodles on her by actually having sex with him? I think it’s consensual…but even I’m not sure.

The boys deliver the diamonds to Joe, only to take them all out at the behest of Frankie, who wanted to take out the competition that Joe posed. Noodles balks at this, as he dislikes the idea of working for a boss, fearing the future consequences of getting in bed with Manoldi and other mobsters.

Back in the late ‘60s, the news is reporting on the attempted assassination of the Secretary of Commerce, amidst reports of government corruption. This includes an interview with a man named Jimmie O’Donnell (Treat Williams), whom Noodles recognizes. We cut back in time to the 1930s, where union workers Jimmie is being intimidated by Chicken Joe (Richard Bright), possibly under the command of the government. Rescued by Noodles and the gang, Jimmie reluctantly accepts protection from the mob.

This is undercut by the appearance of obviously corrupt police chief Aiello (Danny…Aiello), who’s taking interviews on various allegations of corruption, as well as celebrating the birth of a son. But with that son at the moment is the gang, who;ve snuck into the newborn unit of the hospital to…switch around the bassinets? That is insanely chaotic in the weirdest ways. And sure enough, Noodles gives him a call, revealing their plot: stop the cops from interfering with the unions, and they’ll undo the switch. A very clever and insidious plot, while also being…kinda funny, not gonna lie. At least, it WOULD be…if Patsy hadn’t lost the switch list. Ooooooh…oh, yeah, that’s absolutely fucked.

At the same time, we find out what the deal is with Carol. Turns out she’s…we’ll I guess she’s a very committed swinger? She’s married, and worked at the jewelry store as her side job, which means she…didn’t know about the robbery plans? She just ran with it, including the assault? Well, I guess it was…consensual? Jesus, this is a weird kind of problematic. After becoming reacquainted with the boys, she starts a relationship with…Max. Yeah, this lady is all kinds of confusing, gotta say. She recommends a threesome with Noodles, but he’s not into it.

Instead, Noodles goes back to his true love: Deborah. They go on a date in a nice restaurant, where they are the only customers. On this date, Deborah reveals that she does indeed care about Noodles, but is afraid of the parameters of their potential relationship, desiring a freedom and holding an ambition for Hollywood that she believes she could never achieve with Noodles. In fact, she’s going to Hollywood right after this, despite her feelings. And I gotta say…this is one of the better love interest characters I’ve seen in these movies. Like, she’s not a helpless waif, because she knows what she wants from Noodles and from life. However…it doesn’t end well…because Noodles rapes her.

Fuck. It’s, uh…it’s hard to watch.

Well, after that absolute fucking horror show, Noodles takes some time to reflect, Deborah leaves for Hollywood permanently, and I start to realize that I’m watching a movie about a bad person. Like…I mean, I knew that, because he’s killed multiple people and is part of a budding crime syndicate, but it’s been somehow lessened by De Niro’s acting and the circumstances Noodles has been in, but…yeah, no, he’s a bad person. And as he watches Deborah leave on the train to Hollywood, and Deborah gives him the “fuck you you piece of shit” eyes (understandably), we…cut to intermission?

Wait…really? We’re 70% through the movie, and NOW you let me go to the bathroom? That makes…no sense. I mean…OK?

See you in Part Three, I guess.

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365days365movies · 2 years

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31 (Films) to Life: Once Upon a Time in America (1984) - Recap: Part One

...FOUR HOURS.

OK, technically 3 hours and 49 minutes including credits, BUT STILL...I don’t know if I’m ready for this. But OK, let’s get this started with some backstory, as usual. Once upon a time...in the West...

...there was a director named Sergio Leone. Born in Rome in 1929, Sergio is considered one of the greatest directors of all time, as well as arguably the most influential director of the Western genre. The originator of the "Spaghetti Western" (that is, a Western film made by an Italian director), Leone grew up around film, as the child of a director and silent film actress. Breaking into the industry with low-budget films like The Colossus of Rhodes, he eventually shifted his focus to the Western, taking inspiration from the films of Akira Kurosawa as well. And thus, in 1964...

The Clint Eastwood vehicle A Fistful of Dollars revitalizes the genre, as well as establishing Eastwood as a movie star and Leone as a star director. Leone was in the money now, and followed up Fistful with For a Few Dollars More and The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly, two more insanely iconic Westerns, with Eastwood at the helm and old schoolmate Ennio Morricone as music director and composer. This trilogy, called The Dollars Trilogy or Man with No Name Trilogy after the iconic Eastwood character, would set Leone's career in motion. And hey, if it worked once...

Paramount's calling! They've seen the first trilogy, and they'd like a make a movie with Sergio! Seeing opportunity knocking (as well as the chance to visit the USA and film there for the first time YES THE FIRST TIME YOU HEARD ME), Sergio accepted, and made the film Once Upon a Time in the West, starring Charles Bronson and Henry Fonda. This almost three hour film is still considered Sergio's best...and I will watch it one day.

Anyway, because Leone loved him some sequels, he made another one: Duck, You Sucker!, starring James Coburn and Rod Steiger. Another success, it was an indirect sequel to Once Upon a Time in the West, featuring no characters in common, but set in the same time period and setting. One of his more political films, it speaks on the nature of revolution and its consequences. Sort of a forgotten film nowadays, but well-received critically. It's also his last Western, as he moved onto comedy for a little while, as the world moved past Westerns as a whole, and into...

In 1971, Leone was approached to direct The Godfather...and he turned it down. Now, you may think this was a big mistake on his part, but hold on, because Leone actually had something else in the works at the time. See The Hoods, which was another novel about a mob family had been written by mobster Harry Grey, and it fascinated Leone. Having read it in the 1960s, he'd actually been developing a screenplay for it ever since finishing Once Upon a Time in America. Leone and Grey, mutual fans, met up and discussed Leone's plans: another trilogy. Once Upon a Time in the West, Duck, You Sucker, and the film based on Grey's book: Once Upon a Time in America. The theme? Well...America itself.

The film took over 16 years from concept to release, and brought in heavy hitters Robert de Niro and James Woods to star in it. At the end, Leone's pet project was 10 hours long, edited down by Nino Baragi to a paltry 6. He planned to split it into two parts and release it, but the producers feared failure if that happened. So, they cut it down even more, to 3 hours and 49 minutes. But that was only for Europe. In the USA, well...that was a little too long and two confusing for us, apparently, because the American studios reordered shots in the film, and shortened it to 2 hours. And Leone was PIIIIIIIIISSED.

But in the end, everything worked out. And by worked out, I mean people FUCKING DESPISED the US version, saying that it essentially ruined the film. Instead, the released European version was a smash hit, first in Europe, and then in the USA. Today, that's the version people know, and are able to watch on Netflix! And it's considered one of the best films ever made.

Leone would die 5 years after this film released, legacy firmly secured in the annals of film history. The film would win 2 BAFTAs (Music by Ennio Morricone, of course; and Costume Design by Gabriella Pescucci) and a couple of other awards, but the American cut was recieved SO POORLY, even the Academy Awards didn't cut this movie a break. And that's goddamn saying something, because the movie that won that year was...oh. OH SHIT

Oof. There's a question. Is this as good as Amadeus?

Because Amadeus, if you haven't seen it, is a DAMNED good movie, and swept the Oscars for Best Picture, Director, Actor, Adapted Screenplay, Sound Editing, Art Direction, Makeup, and Costume Design. YEAH. It won 8 Oscars. So, damn, that is a question, isn't it? Is this movie as good as Amadeus? And would it have stolen any Oscars from it? Ooooooh...let's find out!

SPOILERS AHEAD!!!

Recap: Part One

New York City, 1933. A woman enters her apartment at night. On her bed is an outline of a human being, made with bullet holes, like a chalk outline showing the location of a body. It was made by a group of men, looking for a "rat" that the young woman is affiliated with. They shoot her and leave her bleeding on the bed.

The men immediately make their way to beat up and interrogate another man in a gym, beating him to a bloody pulp until he tells them where to find him: Chun Lo's Chinese Theatre. The leader of the group makes his way to the theatre, the backrooms of which are an illegal opium den. In said opium den is our guy: Noodles (Robert De Niro). Laying low, Noodles reads the paper about three bootleggers, recently caught and killed by the feds.

As the phone rings, we flash back to the night those men were found, and find that Noodles was there in the sidelines, watching the authorities bundle up their bodies and take them away. From there, we go back even further, to a raucous party complete with an end-of-prohibition cake and a lot of alcohol. The phone rings this entire time, until Noodles eventually picks up the phone to call a Sergeant Halloran, implying that he was the one to prompt the deaths of those men. Scandalous.

This was unsurprisingly, an opium-fueled fever dream, which is interrupted by a snap back to the present. The men are searching the theatre and menacing its customers (including this uncomfortable scene where a dude uses his gun to touch a woman's nipple; it seems weird out of context, but it's also weird IN context). As the men search for him, Noodles escapes out the back of the theatre, narrowly evading capture.

He rescues the tortured man from earlier, shooting one of the mobsters in the back of the head. Said man tells him that the girl, Eve (Darlanne Fluegel) is dead, prompting Noodles to take a key to a locket in the station, and flee the city with a mysterious suitcase from the locker. From there, he heads...anywhere.

Fast-forward to the future year of 1968, backed by a version of Yesterday by the Beatles. A gray-haired Noodles returns to the city and calls Fat Moe (Larry Rapp), the tortured man from the beginning of the film. The two reunite, and Noodles tells him that he was summoned here by somebody. He takes this to mean that he’s finally been found after running away, and needs to be ready...for something. He also learns that the bodies of his dead friends have been moved, with the destruction of the synagogue graveyard.

It’s also revealed that the suitcase contained nothing when he pulled it out of the locker. This, amongst other truths, are revealed as Noodles looks at a wall of pictures in Moe’s upstairs apartment, where he is to stay for the foreseeable future. He makes his way downstairs, into a backroom, where he stares through a hole in the wall and remembers the past, all the way back to 1918. And through that wall?

Hey, it’s Jennifer Connelly! And she’s playing Deborah, Fat Moe’s sister, and an aspiring dancer. We found out earlier that she’s apparently a big star in the modern year of 1968, so her future is bright. Also, while I’m at it, a young Jeniffer Connelly is, well...a young Jennifer Connelly. You ever see Labyrinth? Her acting is about the same here as it was there. So, not amazing, just saying. Giving me a lot of flashbacks.

A young David “Noodles” Aaronson (Scott Tiler) was watching from this backroom, and stops as Deborah starts to change out of her clothes, which is awkward for all involved. She also KNOWS he’s back there, telling her brother that there was a roach in the backroom. He confronts her afterwards, and she tells him off in the young Jennifer Connelly style (just trust me, it’ll get you thinking of David Bowie’s crotch faster than you’d expect).

Outside, Noodles joins up with his friends, all of whom commit street-level crimes for a local street boss, Bugsy (James Russo). After getting screwed out of a score by a kid named Max (Rusty Jacobs), Noodles returns home to an unpleasant home situation. There’s also an INCREDIBLY awkward sexual encounter with an equally underaged neighbor girl, and GODDAMN is it awkward.

After that, Noodles runs into Max, whose family is moving to Manhattan from the Bronx. Wanting revenge for the stolen score from earlier, Noodles steals a watch from him, only for it to be stolen in turn by a corrupt police officer. From that, the two form an unlikely friendship. Max, in fact, has a camera, which the two use to blackmail the policeman. How? By catching him having sex with Peggy (Julie Bowen) the neighbor girl from before, who happens to be an underage prostitute. Guhhhhhhh.

Max and Noodles convince the cop to act in their service, rather than the service of Bugsy. With their gang of kids, the five plot to start their own street-level organization, away from the influence of Bugsy, and without interference from the cops. This, by the way, is also while both Noodles have their, uh...turn with Peggy. Oh, God, I feel gross typing that, holy shit. However, Noodles is conflicted, as he’s definitely in love with young Deborah. And a short interaction between the two of them during Passover seems the indicate the feelings are mutual. They actually nearly kiss, until, Noodles is called outside by Max.

But as the two are talking, they’re approached by Bugsy and his men, who’ve heard about their plans to go independent. They beat the ever-loving shit out of them both, which also cements their desire to vengeance against the street-boss. It also ruins any chance of romance for Deborah and Noodles, as she understandably sees him as dangerous.

Time passes, and the boys enter a new scheme: bootlegging. This is the era of the Prohibition, after all, and alcohol is a big business. Noodles comes up with a way to hide alcohol in the water, using a clever delayed buoy method. The buoys are thrown in the water, where they sink until salt inside of the buoy dissolves, causing the alcohol inside to float up to the surface. It’s clever! And it works, as the boys get independently wealthy off of the scheme.

However, our child gang quickly runs into trouble, resulting in Bugsy shooting and killing Dominic (Noah Moazezi), who dies in Noodles’ arms. Yeah, uh,,,shit. This results in Noodles stabbing Bugsy to death…and then stabbing a cop that comes to break up the fight. Um. Fuck. Noodles is officially going to jail. Yikes.

Which makes this a great time to pause! Time for Part Two!

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