Growing up I was raised watching many films that my
father would watch, and at the time I wouldn’t understand most of it but as I
have grown I have developed a better understanding of films and film making. One
of the films that have inspired me to work in the media department would have
to be “Once Upon A Time In America”. Seeing as I am hoping to succeed in script
writing, I tend to keep a firm notice on speech segments that are really moving
in their own way. To me that’s what makes a film great and even though this
does have some great lines and even though none in particular stood out to me it
is a brilliantly written piece of film. What make this film great are the plot
and the character development.
The
film is an epic story based around the Jewish lifestyle of the 1920’s and the
rise to success for the criminal underworld during the prohibition area of the
1930’s. The film was adapted from the novel The Hoods, (which was written by
Harry Grey).
The narrative followed the story of “Noodles”;
the film is in non-chronological order showing each stage of “Noodles” life. We
are to believe that we are in the 1960’s where Noodles is an old man now, and
is flashing back to the days of his youth.
As
a young boy, “Noodles” and his friends began a somewhat gang, doing anything
for money and we join them at the stage when a new friend joins, Max. Max is in
some ways “Noodles” equal; he can challenge him which makes them more the
friends. During their attempt to success in the gang world, one of their
friends is murdered in a brilliantly hard-hitting scene. In retaliation Noodles
kills the murderer which leads him to go to prison.
We
return to 1960’s to see Noodles trying to discover who has found him, and why
someone is even after him. The audience at this time would be aware that
Noodles is a “rat” considering the opening segment is of gangsters trying to
kill him. He then has received a contract for some reason we are not fully sure
of but we assume that someone wants Noodles to kill a target.
It
now flashes back to the 1930’s where Noodles is released from prison and Max is
there to greet him and this is where you truly see the comparison in change in
lifestyle, from wearing rugged sheets of clothes and now Max is wearing fine
clothing smoking what we assume a very expensive cigar. This scene and a couple
others after kind of gives the impression of “pro-crime” it shows what the gang
has achieved whilst Noodles has been away. through being criminals, they have
money, cars, clothes, drink, love, a boss hangout, respect, power everything
people really lust for in life. You start to gain respect for the gang and want
them to succeed, they give you the impression they are the hero of the story,
especially Noodles and Max. as the story progresses you start to forget all
that and think on a logical level of who these people are, which are criminals
and they commit horrible acts to gain anything they want such as stealing,
bullying, murder, rape everything that makes a person considered evil and
should have no sympathy for.
As
expected something goes wrong for them which cause them to lose their money
income and Max plans something drastic to which Noodle is completely against
because he knows what will happen if they attempt it, death. Noodles only solution to stop it is to tell
the police of a smuggle run they are doing so they all get arrested, which
prevents them from dying.
Throughout the film we have a
great understanding of Noodles feelings to the main female protagonist, Debra.
She is a symbol of what innocence is affected by the gangster lifestyle, she is
also in love with Noodles and has always been but she doesn’t like what he has
become and chooses her career over him. This action drives Noodles into a deep
depression and causes him to harm her and then she leaves and we don’t see her
again until towards the last few scenes of the film.
When
Noodles goes to tell the police, Max is fully aware of what he is doing but
continues anyway which only makes the audience ask, why? Max prevents Noodles
from being part of the smuggling and continues with the smuggling anyway which
leads Max and the rest of the gang to have a gunfight with the police. Everyone
in the gang dies, leaving Noodles to fall into a deeper depression, causing his
best friend to die, leaving him alone for the rest of his life.
Once
again we are back in the 1960’s where Noodles has got a mysterious contract to
kill someone but Noodles is too aware to go in guns blazing and needs to know what’s going on. He goes to person that is
left, Debra, who has now become a successful actress. She reveals that Max
isn’t dead but has simply faked his death and become a governor. Noodles and
Max confront each other and due to corruption issues with Max, Max is begging
Noodles to kill him but because of their past Noodles can’t do it and
leaves. Max still goes ahead and kills
himself in a very grim way but once again Noodles is left alone with nothing
but his guilt. The film ends straight after Noodles has told the police about
the smuggling in 1930’s, and Max and the gang are dead. Noodles then goes to a
Chinese Drug House to get high, he stares into the camera and then smiles and
he drifts off into highness.
The
cast of this film in my opinion were brilliant and some of the actor/actresses
performances truly changed my feelings towards them.
Character
|
Actor (adult)
|
David "Noodles" Aaronson
|
|
Maximilian "Max" Bercovicz /
Christopher Bailey
|
|
Deborah Gelly
|
|
Patrick "Patsy" Goldberg
|
|
Philip "Cockeye" Stein
|
|
Carol
|
|
Moe "Fats" Gelly
|
Larry Rapp
|
Frankie Manoldi
|
|
James Conway O'Donnell
|
|
Bugsy
|
|
Peggy
|
Amy Ryder
|
Joe Minaldi
|
|
Chief Vincent Aiello
|
|
Eve
|
The film received an 8.4 on the
official movie database website, and has been ranked as number 78 in the top
best 250 films. Now in my opinion this film deserved a whole lot more, award
wise. The picture was great, the acting was spectacular, especially by James
Woods, the writing and soundtrack was perfect. I believe it at least deserved a
nomination for an Oscar in those departments, but no it only got nominated for
Golden Globes, didn’t win just nominated.
Now what I like about this film
is the overall themes it achieves, it’s a bit for everyone in a gangster style
film. It has friendship, betrayal, anger, revenge, envy, obsession, love and a
whole lot more. The main attraction for
me of this film is the character development between the main three
protagonists; Noodles (Robert De Niro), Max (James Woods) & Deborah
(McGovern).
Noodles- he is the main protagonist of the film, you follow this character throughout living the experience with him. What makes this character so great is what he represents as part of the gang, the one that is unsure on the lifestyle. He likes everything simple but still is willing to go that bit further as a gangster to gain what he wants. He grew up during a struggling time for the Jewish community in America and did what he could to achieve the “American Dream” which is basically money and power, but as the films develops you notice that isn’t he really wanted. He just wanted to simple life with the girl he loved and his friends close by. Money was a factor of his life but wasn’t THE factor that drives him compared to other characters. There are many examples which show his distaste for the gang lifestyle, one of the examples is when they have robbed someone and just killed the supplier due to high up orders. Noodles starts arguing with Max about how he isn’t comfortable to stab friends in the back. During the mid stages of his life he constantly gives the impression that he misses the old days when they was doing the odd job of “rolling drunks” or “waking a deadbeat” seeing as it was more of an innocent time for them, before he lost a good friend. During his older stage of life, he is very depressed and cautious of everything around him due to the fact he is wanted by the mafia. We know this from his constant back against the wall; he is always watching his surroundings in certain areas. But even though we follow this character as if he was the hero, he still acts in a style that is deemed as villainous. even though we care more for him as the protagonist, we still would understand and respect him having a violent end to his life. Robert De Niro’s performance was spectacular, during this stage of his real life, he was making great gangster style films with dominate characters but I would have to consider this as his best role. he is playing a character he has done many time before but is the simplified character that we all want to live and in my opinion is quite simple most realistic to play that character that wants out but cant.
·
Max- he is my favorite character in the film, it is such a powerful
character with creative aspects that just challenges the audience to understand
who he is. This performance by James Woods was truly brilliant; he is in my top
ten actors ever. People may say he is the same character in most films
including this one which I don’t agree with but even with that this was early
stage in James career. James showed his potential as an actor and I think was
Oscar nomination worthy at the least. His character represents the corruption
that the country at the time went through, how people were determined to
achieve the “American Dream” by any means necessary. Unlike Noodles, he was
power hungry and his only goal seemed to
be money but when you watch the film over and over you realize his obsession
was more than power and money (even thought that’s what he ended with) what he
truly wanted was to be Noodles. He saw the friendship he had with everyone and
Max wanted to be a part of that but when Noodles goes to prison, he takes it
upon himself to take control of the group but then that’s not even enough. When
he fakes his death he takes the one thing Noodles really wanted which was
Debra, a life with a girl of Noodles dream. He is driven by his obsession of
money, power & Noodles that his anger takes most control over him towards
the end. When Noodles calls Max crazy, Max looses it and wanders off to calm
himself down so that his overall goal isn’t revealed. Even the actor that plays
the young Max is very good considering that there are key points that show the
fact he is crazy and driven by these elements.
·
Deborah- to me Deborah seems to be the only truly innocent one in the
film, everyone was corrupted to gain the “American Dream” but she tried to
achieve it by doing something honorable with her life and became a ballerina
and successful actress. She is in love with Noodles and genuinely cares for him
but doesn’t want to be associated with that lifestyle of crime so when she sees
Noodles after the time in prison, she decides to leave him to it, which does
break Noodles but was the best decision for her. Unfortunately something beyond
upsetting happens to her which makes you hate other characters a whole lot
more, but that is the purpose of her being in the story - to show the innocence
being destroyed by the evil in the world. She is the girl that makes the
audience want to constantly follow seeing as she is so beautiful, considering
the other characters are older. Comparing their looks and behavior, you can
tell that she is the light of this darkness that is desired by everyone.
These three characters truly make the film with the
delivery of acting but also by the actions performed. Every scene you feel the emotion, you feel the
connection between every character and are constantly edged on to watch more
even the ending is already told to you, you want to know what happens to every
character. Now music and sound is of key importance to today’s films and shows
etc. it is used to create more meaning within a scene and the music this film
uses work throughout.
The soundtracks to
the films are below;
These below are some scenes that I think are
brilliantly written and have a big impact on the story, characters and audience
influence. Be advised some of the scenes are for mature audiences only.
Eat Cake Scene-
now this scene is a very moving one when you think about it in depth, to the
untrained eye it would simple mean the kid would rather eat then get his end
away, but to me it shows a lot more to the storyline. For starters I just want
to point out how different people tried to achieve their version of the
“American Dream”, how it was also a struggle to the kids of that time. The boys
were involved in gang activities, hurting and stealing but what is worse is how this young girl is selling herself for a
piece of cake, shows how desperate times were and how it affected everyone in a
household. To me this scene is meant to shows the innocence of the lad, he is
working and behaving like a adult criminal and sees fit to “purchase” a women
as a adult criminal would but whilst waiting the temptation of having something
sweet to eat is meant to remind the audience that he is a kid living in a adult
world. The audience has sympathy for him, for what is about to come and change
the group. It’s a reminder of the purity they once have, this is achieved by
the fact it’s a flashback but also the music used at this time helps achieve the
message, its slow smoothing innocent music.
Friend Dying- now
this scene is really depressing, and it backs up a lot of what I have been
saying about how the innocence has gone and how Noodles was affected by this so
much. That’s the cut off point for when
his life just went wrong and it is the time before this scene that Noodles desperately
wants to go back to as it was a simpler time. The acting by everyone in this is
spectacular, the kids fall when shot, his one line “I slipped”, and the
reactions on everyone’s face. The reaction I always notice in this scene is Max’s
face just when Noodles stabs Bugsy. You see Max is about to charge Bugsy and
attack in some way but Noodles beats him to it, the face reaction provide a
range of what he could be thinking. Everyone’s interpretation couldn’t be wrong
but my interpretation is anger and regret from Max. This is the first sign that
Max is crazy and just wanted to hurt Bugsy no matter what but the fact Noodles
beats him to it, makes him angry that he doesn’t intervene when the police are approaching.
Max sees this as his opportunity to let Noodles leave and now take control of
the group. What I also like about this scene is the clothing the gang is
wearing, everyone in the gang is wearing nice suit, mafia wannabe style of
clothing expect from the kid that dies. My impression of what he is wearing is
of a mother buys her child for a family portrait, not as clothing that
represent power and success, so again this is meant to represent the innocence
they had as child being killed at this one moment.
Rape Scene- I am
not going to show this scene because it is a very distressing scene to watch
but I think it has great value to the narrative and character development. As I
mentioned earlier, Debra tells Noodles that she is going to leave and he hurts
her because he is so depressed by the news. I have read many comments about the
scene saying how it was unneeded and was in just for shock value, but to me it
shows two things. The first being it
showed how hurt Noodles was by the fact his love was abandoning him so he wanted
her to feel the pain as well. And the
second thing this scene does is remind the audience that this is a film about
gangster, criminals, people you should hate. You shouldn’t have sympathy for
this guy because he is bad, this is when the film starts to go “anti-criminal”
and makes it more realistic in my opinion. It is a shocking scene but it is a
great and realistic way to put across that he isn’t the good guy. By violating
Debra, he demonstrates that he is a criminal.
In my opinion this is one of the greatest examples
of filmmaking ever made, how each aspect of the film has been written is
brilliant. It is something I can try to base my own career upon, to aim for
something dynamic in the writing aspect. I believe that it is a shame that the
film and actors didn’t achieve more credibility that it did deserve but
nevertheless the film in one of my inspirational pieces that have pushed me
towards the career path I have chosen.
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