YMMV / Once Upon a Time in America

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• Adaptation Displacement: Many don't even realize that Harry Grey's book exists.
• Award Snub: Ennio Morricone's score was not nominated for an Academy Award thanks to an error on the submission form.
• Awesome Music: Naturally, as it has a soundtrack by Ennio Morricone. Not only that, but Sergio Leone considered the film's soundtrack the best work that Morricone had ever done for him. Just think about that for a second. Particularly awesome: Morricone's instrumentals of The Beatles' "Yesterday"—which ultimately makes Noodles' reunion with Max all the more poignant.
• Catharsis Factor: Even though Noodles injured a police officer and got arrested shortly after, one can't help but agree that Bugsy deserved to be stabbed after he abused Noodles and Max and murdered Dominic, the youngest boy of Noodles' crew.
• Common Knowledge: It's often claimed that Leone has a Creator Cameo as the ticket seller in the bus station. Though the actor bears a facial resemblance to Leone, he's much thinner and clearly speaking English (of which Leone spoke little) as his native language.
• Funny Moments:
  • When Max collects Noodles after his release from prison, he brings a nude woman in his hearse as a "gift". As she and Noodles get it on, Max climbs into the driver's seat of the hearse... just as a passer-by hears the sound of laughter coming from the back and sees the hearse shaking back and forth.
    Max: [innocently] Turning over in the grave. They do it every time! [drives off, leaving the passer-by stunned]
  • Max's purchase of an elaborate chair that was a gift to a Pope. And according to the commentary it may even be a self-deprecating joke, as Sergio Leone was an avid furniture collector.
• Heartwarming Moments: Noodles' reunion with Max.
• Moral Event Horizon:
  • Crossed by Noodles himself when he rapes Deborah in the back of a moving taxi. What makes this worse than his rape of Carol is that Deborah was actively refusing his advances and took absolutely no pleasure in the act.
  • Max tricking Noodles into tipping off to the cops, faking his death, and taking all of the money from the suitcase for himself, which gets Patsy and Cockeye killed and leaves Noodles destitute and guilt-ridden, effectively ruining his life. All of this was done for the sake of ambition and greed.
  • Bugsy also crosses this when he fatally shoots Dominic.
• Nightmare Fuel: Noodles' rape of Deborah is definitely this, as it's several minutes of brutal, graphic rape with no Gory Discretion Shot involved. Worse is that Noodles is the main character, and this scene proves that he is no better than his friends or rivals.
• Retroactive Recognition:
  • 12-year-old Jennifer Connelly makes her film debut as the young Deborah. Brian Bloom is young Patsy.
  • William Forsythe in one of his earliest roles as Cockeye.
  • Estelle Harris (of Seinfeld and Toy Story fame) as young Peggy's mother.
• Special Effect Failure: '60s Deborah barely looks any older than in the '30s in stark contrast to everyone else, likely because the scene has her removing theater makeup and Elizabeth McGovern having another makeup job under it which wouldn't get removed was unworkable.
  • Part of the character's look in these scenes is clearly done for symbolic reasons. Deborah is supposed to be frozen in time, exactly as she was when Noodles last saw her. As the line in the play (that Noodles quotes) says, "Age cannot wither her."
• Tear Jerker: Poor Little Dominic. The music makes it even worse when it happens.
• Vindicated by History: While the original 229-minute European cut was always highly regarded, the US release was made over an hour shorter and had the order of events changed thanks to Executive Meddling. Critics and audiences were left confused thanks to the removal of several scenes. As a result, the film was a financial flop and received lukewarm reactions. The few American critics who praised the film were the ones who had seen the original cut, and some even attacked The Ladd Company and the American release. The original 229-minute release has since been made widely available, and the film is now widely recognized as a classic.

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