This video convinced me that this is perhaps the greatest Mafia/Gangster film of all time.

Samtemdo8

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And that film, is Once Upon A Time In America by Sergio Leone of Spaghetti Western fame like The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly.


As I watched the video and how it explained in great detail what the movie is about and how it compares to its contemporaries before and after its release, I am convinced that this movie is perhaps better then the Godfather, Goodfellas, Scarface, and the Sopranos, and even the Irishman.

And as the video explains this movie killed the Gangster genre, as in killed how we commonly portrayed these gangster films prior to its release. And what it killed was the Romanticism of the Gangster. Films like Scarface and even the Godfather and especially older Gangster films from the 1930s to 60s and such tend to show a romantic side of the gangster story. These criminals are charming rogues living lives of luxury but earned through criminal and murderous methods, the story of a gangsters the rise from the streets to power and fortune and eventual downfall.

But Once Upon Time, completely destroys that illusion, the gangsters in this movie are all unsympathetic, selfish, greedy bullies with no honor, dignity, and loyalty, there was no romanticism in the rise to power and fortune, and the downfall is made all the more tragic and depressing.

The character that James Woods plays in the film is pretty much the worse of the bunch, he betrayed and killed everyone and got away with the spoils for himself. And how the video portrays the conclusion and ending of the film was rather striking for me.

I have never seen this movie at all before and this video convinced me to now actually attempt to buy the blu ray copy of the director's cut on Amazon, because this film is like arguably a bigger Epic then the Godfather, without the romanticism.
 

Ezekiel

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It was good, but I found the Italian written dialogue awkward at times and the story overlong without really being that significant. I would say Scorsese, Coppola and David Chase did the mafia better or at least more entertainingly.
 

Ezekiel

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Am I thinking of someone else or did you talk excitedly about it and say you would watch it about three years ago? If you did, what's keeping you?
 

BrawlMan

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I got tired of gangster film/shows after the Sopranos. Too many people I knew obsessed over them, or were trying to come off as wannabe gangsters or wise guys. After you've seen 10-15 gangster/crime drama shows, you've seen them all at this point. It's even worse with prison films.