To choose the top ten epic films in film history, "Once Upon a Time in America" must be selected.
A story spanning more than forty years is easy to write into a novel, because the reader can read it for a long enough time, immerse himself in the writer's words, and feel the vicissitudes of the years.
To make a movie, it is much more difficult.
Because the audience usually only has about two hours to get involved.
So film creators need to find ways to infuse the essence into a limited film.
Sergio Leone did.
His last directorial work, Once Upon a Time in America, before his death, is not the standard for telling epic stories, but it is a perfect demonstration.
The Godfather series tells the tragic life of gangster character Michael Corleone in three films, and Sergio Leone had the opportunity to get involved in the series, but he has already targeted another gangster character and has been busy revising the script.
Before that, his "Dart Trilogy" was famous in Europe and the United States.
However, the subsequent "Once Upon a Time in the West" and "Once Upon a Time in the Revolution" did not do well at the box office, which made him questioned by Hollywood studios.
Rejecting the Godfather's offer seemed a foolish decision at the time.
In 1972, Francis Ford Coppola became famous for this gangster film. Not only did Sergio Leone miss the golden opportunity to turn around, but his carefully prepared "Once Upon a Time in America" was also affected.
Some producers believe that "Once Upon a Time in America", which also involves gangster themes, will only be a poor imitation of "The Godfather", so they do not want to shoot and bear the infamy.
(Members of the Corleone family in The Godfather)
Sergio Leone had to look for another investor, and it took a decade.
Saion lost his horse, and he knew that it was not a blessing.
In the 13 years from "Once Upon a Time in the Revolution" to "Once Upon a Time in America", Sergio Leone did not have any new directors, but participated in the production of films such as "The Unknown Boy" as a producer and screenwriter.
Unable to start filming, he got more time to continue polishing the script.
It was not until the early 80s that the script that was polished to the extreme finally met Bó Lè.
Leone received $40 million in investment, and the crew filmed in Rome, Venice, Paris and other places, successfully reproducing the new York scene of the 20s and 30s.
Robert De Niro, who has become an Oscar winner, has long been the male number one confirmed by Leone. Not only did he not give up the performance because of the change of time, but he even provided advice for casting.
Legend has it that Al Pacino also accepted an offer from Once Upon a Time in America, perhaps a good thing de Niro did.
Al Pacino didn't make it, and another big coffee, Joe Pesci, made up for a little regret.
Presumably because of his friendly relationship with De Niro, he made a cameo appearance as Frankie, a gangster boss who worked with the protagonist group.
I don't know if it was because the writing time was too long, Leone's script exceeded the capacity of an ordinary commercial film.
Even if it was three hours, it could not carry what he wanted to express.
He wanted to make a compromise and cut the finished film into upper and lower parts to meet the filmmaker's time requirements.
However, contrary to his wishes, he could only cut out a 229-minute version of the film. The result can be imagined, and the film side can only refuse.
In order not to waste $40 million, Leone refused to make any more deletions, and the filmmakers had to do it themselves and forcibly cut out a 139-minute release version.
As a result, because the plot became inexplicable, it attracted a lot of scolding and failed miserably at the box office.
As if Coppola had been devastated by the failure of Apocalypse Now, Leone had been devastated, and he had not released a new director since, dying in 1989 at the age of 60.
Classic movies of about 4 hours are not uncommon, such as "Gone with the Wind", "The Juvenile Murder Incident on Muling Street", etc., and the 1966 version of "War and Peace" even exceeded 400 minutes.
These astonishingly long works test the patience of the audience, especially when the story is chronologically followed.
"Once Upon a Time in America" is different, Leone did not choose to start from the protagonist Goodles' childhood, but moved out the key events that determined The fate of Goodles from the beginning.
Noodles are being hunted down by unidentified people, and three of their friends have been killed. He had to choose to run, and since then he has left his hometown, changed his name and surname, and his life has been bleak.
Years later, after receiving notice of the relocation of the graves of the three friends, he returned to New York and found another friend, Fat Fat, who was still alive.
After 35 years, both Noodles and Fat Man are suspicious of the past.
The two time and space are intertwined, and people can't help but wonder, what the hell is going on?
One of the great uses of non-linear narratives that break through time is to create suspense.
Noodles and fat people meet each other and know that fat people are not traitors;
The fat man thought that The Goodles had taken a large amount of money and ran away, and when he saw the Goodles, he realized that it was someone else who had taken the money.
Who the hell took the huge sum of money in the box?
What is the origin of the huge amount of money?
Who told Goodles of the relocation of the burial place of the three dead brothers, who knew that he had been anonymized.
Why did the three brothers die?
Is it true that, as the people who hunted down Goodles said, Noodles were the traitors who tip-off their brothers?
Was it to take away the huge amount of money and finally pounced?
If so, why did he still have the face to come back to see the fat man?
If not, what is the truth?
A series of questions lead the audience into the life of Goodles.
Unlike Kubrick's "Killer", which directly tells the audience the specific time after the transition through the narration, the time and space transformation of "Once Upon a Time in America" explains everything through the picture alone.
A variety of exquisite montages seamlessly connect the three time and space of the 20s, 30s and 60s.
Noodles leaves New York, and the picture cuts to the glass door in the middle.
By the time Nooodles came out from behind the door, they were already two sideburns white.
35 years, fleeting.
Noodles snooped in the toilet at the Fat Bar.
Then there is the picture of film history that can no longer be classic.
Jennifer Connery, who plays teenage Deborah, dances.
Cutting back into the peephole, a handsome teenager appeared.
Obviously, this is the teenage Goodles.
And he was in love with Deborah.
The same scene, connecting the two time and space, the audience can easily understand the director's intentions.
But in the absence of a step-by-step preparation, if you want to have a sense of the vicissitudes of the world, so that the audience can resonate with the characters, it is not enough to rely on superb editing.
At this time, Leone's golden partner, the soundtrackist Enio Morricone, played an important role.
Together with his melodious and sentimental theme music, with the changing picture of time and space, the character's thousand feelings are self-evident.
Noodles has grown from an ignorant teenager to a middle-aged uncle, although the time span is a bit long, but the plot of "Once Upon a Time in America" is not complicated.
It tells the story of how Theoodles and Max and several other brothers set up a gang, how they disagree, and eventually collapse.
Many commentators have said that this is not only a film about gangster struggles, but also about life, and the taste is mixed.
It seems that the theme of the film is very broad, about friendship and betrayal, about love and ideals, about time and hatred.
Here I want to streamline it, a more important core.
There are two main story lines.
One is the brother line;
One is the love line.
The sibling line is the entanglement of The Goodles and Max.
They are the eldest brothers of the protagonist group, but there are many differences in their personalities.
Max is ambitious and dares to take risks;
Noodles just wanted to be a street hustler so they could be at ease. It's enough to make money, there's no need to take risks in order to make more money. Because he had already lost a brother, he didn't want to lose another brother.
The so-called one mountain cannot accommodate two tigers, and the split between the two is sooner or later.
It's just that the cost of division is simply too great.
The love line is a broken thread between Goodles and Deborah.
Deborah is obsessed with entering high society and dreams of dancing in the spotlight. This dwarfs The Goodles' "self-indulgent depravity."
Two people have different outlooks on life, and it is naturally difficult to come together.
But love is so wonderful, loving a person does not require the same concept.
And how to let go of this love is a life test that both of them need to face.
Max and Deborah are two characters in the film who do not have much intersection but unusually similar personalities.
They all have strong personal desires, strong enough to sacrifice the people they love.
Noodles said to Deborah, "Your tone is a lot like Max's. ”
This line hints at some connection between the two.
Max gave up friendship in order to satisfy his ambitions;
Deborah gave up love in order to realize her ideals.
The two victims of satisfying their desires are Both Goodles.
One of the lines in the ending, Nooodles, is a super point that the director wants to express.
"A lifetime of hard work, if it is a busy time, it is a pity."
Ostensibly a hypothetical sentence, it is actually an affirmative sentence.
Max and Deborah fulfilled their original desires and got everything they wanted. But they also lost everything they had, everything more precious.
Noodles knows what he wants, and he pays more attention to people's emotional value.
Both Max and Deborah have lost what he values most, but based on emotion and don't want to admit it, they decide that their story is "real".
Deborah achieved his ideals and became a famous actor, not living better and more comfortable with himself;
Noodles tried to stop Max from committing a suicide robbery, but although unsuccessful, the great friendship between the brothers was never lost.
There are really some things in the world that are more important and more precious than money, than power. It is not worth it to exchange these things for money and power.
36 years have passed since the release of "Once Upon a Time in America", and the world, like the time and space transformation in the movie, has long been a thing.
The golden duo of Leone and Morricone both passed away;
Joe Pesci chose to go into hiding until "The Irishman" was invited out of the mountains by his friends;
De Niro is firm on the front line of Hollywood, incorruptible and old, and can still eat.
Jennifer Connery has become a hollywood powerhouse, and her masterpiece is far from only "Once Upon a Time in America".
But even so, countless people still remember her dance vividly.
Time has changed a lot.
But some things can't be changed.
Sergio Leone created the pinnacle trilogy of Westerns in the 60s, and his directing abilities did not degrade in the 80s.
"Once Upon a Time in America" came to the 1920s, nearly a hundred years after the beginning of the story in 1921, the classic he cast is still the eternal glory of film history.