Once Upon a Time in America, the epic period dramastarring Robert De Niroin one of his most iconic mobster roles,is finally coming to Paramount+ on August 08, 2025. The film, released in 1984, was a critical and commercial failure in the United States, grossing a meager $5.5 million on a $30 million budget, but has since been acclaimed.
It was directed and co-written bySpaghetti Western legendSergio Leone, best known forA Fistful of Dollars(1964),Once Upon a Time in the West(1968), andThe Good, the Bad and the Ugly(1966). The film, which also stars James Woods, Elizabeth McGovern, Treat Williams, and Burt Young, has one of the longest runtimes in cinema.
The initial runtime ofOnce Upon a Time in Americawas 269 minutes, but it was reduced to 251 minutes during its screening at the 2012 Cannes Film Festival. However, the standard runtime was eventually brought down to 229 minutes, while the American release was horribly butchered to only 139 minutes. The official synopsis for the movie is as follows:
“In 1968, the elderly David ‘Noodles’ Aaronson (Robert De Niro) returns to New York, where he had a career in the criminal underground in the ’20s and ’30s. Most of his old friends, like longtime partner Max (James Woods), are long gone, yet he feels his past is unresolved. Told in flashbacks, the film follows Noodles from a tough kid in a Jewish slum in New York’s Lower East Side, through his rise to bootlegger and then Mafia boss – a journey marked by violence, betrayal and remorse.”
The Italian director had 10 hours of film to deal with once its production was completed, but he had to eventually trim the movie to six hours, and so on. However, the film’s reception was exceptionally poor in the 1980s, which greatly hurt the filmmaker. Sadly,Leone died of a heart attack in 1989 at the age of 60, butOnce Upon a Time in Americaremainsone of his greatest films, remembered for decades.
Why You Should Watch Once Upon a Time in America
Once Upon a Time in Americais perhaps best remembered for being a commercial flop in the 1980s, but many people are unaware that it has been reevaluated like many other epic films that bombed (such asHeaven’s Gate) and is now considered an underappreciated masterpiece. Apparently,the story is told in chronological order: 1910s, 1930s, and 1960s. However, when the studio split the film into three versions, most of its originality was lost, leading to a butchered work that became a disaster in the 1980s.
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If you’re able to get your hands on the director’s cut,Once Upon a Time in Americawill quickly become one of your favorites, since it perfectly captures Sergio Leone’s passion for storytelling. In fact,the picture boasts an 86% critics score and 93% audience score on Rotten Tomatoes, which is more than most films can hope for. While it is Siskel’s favorite movie of 1984, Roger Ebert rated it rather favorably, summarizing itin his personal blogas follows:
The original Once Upon a Time in America gets a four-star rating. The shorter version is a travesty.
The shortened version of the film loses many of its beautiful shots and complicates the character relationships, which serve as foundations for the overarching story. So, once the film is available on Paramount+, make sure you also view the director’s cut.
Once Upon a Time in America
Once Upon a Time in America tells the story of a group of Jewish gangsters in New York City over several decades, from their youth in the 1920s to their final days in the 1960s. Robert De Niro and James Woods star in the 1984 crime drama directed by Sergio Leone.
