Thanks to studio butchery when it was released in 1984, Sergio Leone’s sprawling gangster epic Once Upon A Time In America did not reach the American public in the way it was intended. Thankfully, the wonderful world of DVD now allows us to see this incredible film the way Leone wanted us to - all four hours of it.

When Noodles (Robert DeNiro) receives a message bringing him back to New York after a long absence, he wades through his past as a young gangster, trying to unravel the mystery of who is dredging up an era he has left far behind.

Fans of The Godfather Part II will be at home with Once Upon A Time In America's conceit. Like Coppola’s legendary film, Once Upon... moves back and forth between eras. Coppola's epic moves between two time periods, while Leone's manages to juggle three, following the life and times of a group of Jewish gangsters from their days as children during the Depression, as thriving young gangsters in their 20s, and (focusing almost exclusively on a great DeNiro performance) as older men in the 1960s.

All About The Pacing
While this film is a gangster epic, don't expect the kind of bang and clatter Hollywood violence of Goodfellas or Scarface. With the exception of an early, bloody scene and a later (and very disturbing) rape scene, the violence here tends to be quick, almost over before it begins. Once Upon A Time In America is not a film that lives for the violent moment. This film does not scream, it broods.

Here, course language, explicit sexual situations, and bloody confrontations are used not as a means to tell a story, but to punctuate long stretches of moody storytelling. Leone takes his time letting the story unravel. The camera holds shots for ages. Pieces of the puzzle – how the events of the past relate to the present - are revealed very deliberately and very slowly throughout the course of these four hours. If you know the style Leone strutted in Once Upon A Time In The West, you'll be familiar with the pacing here.

Those who relish in the kind of tempo Leone works in, those who enjoy dwelling in a moment and in letting images tell the story, will absolutely love Leone's filmmaking here. All the style he developed in his beloved “Spaghetti Westerns” is on display here, only tenfold. But those easily bored or who want their stories to move forward at a quick pace may find themselves checking the clock two hours in. Some may think the film ponderous. This reviewer thinks it’s a work of art.

How Is The DVD Release?
This DVD edition splits the film over two discs (in a bizarre editing decision, cutting the film off mid-scene). The picture looks good, though grainy at points. You’re not going to show off your home theater with this, but you won’t complain, either. The sound is great, with Ennio Morricone’s best score to-date anchoring the audio.

The extras, however, leave a lot to be desired. After investing yourself in 240 minutes of film, it’s nice to have some strong supplementary material on hand. Instead we get a brief 20-minute excerpt from a pre-existing documentary on Sergio Leone, and a solid (if dry and repetitive) commentary track. That's all.

Despite those minor flaws, Once Upon A Time In America is certainly one of the great gangster films ever made, loaded with style and grace. It is an under-seen and underappreciated masterpiece that should be seen at least once by all who love film.