--- title: "Once Upon a Time in America: the reviews" canonical: "https://film.one/film/once-upon-a-time-in-america/reviews" title_page: "https://film.one/film/once-upon-a-time-in-america" critics_score: 78 critics_reviews: 12 licence: "© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL." --- # Once Upon a Time in America (1984): what the critics said Critics' score 78 from 12 reviews: 9 positive, 1 mixed, 2 negative. Most critics admire it, and the admiration clusters in the same places: the scale of the thing, the four-decade flashback structure, Ennio Morricone’s score and the care of the period reconstruction. Robert De Niro and James Woods are singled out repeatedly. Several reviews make the same distinction, that the film barely works as a gangster picture and succeeds instead as an elegy about a man broken by time, with recurring images doing the work the plot does not. The reservations are consistent too. The plotting is called arbitrary or shaky, the central characters thuggish and hard to care about, and the quieter scenes over-choreographed. The spread is wide, and it splits by date: the two negative notices, from Variety and The New York Times, come from the original release and find the film sprawling and unfocused, while later critics writing about the full-length version, Ebert and Kael among them, argue that the shortened American cut did the damage. ## Radio Times — Adrian Turner Rating 5/5. Leone's final film is an extraordinary, massive-scale crime drama chronicling two New York gangsters across four decades in flashback. The critic praises the immaculate period reconstruction, Ennio Morricone score and epic sweep while noting the arbitrary plotting and shocking content. [Read the review](https://www.radiotimes.com/movie-guide/b-vzzvto/once-upon-a-time-in-america/) ## RogerEbert.com — Roger Ebert Rating 4/4. 1 January 1984. Ebert praises the full 227-minute version as an epic poem of violence and greed with complex, compelling flashbacks and emotional depth. He singles out the poetic structure and recurring motifs like the ringing telephone for praise while condemning the shortened U.S. theatrical cut as a travesty. [Read the review](https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/once-upon-a-time-in-america-1984) ## The Times — Ed Potton Rating ★★★★★. 5 April 2019. The critic praises Leone's ambitious final film as a sweeping story of friendship and betrayal spanning decades, noting its strong performances by De Niro and Woods along with Morricone's score. [Read the review](https://www.thetimes.com/world/us-world/article/once-upon-a-time-in-america-1984-review-gjhqnr6pd) ## Empire — Adam Smith Fi1m's normalised score 85/100 (inferred from the text). 1 January 2000. The critic argues that Leone's film surpasses The Godfather by favoring ambiguity and symbolism over melodrama, exploring themes of time, identity, and memory with masterful visuals. It resists easy interpretation, leaving a profound mystery that lingers in the mind. [Read the review](https://www.empireonline.com/movies/reviews/upon-time-america-review/) ## The AV Club — Keith Phipps Fi1m's normalised score 80/100 (inferred from the text). 17 June 2003. The film succeeds brilliantly as epic poetry despite barely working as a gangster film. It combines theatrical gangsters, Western-honed style, and deep melancholy in a grand-scale work of ambiguities and oversized passions. [Read the review](https://www.avclub.com/once-upon-a-time-in-america-dvd-1798198644) ## Time Out — CPea Fi1m's normalised score 80/100 (inferred from the text). 25 February 2015. Leone's vision retains magnificent sweep in this epic of friendship, betrayal, love and death among the Jewish Mafia. The film subsides to a sombre, elegiac emotional core centred on a man bent and broken by time. [Read the review](https://www.timeout.com/movies/once-upon-a-time-in-america) ## The New Yorker — Pauline Kael Fi1m's normalised score 75/100 (inferred from the text). 27 May 1985. Kael finds the full version a vast improvement over the butchered cut, with a dreamy obsessiveness and Robert De Niro's performance taking hold. She praises the reverberant dreamland settings and Leone’s majestic sense of film movement while noting the plot's shakiness and miscasting. [Read the review](https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/1985/05/27/tidal) ## Slant Magazine — Steve Macfarlane Fi1m's normalised score 65/100 (inferred from the text). 22 November 2012. As a magnum opus it falls just a few points shy of greatness, remaining a basic Italian melodrama despite its lush details and mood. Leone's introspective scenes reveal weaknesses with overly choreographed maneuvers and soapy music. [Read the review](https://www.slantmagazine.com/film/once-upon-a-time-in-america/) ## The New York Times — Vincent Canby Fi1m's normalised score 40/100 (inferred from the text). 1 June 1984. Canby describes the film as a lazily hallucinatory epic attempting to encapsulate 50 years of American social history. He notes the coherent early Brooklyn prologue but criticizes the overall restlessness and lack of focus in the sprawling narrative. [Read the review](https://www.nytimes.com/1984/06/01/movies/film-once-upon-a-time-inamerica.html) ## Variety Fi1m's normalised score 35/100 (inferred from the text). 31 December 1983. Festival review. The review calls the sprawling saga a disappointment deficient in clarity, purpose, excitement, and narrative involvement. It notes effective poetic echoes from the time-jumping structure but criticizes the arbitrary feel and unpalatable central character. [Read the review](https://variety.com/1983/film/reviews/once-upon-a-time-in-america-1200426021/) ## Collider — William Fischer Rating A-. 18 October 2022. The critic praises the film's ambitious nonlinear structure, epic scale, and technical mastery but finds the central characters unsympathetic run-of-the-mill thugs whose story feels mismatched to their limited depth. [Read the review](https://collider.com/once-upon-a-time-in-america-review-sergio-leone/) ## Den of Geek — Tony Sokol Fi1m's normalised score 90/100 (inferred from the text). 7 September 2021. The critic calls the film a gangster masterpiece on par with The Godfather, praising its epic scope, unflinching portrayal of crime and betrayal, and the iconic performances by Robert De Niro and James Woods. [Read the review](https://www.denofgeek.com/movies/once-upon-a-time-in-america-every-bit-as-great-the-godfather/) --- © Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL. Our review: https://film.one/film/once-upon-a-time-in-america.md