We needed multiple days to get through this epic and I shudder to think that Sergio Leone originally wanted something even longer. This would have been more bearable if it were actually good yet while it has the bones of a decent film, on the whole it’s so clunky. Robert De Niro is as great as ever and outacts everyone by a fair margin. But Leone is not American, has no ear for good American English dialogue and the film has no real psychological depth. It’s realistic in the sense that the characters are street hoods who never grew up but it also means that it’s really all just about sex and violence. It’s not a bad mobster flick but I certainly wouldn’t consider it among the greatest films of all time.
Violent mobsters kill their way through acquaintances and associates of a man nicknamed Noodles while he is in a stupor in an opium den, apparently mourning the deaths of his friends. He successfully evades them and leaves New York City, returning only more than 30 years later as an old man. As he wanders through the old neighborhood, he reminiscences about his past and flashbacks reveal the life he had led. We see how he was a member of a band of young hoodlums in the 1920s in a Jewish quartier of New York City. The turning point comes when he befriends Max who moves there from the Bronx. Together they graduate to more serious crimes, including smuggling bootleg liquor using a flotation device and blackmailing the local police officer to protect them. Noodles is in love with Deborah, an aspiring dancer whose brother Fat Moe is one of the gang’s associates. When an older mobster violently confronts them for stealing his turf, he kills one of Noodle’s friends. Noodles in turn kills him with a knife and stabs a police officer. He is imprisoned for this and by the time he gets out of jail, he is an adult. His friends have not forgotten him and have become rich and successful criminals who own the hottest underground speakeasy in the neighborhood.
The very long running time stems from the languorous pace at which it recounts the story of Noodles’ life. Even with generous timeskips there is a lot to tell and there is even a significant storyline in the present day when Noodles is old. Unfortunately my favorite part is when they were all kids and when Noodles isn’t even being played by De Niro. That’s when they establish the camaraderie between the members of the gang and build the key partnership between Noodles and Max. That’s also when they capture the puppy love, or rather lust, between Noodles and Deborah, played by a very young Jennifer Connelly. Even as kids, they are vicious and violent, committing arson on a newsstand for a desultory payment. Yet at the same time, they are have a childish charm to them as they aspire to simple pleasures like a cupcake or learn about sex. The rest of the film banks heavily on what they build in these early scenes as the Noodles barely seems to like his friends as adults. None of the characters are sympathetic or likable in the least being murderous thugs with no conscience or remorse whatsoever. It’s only because we remember what they were like as kids and the loyalty they have to each other that we feel anything for them at all.
No one could ever accuse Leone of being a bad director and this is indeed a visually striking film. Yet it is only clumsy and cringey in so many ways. It’s great that he once again uses Ennio Morricone for the score but when did he have to resort to a Muzak version of The Beatles’ Yesterday to evoke a sense nostalgia. They’re not American and it feels so out of place. In one scene, a character played by Joe Pesci goads another gangster to tell an entertaining story. It’s a scenario we’ve seen played out in so many mobster films. Yet here the delivery is so awful that I felt like covering my face in shame. It’s evident to me that Leone simply has no good sense for the cadence of English dialogue. The film is also far longer than it needs to be. When Noodles visits the tomb of his friends, he spends some time fumbling with the door and the lighting. Sure this reinforces the fact that he’s old now but it’s just too much distraction from an emotionally charged moment. The film looks great and the street-level view of 1920s New York City that it offers is breathtaking. But it is just not good with capturing the way Americans actually talk.
Most damning of all however is that there is no real depth in the characters. Only Noodles receives any character development but drives him above all is only loyalty to his friends. Deborah could have been an interesting character but in the end, she is just treated as an object to be won. I detest the plot that takes place in the present with the aged Noodles. It makes no sense that Fat Moe has no idea what is going on, it degrades the character of Deborah even more and serves only to further glorify that loyalty to your sworn brothers is all that matters. It’s an odious philosophy and an empty insight. I guess that’s why I’ve never really liked gangster movies.