MovieFreak.com - Once Upon a Time in American Special Edition DVD Review

DVD REVIEW

Once Upon a Time in America (1984)

>>Continued from Page 1 (Critique, Video).

The Audio

Warner Bros. presents Once Upon a Time in America in remastered English Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Sound. Ah, the great thing about this transfer is the high volume and soundfield distribution of Ennio Morricone’s beautiful score. Dialog scenes are clear and easy to understand. The overall surround usage is just decent, with little punch and dramatic use of the rear speakers. There are a few instances when the noise penetrates the soundfield from all areas. Most of the noise is concentrated on the front speakers, however, which makes sense.

All in all, Once Upon a Time in America sounds better than ever, for obvious and deserving reasons. Overall, the transfer makes for a pretty good experience.

Once Upon a Time in America is also available in a French Dolby Digital 5.1 soundtrack.

7 out of 10

The Extras

Commentary by Film Critic Richard Schickel – His previous foray into commentaries, on the Unforgiven special edition DVD, seemed decent enough. For this special edition, Warner Bros. again selects Schickel to perform the duty of commenting on one of their films. His comments range from the film’s good and bad, among other things. He often times refers to the film’s length and pace. Overall, his comments are valid and sometimes quite informative. While I don’t think he’s the most viable person to comment on the film, he does a preferably good job. It would have been a classic to either get Robert DeNiro, James Woods or Joe Pesci to record something, or get them all together.

The Making of Once Upon A Time in America (~20 mins) – This segment comes from the 2002 Documentary Profile entitled Once Upon A Time: Sergio Leone. While only an excerpt, the segment provides a really cool and interesting behind-the-scenes look at the making of the film. It covers a lot of ground, beginning with the writing process. Some of the interviews are in Italian and dubbed in English (in Italian accents no less). Other participants are Arnon Milchan, relatives of Leone, James Woods, the editor, the writers, Quentin Tarantino, James Coburn, and others. While it would have been great of Warner Bros. to just include the entire documentary on the second disc, the excerpt on the making of Once Upon A Time in America is very good in its own right.

There’s also a "Photographic Memories" still gallery, which is just what it says, full of photos showing some of the cast, crew, locations, scenes in the film, etc. It’s an overall nice still gallery, but not something you’ll necessarily view again. This is basically it, except for one more extra, Leone Highlights. These bonus features are nice, but a bit unfulfilling. You also get the Theatrical Trailer (in fullscreen format) on the second disc.

You can select to view the film with optional English, French and Spanish subtitles. The DVD’s menus are interactive and composed to Ennio Morricone’s beautiful score, but not animated. The 229-minute feature is organized into 59 chapters over two discs.

7 out of 10

Overall

Once Upon a Time in America is a great film. It’s a joy to finally have another Sergio Leone classic on DVD. This treatment is different from his other films, however, such as his Spaghetti Westerns. Warner Bros.’ two-disc special edition is not fantastic, but very deserving. The special features lack content, but the documentary excerpt is very nice. Anyone out there who’s never seen a Leone picture should pick up this film, or any other, and get ready to be amazed. Once Upon a Time in America comes highly recommended.

RATINGS SUMMARY