Once Upon a Time in America [WS] [Special Edition] [2 Discs]

For his first film in several years, director Sergio Leone conceived of a slow, elegiac study of gangster activity in New York. Set during three time periods--1923, 1933 and 1968--Once Upon a Time in America concentrates primarily upon Robert DeNiro and James Woods, childhood friends who become powerful Jewish crime bosses. The American distributors of Once Upon a Time in America ruthlessly hacked and rearranged the film into an incoherent 143 minutes. Leone's "director's cut," running 227 minutes, has been restored to videotape, though even this version is plagued by serious continuity gaps.