Once Upon a Time in America (1984) (Extended Director's Cut)

[HeavyHitter]

Originally Posted by tylergfoster

There are three cuts. When Leone completed the film, it ran 269m. Warner Bros. screened it and insisted cuts had to be made, which Leone complied with, editing it down to 229m for Cannes 1984. However, Warner still thought it was too long, and slashed it to 139m without his participation, and released that version to theaters. Apparently it makes no sense, and it also reportedly broke Leone's heart; he never made another movie.

For the DVD, Warner restored the film to 229m, the international cut, which he approved. Then, in 2010, the Leone family found the remaining 40 minutes and set about restoring them to the film for Cannes 2011. Unfortunately, rights issues forced them to cut a 251m version instead. Shortly afterward, that print was pulled from theatrical distribution, and Martin Scorsese helped the family regain rights to the remaining 18m. So, what most people are hoping is that the complete 269m cut will be what is released on Blu-Ray.

Despite what the poster above me says, it seems that the 269m version is, for all intents and purposes, Leone's original director's cut.

Very interesting, thanks.

[flyonthewall2983]

What rights issues?

[Rizor]

I'm hoping they bother creating some extras for this. It's clear that all of the key cast is very proud of this movie and I'm sure they'd be happy to participate in new interviews, etc. At the very least, I hope we'll get some interviews and footage from the cast reunion in Cannes. Would a commentary by Christopher Frayling be too much to ask for?

[tylergfoster]

Originally Posted by flyonthewall2983

What rights issues?

"Rights issues" is all it says on the Wiki.

[chris1234]

The deleted scenes were found in the early 1990s and many attempts at acquiring the rights and releasing a version similar to Leone's original 270 minute cut have been made.

For example, in the mid 1990s, Oreste De Fornari in his book 'Tutti i film di Sergio Leone' said that a new edition of Once Upon A Time in America was being prepared which restores thirty-one minutes of footage that were sacrificed in the final version. In the same book there is an interview with Sergio Leone talking about his 270 minute version and the 50 minutes of cuts he made.

In the 1990s, the condition of the unreleased footage may have been better.

The Wikipedia article states "The restored film premiered at the 2012 Cannes Film Festival, but due to unforeseen rights issues for the deleted scenes, the film's restoration ran for 251 minutes." The sources it quotes however do not mention any rights issues problems and of course anyone can write and edit Wikipedia articles.

The early press releases for the 2012 Cannes Film Festival quoted unreleased footage of 26 minutes and gave a detailed breakdown of the individual scenes. However adding the figures together gives a total of 22mins 34secs only. On the Blu-ray and possibly at Cannes these scenes were trimmed down further to approximately 21mins, much of which relates to the scene with Arnon Milchan as a chauffeur.

In his 1984 interview in Cahiers du Cinema magazine, Leone talked about the 50 minutes of cuts he made to his original 270 minute version and the showing of a 220 minute version. He mentions that originally it was planned for the movie to be in Dolby stereo but Leone felt it was unnecessary for an intimate film like this and it was mixed in Mono.



The 50 minutes of cuts includes "a love scene with young Deborah" and there is some speculation that this relates to the scene where Deborah invites Noodles into the back room, she recites her Song of Songs and they kiss. It's possible that Leone originally deleted this but re-inserted it prior to the movie's theatrical release in Europe.

So, at present, on Blu-ray we have a 229 and a 251 minute version. In November 2013, on Italian forums, it was reported that the Leones were working on a better Blu-ray version. The box set will contain the extended version, cinematography and lots of extras and they will try to remedy the compression and colorimetry problems of the previous release. It should be ready in 2014.

Warner Bros have so far only issued brief details about their forthcoming release of the new Extended Directors version of Once Upon A Time In America on Blu-ray and DVD and hopefully we'll hear more about definite release dates, artwork, running times, extras, regional coding etc soon.

[dobyblue]

This is all great news. I really like the current US Blu-ray and think it looks great, but I've never seen any version longer than the almost 4 hour version on the BD and would love to pick up a fully restored wonderfully authored/compressed new Blu-ray. Let's hope it looks amazing.

[coffeeman]

extra 40mins to this legendary classic film!
I am sold! no questions.

I just hope they have done a clean encode from the original film!
and added extra to give this classic the treatment it deserves!

hopefully if MArty is involved any how he might influence it to be remastered properly.

[Taikero]

I haven't seen this film yet but I've only heard fantastic things about it. I think I'll hold off on a Blu-ray purchase now until I see what comes of this new extended director's cut. Very excited!

[Falconer]

Praise the heavens. That is all I have to say.

[Andrew Woo]

Hi everybody!

Maybe you want to join in on our petition. The goal is to make Warner Bros. release a new and improved version of this film.

https://www.openpetition.de/petition...iginal-dubbing

[Erik Morton]

Why no digibook treatment for Once Upon A Time in America?? Judging from that e-mail excerpt, it's slated for regular/standard BD casing. Hopefully the UK release will be more generous. (That having been said, nitpicking aside, still stoked for the release either way . . . one of my all-time favorite films).

[oscarmerkx]

Absolutely love the movie especially the structure, Ennio Morricone's soundtrack and the ensemble cast.

Ofcourse the ending is also very ambiguous



The 50 minutes extra is just icing on the cake

[bundyblu]

any update on this?

[ssjgoku90501]

Hopefully with this release and the remastered releases of The good the bad and the ugly, hopefully fox/mgm push foward to release Duck, you sucker(once upon a time a revolution/fistful of dynamite)

[JimDiGriz]

Originally Posted by Erik Morton

Why no digibook treatment for Once Upon A Time in America?? Judging from that e-mail excerpt, it's slated for regular/standard BD casing. Hopefully the UK release will be more generous. (That having been said, nitpicking aside, still stoked for the release either way . . . one of my all-time favorite films).

The old UK DVD had very nice digibook packaging from what I remember, doubt we will get that again. I sold this on ages ago in anticipation of the blu-ray.

[Tibor Lugosi]

Day one for me, this is my favorite movie! So looking forward to this!

...Duck, you sucker would be nice too...

[alien2010]

Extra 40 minutes, I'm sold. One of my favorite movies of all time. I really do hope a remaster is on the cards. The picture and especially the audio need the best treatment available.

[HeavyHitter]

I am a bit concerned if Warner will actually do a new transfer for this, or simply edit in the scenes to the existing release (ugh!).

[JackTwist]

Originally Posted by HeavyHitter

I am a bit concerned if Warner will actually do a new transfer for this, or simply edit in the scenes to the existing release (ugh!).

I would hope they would use the Film Foundation and Gucci 4K restoration for the print.

[Rizor]

Originally Posted by HeavyHitter

I am a bit concerned if Warner will actually do a new transfer for this, or simply edit in the scenes to the existing release (ugh!).

I could be mistaken, but I thought I'd read that Warner Bros' own Motion Picture Imaging was responsible for the new 4K restoration which was used as the basis for the new extended cut.