TCM Premiere OUATIA

[Noodles_SlowStir]

TCM for January has been spotlighting the Roaring 20's and Prohibition.   Every Wednesday the programming has been hosted by Eddie Muller.  The overall schedule is varied focusing on different topics of the decade.  There's already been two segments on gangsters.  They've featured two of the big three gangster films from the 1930s (The Public Enemy and Scarface).  Also aired some of the films from the late fifties/early sixties period that emerged with the popularity of The Untouchables on television.

http://www.tcm.com/this-month/article/1551778%7C0/The-Roaring-20s-on-Film-Wednesdays-in-January.html

Tonight (1/15 10:15 PM Eastern) a TCM premiere of Once Upon A Time In America.  Looks to be the 229 minute version not the extended version.   Comments by Eddie Muller before and after should be interesting. 

Hopefully it will be available on Watch TCM as well.  Had hoped to post earlier, but it's difficult when you're time challenged and going to bed early every night.  Still watch and love Leone cinema.

As an aside,  Alan Parker's Bugsy Malone will premiere during January as part of the Roaring 20s programming.  Also, seems I've been watching quite a few Sydney Pollack films of late (directed and acting).  On January 24th, TCM will be airing The Yakuza with Robert Mitchum.  It's not on television frequently.  I've not seen it in a long time, been wanting to revisit it.

[drinkanddestroy]

great news! thanks for sharing!

[cigar joe]

thanks i'll watch

[dave jenkins]

Drink, did you record Eddie Muller's comments?

[Cusser]

Drink, did you record Eddie Muller's comments?

Don't know about Drink, but I did.  He said something about a 227 minute version.  I watched the Blu-Ray with the additional scenes in the summer, liked those.

[cigar joe]

Don't know about Drink, but I did.  He said something about a 227 minute version.  I watched the Blu-Ray with the additional scenes in the summer, liked those.

I hope someone did I dozed off and missed the whole thing and it's not On Demand at the moment either.

[Noodles_SlowStir]

Have no idea how to make and upload a video segment from DVR.  Been having a lot of problems with my provider with HD cable and DVR.  I was able to make a transcript of the commentary. 

Introduction

Welcome to TCM.  I’m Eddie Muller.  Our month long spotlight on the Roaring 20s continues this evening with the TCM premiere of an epic from Italian director Sergio Leone.  It’s a Prohibition era saga that follows its main characters not only through the Roaring 20s but before and after as well.  And a narrative of shifting time frames that’s as much about memory and regret as it is about crime.  From 1984, it’s Once Upon A Time In America.  Sergio Leone is of course best known for his distinctively stylish westerns, including the classic Once Upon A Time In The West from 1968, and of course the Dollars Trilogy starring Clint Eastwood.  But even as he was carving out a legend for himself with those westerns, Leone became fixated on the idea of bringing this 20th century gangster story to the screen concerning the rise and fall of a group of Jewish gangsters on the streets of New York City.  They start out as petty criminals but hit the big time when Prohibition becomes the law of the land opening up the booze business to those willing to skirt the law.  Leone’s dream project was started and thwarted time and time again for close to a decade.  With various stars along the way penciled in for the leading roles, in the end Leone got red hot Robert De Niro Oscar winner for his role in 1980’s Raging Bull, and James Woods, a veteran character actor just stepping up to leading man status.  The expansive cast includes many familiar faces including Elizabeth McGovern, Joe Pesci, Tuesday Weld, Treat Williams and Danny Aiello.  Also keep an eye out for future Oscar winner Jennifer Connelly, who made her big screen debut in this film.  She was just 12 years old.  And of course being a Sergio Leone movie we get a fantastic score by a prolific Italian composer, Ennio Morricone, a frequent and favorite collaborator of the director.  Okay, I’m going to stop talking because this truly is an epic clocking in at a robust 227 minutes just under four hours.  From 1984, here is the TCM premiere of Once Upon A Time In America.

Conclusion

Once Upon A Time In America was the most ambitious movie of Sergio Leone’s storied career.  He originally envisioned it as two separate three hour films.  Eventually he was persuaded to pare the story down to a single film which he brought in at a running time of 3 hours and 49 minutes.  That’s the version we just saw, what’s commonly referred to as the European cut.  But when it came time to release the picture in the States, the distributors, unbeknownst to Leone, cut out an hour and a half.  And the scenes were stacked in chronological order eliminating all the flashbacks and essentially murdering Leone’s conception of the story.  Not that these changes helped, the film tanked at the box office.  Especially once Leone’s legion of American fans found out there was another version of the film out there 90 minutes longer that was true to his vision.  One prominent American critic called the abbreviated cut of Once Upon A Time In America the worst movie of the year. He then turned around and called the European version the best film of the year.   Up next our look at the Roaring 20s continues with Barry Sullivan and Robert Blake as bootleggers from the Motor City….

I was hoping in his commentary there would be some personal observations or more discussion about the structure of the narrative.  I would of really been interested in his take or interpretation.   He concentrated on Sergio’s career, and the production and reception of the film.  So much to talk about in so little time.  It was very evident in his commentary he had great admiration for Sergio Leone and Once Upon A Time In America.

Amazing to think that this cut has been available on DVD since 2002 and that it premiered on TCM yesterday.  The film has had a post production life unlike most other films.

[drinkanddestroy]

Have no idea how to make and upload a video segment from DVR. 

Do what I do - play the segment on Tv and film it on your phone, then upload the segment to YouTube

[drinkanddestroy]

Drink, did you record Eddie Muller's comments?

I set my DVR to record it, but I am in Washington this weekend engaging in Korean diplomacy, and won’t be able to upload it until Sunday night at the earliest.

[noodles_leone]

Keep up the good work. If you don’t do it for you, do it for Donald!

[cigar joe]

Have no idea how to make and upload a video segment from DVR.  Been having a lot of problems with my provider with HD cable and DVR.  I was able to make a transcript of the commentary. 

Introduction

Conclusion


I was hoping in his commentary there would be some personal observations or more discussion about the structure of the narrative.  I would of really been interested in his take or interpretation.   He concentrated on Sergio’s career, and the production and reception of the film.  So much to talk about in so little time.  It was very evident in his commentary he had great admiration for Sergio Leone and Once Upon A Time In America.

Amazing to think that this cut has been available on DVD since 2002 and that it premiered on TCM yesterday.  The film has had a post production life unlike most other films.

Thanks, appreciate your time and effort!

[dave jenkins]

I am in Washington this weekend engaging in Korean diplomacy

Is that the way she explains it to her folks? Huh.

[drinkanddestroy]

Eddie Muller's intro https://youtu.be/NU5sHwaBvSw

Eddie Muller's outro https://youtu.be/opoSX_PAhaM

[dave jenkins]

Eddie Muller's intro https://youtu.be/NU5sHwaBvSw

Eddie Muller's outro https://youtu.be/opoSX_PAhaM

Too bad, he doesn't have much to say. Well, this is a bit out of his area of expertise . . . I hope he made a bit of coin out of this, anyway.

[drinkanddestroy]

Too bad, he doesn't have much to say. Well, this is a bit out of his area of expertise . . . I hope he made a bit of coin out of this, anyway.

The intros for the other movies are always shorter than the Noir Alley movies.