What the reason why Woods knocked out De Niro ?

[COLONNA]

Remember: Before knocking Noodles out,  Max tried to convince him TO STAY AT THE SPEAKEASY and only after Noodles refused answering" Eveywhere you go, I go" he  decided to beat him.
Clearly Max had made the sacrifice of Cockeye and Patsy, but not of Noodles.
Its a great proof of love !  

[hatamis]

don't forget one of the main themes of the film : the passage of childhood to adult.
Max and Noodles are friends.
Noodles loves the satisfactions and the "games" of childhood time : like "play the gangsters"...
Max wants to succeed in his adult life.

in 1933, Max has reached a position but he wants to be recognized as someone respected.
after the prison, has Noodles became an adult??
Noodles quickly understand that the life of his friends in 1933 is not so "exciting" as before.
he wants a more crazy life (the car in the sea), he
wants to feel the feelings of his childhood.
but he understant that now it's too serious : he doesn t want to work with politicians.
when he was child he wants to appear like gangsters (remember the 5 boys with their jacket and suit) but it was a game and the death of dominic and the murder of bugsy sent Noodles on the other side : the world of adults.

Max has to separe himself from Noodles because he understant that he was not able to follow him in his dreams of great and successful life.
Success for Max is material
Success for Noodles is immetarial (feelings)

Perhaps, Max does not want to kill Noodles (although he can "killed" Patsy and Cockeye) because Noodles impresses him because he is not attach to material things.
he envies him not to be so materialist.
Max avoids to be "crazy"
Noodles wants to be crazy...
Max knows that in order to succes, "crazyness" has to disappear in his life


at last,
Max knows that he has to die.
but he wants to be sure that he succeeds in his life.
and he can now that through a "duel" with Noodles.
Noodles is his old friend, the one who count the most for him.
only him can killed him Max says.
In fact the mind of Noodles is very important to Max and he is waiting for Noodles.
he wants that noodles recognize that he is great.
he wants noodles to kill him :because it significates that noodles was disappointed and really envies his life, and so that Noodles points that Max's life was great.
Perhaps Max is waiting for "you are crazy", but he could reply "look, look, look..."

But noodles has the answer who "kill" and sends Max (his personage) in garbage (in bin).
He imitates the language of Max (of adults) with lot of reveration... with very impersonnal words.
Max is "dead" since 1933. The Max of his childhood.
Noodles will never recognize that Max was successfull.
although he recognizes that his adult life was not a succes he prefers to "come back" in his happy moments (1920s and 1933) in the opium room.


ps : i'm french and i hope my english is understable

[Uomo_senza_ nome]

U guys should really try to read the book, the hoods. Even though it dosen't follow the movie bit by bit, it gives us nice insights of the characters

[Alan Shearer 9]

penis envy?

[hatamis]

Remember: Before knocking Noodles out,  Max tried to convince him TO STAY AT THE SPEAKEASY and only after Noodles refused answering" Eveywhere you go, I go" he  decided to beat him.
Clearly Max had made the sacrifice of Cockeye and Patsy, but not of Noodles.
Its a great proof of love !  

i stil couldn't understand how Max could have sacrificed Pasty and Cockeye, childhood friends and associates during ten years in their gangsters lifes.
this characters were also always sympathic in the film (during thier childhood and after that during the "parodies" of gangsters film),
it's hard for a basic spectator to see them killed and totally forgotten after that...
well, they were gangsters, violent etc... but why Max killed them?
for me it's not understandable!

Perhaps Leone Wanted to show that old (gangster ) cinema is dead through the death of these characters of gangsters???
Leone wanted to show that commercial cinema killed the great cinema ??

after that :
why Max later have paid a great "mausolee" (it's a fench terme means a great tomb).
How could kill his friends and after that, made for  them these rich great temple???
a temple of the old cinema for Leone

this film deals with friendship...
between Max and Noodles..
why Patsy and Cockeye in the end didn't signified nothnig for Max and Noodles???
to show that a true and strong relation can only happen between two people Noodles and "his mother" or "uncle" Max

[Dlanor]

I read in Conversation with Leone than he thought that friendship was based on esteem. I think the scene of Max knocking Noodles is an illustration of Leone conception of friendship.
 Maybe he couldn't bare to be despised, not to be taken seriously by his friends in private life.

[HEX]

it is obvious why he knocks noodles out.he loves the man.

but what i have always found a bit unsettling is that why would he allow cockeye and patsy to die(yes i know cuz of greed and what not but still)
i know he loved NOODLES  more then anyone else but no love for the other two? what gives?


maybe he regrets it later as senator bailey?u think?

[DJASh]

Its all a set up...Max puts the idea of the one last booze smuggling job into Noodles' head ( to put him in jail and therefore stop the crazy plan to raid the Federal Reserve) via his trusty Dame...Max knows who Noodles has phoned and knows what he is doing when he knocks him out.

[Blueberry]

Its all a set up...Max puts the idea of the one last booze smuggling job into Noodles' head ( to put him in jail and therefore stop the crazy plan to raid the Federal Reserve) via his trusty Dame...Max knows who Noodles has phoned and knows what he is doing when he knocks him out.

That's right - check out this tread:
http://www.fistful-of-leone.com/forums/index.php?topic=816.0