Memo from Dan to "Once Upon a Time in America": What the Fuck's Up With the Dump Truck?

So I'm on board with the theory that the 1960's sequences in Once Upon a Time in America are just an opium induced fantasy going through Robert De Niro's mind back in the 30's. Anachronisms be damned, I don't care if De Niro would have no way of knowing about TV or the music of the Beatles. It works as a beautiful expression of De Niro's feelings of guilt, his conflicted feelings towards James Woods' character, his nostalgia, etc etc. It explains why one character doesn't seemed to have aged much in 35 years, while everyone else looks ancient. It explains why one character's child looks exactly as they did when they were young. And it explains why no explanation is given for what happened to De Niro during the 35 years the film skips.


I think it's pretty sweet that a 4 hour long gangster movie ends in ambiguity and mystery. Sergio Leone was a ballsy director. Still, I'm fascinated by some of the final images yet I can't piece together exactly what they might mean.

In the 2nd to last scene in the film, the final scene set in the 60's, old De Niro leaves James Woods mansion. It is night time, and he walks alone outside. A figure that appears to be Woods (although, according to the documentary on the DVD, is actually a double dressed as Woods) watches him.) Then a dump truck drives past Woods, and he vanishes. Something, it's not clear what, is being ground up in a thresher (or something) in the back of the truck. The truck drives off into darkness until all you can see are the tail lights. Then, the tail lights turn into the headlights of an oncoming car, which turns out to be an old tymey looking car like from when De Niro's character was a young man, and the people in the car seem to be of that era as well.


So most obviously, this could just be De Niro's fantasy breaking down, and his return to the real world. This is supported by the unexplained arrival of the old tymey car. There also appears to be an Asian-looking pavilion in the background, which could be representative of the Chinese opium den at which De Niro was getting high.

But what's up with the truck? Why does Woods disappear? Is he being ground up in the back? Curiously, the truck has the number "35" painted on it... the same as the number of years that the movie has supposedly passed over. Is it this fantasy being ground up? Something else? Is it the loss of his memories? The loss of his innocence?

For a movie about bad people, it's shocking nostalgic. But maybe there's a tinge of cynicism in the nostalgia. What do his memories represent, other than a brief escape from his misery? They are just an illusion, like the shadow puppets in the Chinese theater.

I think it's also a movie about movies. It starts and ends in a theater, and De Niro's escape from reality is not unlike our own when we go to the movies.

Also there's a pretty sweet part where they shoot Paulie from the Rocky movies in the eye, if you like that sort of thing.

Once Upon a Time in America

Sunday, March 30, 2008


My exploration of Sergio Leone culminated on Sunday by viewing his final film, a 3 hr 45 minute gangster epic spanning 50 years.

First off, this has to be one of the best looking movies I've ever seen. I've known that Leone was never one to waste a shot, but I'm a little blown away but just how complex and ornate every moment of this film feels.

This feels a lot different than his westerns, although some of his older style is detectable. Like there's this sequence involving a slow moving elevator that builds to a sudden, violent climax that feels like one of those big buildups to a shootout in one of the Dollars movies. Or, there's a set piece involving a mugging and a passing wagon that has the same kind of drawn out build-up leading to a fake-out that he's done before. And the storytelling is still pretty audacious, like when the Beatles' "Yesterday" suddenly cues on the soundtrack and the movie cuts to the 1960's. Didn't really see that coming.

Leone still will paint with broad strokes, but this film feels a lot more intimate, with better drawn characters than I've seen in any of his other movies. Makes me wonder if I should revisit Once Upon a Time in the West, which I had kind of felt slowed down too much for the "serious" stuff and didn't have enough payoff. Maybe I just saw that one in the wrong mindset.

The movie gets stranger but also more subdued as it goes along, and the finale is a bit enigmatic. I've seen it suggested that some of this movie is meant to be just an opium induced fantasy in Robert DeNiro's characters head, and I can kind of see that. That would explain a lot of the weird touches as the film progresses, like how one character doesn't seem to age at all after 30 years. And the final scene certainly seems to hint at this opium theory. But I'm not sure what this element adds to the movie, and it still leaves a lot unexplained. I'm not exactly sure what to take from the last chunk of this movie, and I mean that in a good way.

The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly

Monday, March 24, 2008

Since I just watched the first two parts of Sergio Leone's "Dollars Trilogy," I figured it was high time to pull out my old copy of his old west masterpiece, which I hadn't seen in a good 4 or 5 years.

Is this my favorite Western of all time? Quite possibly. Clint's Unforgiven would be a strong contender. Maybe Howard Hawks' El Dorado? I'd have to see it again.

I'm going to do some Leone follow up soon by watching his 3hr 45 minute Once Upon a Time in America, hopefully this weekend. I suppose the next logical step should have been to watch Once Upon a Time in the West, but I've seen it before and honestly wasn't a huge fan. It had its moments, and maybe one day I should give it another shot, but right now I think the 10 hours or so I will have dedicated to Leone over the past few weeks is Kommittment enough.

For me, GB&U is the perfect culmination of Leone's high energy, over-the-top, almost satirical style, perfectly melded with an epic scope and some moments of surprising beauty and that lyricism I like so much. For me, Once Upon a Time in the West got a little bogged down in it's more serious ambitions, and doesn't provide enough entertainment (although the moments of payoff are pretty good). GB&U strikes the perfect balance between Leone's unique sense of action and adventure with some more serious or poetic moments.

I never put much thought into the title, other than the obvious fact that it refers to the three leads. This time, I wondered if maybe it's a little ironic. Because Clint Eastwood's character isn't really a good guy when we meet him, despite what his title says during his introduction. He's just as amoral, violent, manipulative and greedy as the other characters, going after all that money. It's just that Lee Van Cleef is a little worse, and Eli Wallach isn't very good looking. They are all bad people.

I thought maybe Leone had his tongue in his cheek to a certain extent, trying to maybe make a cynical point about human nature. Because for a while, Clint is really only "the good" because he's a little cooler and better looking than the others, and because he's Clint fucking Eastwood and he's the main character. But then later, he has some moments that suggest some redemption, or at least a sense of humanity that the others are lacking. Like that little moment he has where he gives the smoke to the dying Confederate soldier. And then he does spare Eli Wallach at the end and let him keep his share of the money (although only after seriously fucking with the guy first).

As great as Clint and Van Cleef are, I suspect that most would agree with me that Eli Wallach's character Tuco is the best. Yeah, he's an amoral, hot tempered asshole, but he's just as badass as the others, he's way funnier, and he has to take a lot more shit than the others do. It's like how Daffy Duck is way better than that smug prick Bugs Bunny. OK, Daffy's a bastard, but he suffers a lot more abuse, so our sympathy is with him.

This is a great movie all the way through, but the last 20 minutes or so, once they reach the graveyard, are perfect. I can think of few films with a climax this awesome, and it's still astonishing how well Leone really build the suspense and draws things out until the final payoff. Great movie.

For a Few Dollars More

Thursday, March 13, 2008

I can see that the Dollars trilogy is not unlike the Bourne series, with each entry being a marked improvement over the last. Sometimes I think of movies like this as "test run" films, experimenting with an idea or style before later perfecting it. For example, Gus Van Sant's Gerry being a test run for his Elephant and Last Days. Or Argento's The Bird with the Crystal Plumage being a test run for Deep Red (and, um, pretty much all of his movies). Or David Lynch's Lost Highway being a test run for Mulholland Drive (and then subsequently blowing the engine out on Inland Empire). This happens with actors and writers, too, but I find it most fun when applied to the auteur theory.

So For a Few Dollars More is a notable step up from A Fistful of Dollars, and in turn The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly is another huge step up, to the realm of masterpiece.

What surprised me here is I assumed Lee Van Cleef was going to be the bad guy, but he's not, and actually just as much the main character as Clint Eastwood. In fact, he has a little back story, unlike Clint, and more motivation for his actions. So in some ways, he's maybe even more important. The two have a good chemistry here, and this helps underline one of the short comings of the first movie: he doesn't have a kickass partner. He has an amusing sidekick of sorts who doesn't do much, but the movies are a lot more entertaining when he has a Lee Van Cleef or an Eli Wallach to bounce off of.

A Fistful of Dollars

Monday, March 10, 2008

I'm a little embarrassed that I had never seen this before, considering how much I dig The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly. Anyways, turns out this is a good movie, though not nearly the masterpiece that TGTBATU is. Which isn't much of a surprise. There's still a lot of classic moments, a lot of nice visual touches and a great final shootout, but it's a little slow and talky in places. Too much uninteresting plot.

I also have For a Few Dollars More Tivoed, and I plan on checking it out soon.