How Martin Scorsese saved Sergio Leone’s final movie
Martin Scorsese, as well as being one of the all-time great film directors, is probably one of the most ardent and devoted cinephiles the world has ever known.
His love for cinema shines through in every single one of his projects and interviews, and he’s been central in film preservation efforts ever since the 1990s – but what was one of the first cinematic projects Scorsese helped to preserve? The answer is Once Upon a Time in America, the final work from Sergio Leone, a director Scorsese loved and admired.
Once Upon a Time in America, a gangster epic focusing on Jewish gangsters in New York City, was released in two forms around the world – the one released in the US represented a complete butchery of Leone’s original vision. The movie was heavily cut down against Leone’s wishes, and the previously nonlinear narrative was edited into a linear story, which also took a lot away from the final product.
The version shown in Europe, which runs for nearly four hours, was eventually released in the US in 2003. It represented something closer to what Leone had desired, but it still wasn’t necessarily his true vision. The original cut of Once Upon a Time in America was actually six hours long.
Nonetheless, the movie gained a new lease on life when the rights passed to Leone’s daughters, and Martin Scorsese himself got involved. Working with Leone’s daughters and The Film Foundation, the movie preservation organisation founded by Scorsese, he was able to create a new 251-minute version, which he expanded with newly discovered footage from filming. This is the closest we’ll ever get to Leone’s original, intended vision.
This entire case is not only a stirring tribute to the importance of film preservation, but it’s also a poignant and triumphant addition to Leone’s legacy. Leone was devastated by the initial negative reception of Once Upon a Time in America, and he was, not surprisingly, infuriated at the movie being so heavily cut down against his wishes. In fact, James Woods once said that Leone died of a broken heart because of this. He passed away only a few years after the film’s unsuccessful release.
The true version of Once Upon a Time in America is the one the audience of today knows, and the film has since endured as one of American cinema’s most acclaimed epics. Sadly, Leone wasn’t around to see this.
