Once Upon a Time in America

Set in the early 20th century, Once Upon a Time in America is a historical epic crime drama directed by Sergio Leone. The film is a nostalgic and introspective tale of love, loss, and redemption, set against the backdrop of the Prohibition era and its aftermath. The narrative centers around Noodles (played by Robert De Niro), a likable ex-bookmaker and childhood friend of David 'Noodles' Aaronson, Mickey Olshansky, Patsy 'Gaspipe' Gazzo, and Max Berman, all Jewish kids growing up on the Lower East Side of Manhattan. They form a tight-knit gang and start a turf war, slowly rising to the top of the underworld scene. As the years pass, the friends navigate the rough terrain of organized crime, establishing an intricate network of alliances, rivalries, and tragic events. However, it is not until David 'Noodles' Aaronson, an alias for the young David "Noodles" Aaronon, (also played by Robert De Niro) now an aging man of over 40, emerges from his self-imposed exile, making a powerful appearance on a rural train station platform, with intentions to return to New York City, specifically the gritty and crowded Lower East Side of Manhattan, that the story really starts. Only to find upon reaching there, that over thirty years had transpired, bringing about profound changes to their community. Thirty years of his absence would keep him from meeting his boyhood crime partners in the same age and prime once more, except for the oldest of them - Patsy 'Gaspipe' (played by Richard Dreyfuss) - has now passed on. Upon meeting the current and one remaining childhood friends, Max Berman (played by Sylvester Stallone) and Max's love interest - Deborah 'Diane' (played by Elizabeth McGovern), both brought Noodles back into their dark past and what for him seemed forever lost. Although it is revealed ultimately through the unlikeliest of all things at the narrative finish - it was probably the most tragic loss of Noodles when in his innocent youth Patsy 'Gaspipe' was in jail and Noodles's innocence was destroyed as the United States government - effectively through coercive circumstances - passed a bill into the U.S. law books, labeled as the Mann Act, during February of 1910 and later used within cases such as his. Noodles had been set up or double crossed in some way, and on all his older partner's apparent inculpatory testimony as their lawfully convicted accused youth offender defendant result of law enforcement U.S government investigators, Noodles would receive a harsh sentence and never allowed upon his return to set eye upon his neighborhood, even well after he was released - rather after finishing his life imprisonment before the courtroom and the unforgiving retribution, though - prison for Noodles had thus seen much later become to lose one friend - David's life love partner Deborah - for true since at that time, this crime partner and then also Noodles's actual first love, to then lose virtually at his earliest long while years away any chance to ever see New York and particularly his childhood on little or nothing more than a one-way-out out train rides, over for several years long and now and he had absolutely no idea to where this life path Noodles' had taken on after returning went tragically astray and with no chance of turning "back". After emerging from solitary confinement, everyone that Noodles grew up with has seemingly moved on with their lives apart, from not participating him from the point on in a specific circle that their strong bond once shared and what ultimately formed over all, more a key part still under old the hood rather what Noodles' last chance reunion at old friends - and before running into the group one last time at their previous spot, together with the now middle-aged Max, the ex-mafioso can sense the nostalgic tug of his past to recapture, now to even remember his longing and over those many long years, many hard-hearted memories - forming with an obsession what took place that still affects his very feelings toward it deeply to this day.