Once Upon A Time in America vs. Phantasm IV: Oblivion  By Adam
Lippe    There are many who believe that the ending of Once Upon
a Time in America implies that the entire film has been an opium
induced fever dream that is being had by Robert De Niro’s
Noodles character. Whether you buy into this is obviously open
to your own interpretation. To me, the movie is sort of an
unfocused 4 hour film, where the hierarchy of the mob is never
really worked out, so we don’t know exactly who is causing the
characters to constantly fear for their life. Women are treated
appallingly throughout, and Elizabeth McGovern seems to forgive
De Niro for an absolutely brutal rape, just because a
significant amount of time has passed. The sequences that
involve the children are much better than the adult scenes, but
don’t effectively set up anything for later, they’re put in
there so the movie can be labeled an “epic.”  phantasm4Recently,
I watched Phantasm IV: Oblivion, which is oddly similar to Once
Upon a Time in America many ways