Normally, I'd try and gather a bunch of reviews and info on a DVD release, but this is as much to introduce you to Robert A. Harris as the film. Harris writes an irregular column for The Digital Bits which is always worth reading. Harris has worked on many film restorations including Rear Window, Lawrence of Arabia, Spartacus, Vertigo, and My Fair Lady (he does commentaries on the last 3 DVDs).

His latest column is the new complete 229 minute DVD of Sergio Leone Once Upon a Time in America (77 minutes were cut for the US release). He writes, "...this is a film which must be required viewing for anyone who loves the cinema, and make no mistake, this film, created by a gentleman who may best be known for his "spaghetti" westerns, is about as serious as filmmaking gets."

This one is shorter than most of his columns which are usually roundups of DVDs with some film history thrown in.

A column in the New York Times had more background on the hearbreaking story of how the film was treated when it was originally released:

Nineteen years after the theatrical release, a butchered, 144-minute cut of "Once Upon a Time in America" still crops up on late-night television; it's the only version many Americans have ever seen. This makes a loving restoration of Leone's cut all the more desirable, and while the DVD that comes out on Tuesday isn't exactly packed with extras, the quality of the transfer (which took more than a year to produce) is everything Leone fans could hope for (Warner Home Video; two discs, $26.99).

Despite its length (or, perhaps, because of it), Leone's cut demanded, and rewarded, repeated viewings: it was his most carefully made and densely textured film. It moved gracefully between three time periods (1922, 1933 and 1968) and built toward a flurry of last-minute revelations. Interviewed by telephone from Los Angeles, James Woods, who stars in the film alongside Robert De Niro, said: "It was actually a movie. Not a merchandising opportunity. It was like doing `Lawrence of Arabia.' A huge movie. Impossible to explain how big it was."

...Mr. Woods said that when "Once Upon a Time in America" was shown at the 1984 Cannes Film Festival, it received a 10-minute standing ovation. But the first American screening, which took place in Boston on a cold winter's night, was a disaster. The producer, Arnon Milchan, recalls that the audience waited, in the snow, for over an hour. Five minutes into the screening, the projector broke. More than 100 people did not return from the intermission. That night, Leone's North American distributor canceled a second screening, invoked a clause in the director's contract and had the film re-edited. "The Ladd Company panicked," Mr. Milchan said by telephone from Paris. "They changed the movie to a linear story, and cut an hour and a half. The movie that was released in the United States had nothing to do with the movie we made."

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