Once upon a time in America Analysis

Information:

Film title: Once upon a time in America

Release date: 01/06/84

Genres: Thriller, Crime, Drama

Director: Sergio Leone

About:

Once upon a time in America is a gangster thriller genre film made in 1984. It is about a Jewish gang in 1930 and the narrative goes back and forth between past and present.

The first shot is of the women, Eve, walking into a room with chiaroscuro lighting. There is an immediate signifier in the opening sequence whereby the sound is non-diegetic - the song is ‘God Bless America’ and as the silhouette of the women comes through the door in to the shot, the sound diversifies to diegetic.

The first shot shows the generic character straight away. The noire lighting puts the women in the spotlight and the pears around her neck along with the makeup and costume shows she is very glamorous - the pears represent tears and the nails and rings also indicate she is a very glamorous women.

The close up shot of the women does not show the subject in the broad context of her surroundings but instead focuses on her and shows how important she is in the film.

Eve, in this scene, walks towards a lamp and turns it on. There is a similarity between the light and her - the colour of the scene is reflecting in a sense that she is the light, she is the women in the spotlight and both her and the light are of the same tone.

This next shot is of Eve looking at the outline of a man’s body on the bed - it is marked with bullet holes which suggest a sense of fear - this is a warning for the women. The high angle medium close up shot displays the scene and creates a sense of mystery as the women wonders what has happened - it also shows a sense of her out of power and feeling intimidated.

Furthermore, the outline of the man on the bed is a cultural reference as it can be used to show how the police in America are venal and suborned - they have no fears of taking matters into their own hands.

The next shot is of the three policemen walking into the room, one with a gun drawn. They are all dressed similarly to show that they work together as a group and they have a collective identity. The gun is a masculine signifier which is seen in a lot of thriller films - the gun is being pointed at the man in the photo frame - a sign to show that they want information about that man and he is being chased by them. As we can see by this scene, they will do anything to get him.

One of the men shoot Eve - they will do anything to get what they need and are taking the situation into their own hands which is generic signifier within the thriller genre. The three men against the one women shows how much power the men have over her. Again, we see this is many thriller films and an example of this is a film called ‘Thelma and Louise’ (1991) where they women are living in a world which has been overrun by men.

The three men then exit leaving Eve dead on the bed - one man turns off a light, similarly symbolising Eve as she is now dead, her life has came to an end and the room turns to darkness.