Once Upon a Time in America Analysis

Once Upon a Time in America (1984)

Director: Sergio Leone

Straight away we establish it is a thriller by the shadows and the archetypal character, femme fatal. She wears pearls which symbolise tears and tears are a sign of superstition. As well as her pearls she wears the iconic red lipstick, red symbolises violence, blood and all things intense. 

She then turns on the light, the woman and the light are the same shade of colour, which signifies that she is the light in this thriller. The shot is almost sepian looking which refers back to the era that this thriller is set in (1930s). Because this shot is lighting her face it creates less mystery and we can see her innocence and purity.

The shot then zooms into the bed where we see 2 bullet holes, then as the woman whips the cover away from the bed we see the outline of a body. This is an iconic police signifier. The police draw around the shape of a body when someone has died, so we know a crime has been commited. Surgio Leone has used this for the irony to show what is to come.

Then as the woman is in utter shock, the shot pans round to show three men standing at the door. They're wearing trilby hars, tweed coats, suits- because they are wearing the same outfit, it shows a collective identity, meaning they work together. The costumes relate to Resevoir Dogs because they also wear the same suits but with different coloured ties- they also stand in a tight nipped group symbolising their fellowship. The shot changes to a low angle shot of the three men framed under the arch. They kill Eve and turn the light off. Eve's name is symbolic to religion, in the bible Eve is tempted by Adam; which shows that she might have done something wrong to have been killed.

This shot is shown straight after the death of Eve, this shows another murder taking place, the contrast of the neatness of Eve's death compared to this once is very dramatic. This scene shows the match on action between the bleeding character and policeman.

 

 

 

Leone has used the iconic worms eye shot of the lift going up the lift shaft. After the scene of Eve's murder and the guy being brutally beaten this adds another element of suspense. The lift is a generic location for a thriller because of its claustrophobic space and easy access to danger. The lighting is very dark, and the use of non-ambient lighting builds the enigma and makes the audience question, what is going to happen? In this shot the lift looks very intimidating, and makes the audience feel small. 

Again Leone has used this worms eye shot to make the audience question what is happening. The shot shows the character upside down, this is a point of view shot from a man on the floor- probably dead. The shot establishes the power of this man holding a gun which again is another reference to killing, violence and crime; which is a re-occuring theme in Once Upon a Time in America. The persistant use of crime in this film demonstrates 1930's America, and how corrupted it was.

In this scene we see the camera pan over dead bodies on the floor, the lighting is chiaroscuro- which is used a lot in thrillers to show bad things in reality such as nightmares or re-occuring bad experiences. In the background we can hear non-diagetic sound of a telephone ringing. As the telephone rings it really heightens the tension in the scene. The use of the phone makes the audience frustrated by the repitative noise of the phone ringing as well as making them question themselves on what is happening.