a Musik-Video-Montage by SurrealSamui Musik: KID LOCO, " Cosmic Supernaturel " from The Album: A GRAND LOVE STORY edited Scenes: ONCE UPON A TIME IN AMERICA by SERGIO LEONE ... Once Upon a Time in America is a 1984 epic crime film directed and co-written by Sergio Leone and starring Robert De Niro and James Woods. The story chronicles the lives of Jewish ghetto youths who rise to prominence in New York City's world of organized crime. The film explores themes of childhood friendships, love, lust, greed, betrayal, loss, broken relationships, and the rise of mobsters in American society. The film premiered out of competition at the 1984 Cannes Film Festival in its original running time of 229 minutes (3 hours 49 minutes). However, against Leone's wishes, it was released in the United States in a heavily edited and truncated version (almost ninety minutes shorter than the original version released in Europe). The short version eliminates the elaborate flashback structure of the film, instead placing all of the scenes in chronological order. Leone was reportedly heartbroken by the American cut, and never made another movie before his death in 1989, making this his final film.