10 Classic Films That Were Shamefully Ignored At First

8. Once Upon A Time In America

What is arguably Sergio Leone's greatest ever movie still hasn't been granted with the full amount of praise that it deserves, but it enjoys a far better reputation now than it did back in 1984, and is considered to be a classic in the gangster film genre by many critics and movie buffs alike. It's not exactly hard to understand why Once Upon A Time In America was ignored upon first release, though; it went through a large number of highly degrading cuts. Which meant that, by the time the movie was finally released, it was just a shell of its proper self. As a result, negative word of mouth stopped people from attending the movie, and critics - many of whom were unable to appreciate the movie in its full glory - brandished it as something akin to a mess when it was cut down from 229 minutes to a mere 139 (Pauline Kael famously said: €œI don€™t believe I€™ve ever seen a worse case of mutilation").