3. Once Upon A Time In America
Theatrical: 139 minutesExtended: 229/269 minutes Following the Cannes screening of Sergio Leone's acclaimed 269-minute cut of Once Upon A Time In America, American distributors took leave of their senses and butchered the film like it was a fatted calf. Removing more than two hours, the version of Once Upon A Time In America that distributors gave to America landed like a wet turd, with the flashback element removed and replaced with a chronologically-told narrative. It's a bit like re-ordering Memento chronologically and expecting it to make more sense, when actually it makes less. And this is Sergio Leone - you expect necessary length. You don't cut a Sergio Leone picture unless you're mad, or you simply hate film. Derided in its U.S. theatrical version, a 229-minute cut - now widely available, though still 40 minutes shorter than that Cannes cut (which Martin Scorsese has been trying to get released - thanks, Marty) - has been hailed as a masterpiece. You might need to set aside a third of your day just to get through the extended cut, but it's a rewarding Mob experience up there with some of the genre's finest. And it's safe to say there aren't many films where you can sympathise with a man that also happens to be a rapist, but that's the uncomfortable case in Leone's most morally complex movie, one which carries more weight than any of his westerns.