10 Films That Only Make Sense If You See The Director’s Cut
5. Once Upon A Time In America
Even the most avid Sergio Leone fan would have been reluctant to sit on a cinema seat for 269 minutes, so the studio had to condense Once Upon A Time In America for its theatrical release.
The mobster epic was, however, hacked to pieces prior to its arrival in US cinemas, landing at just 139 minutes.
The editors deconstructed the movie's time-hopping structure, stripping away layers of characterisation and story, and reassembled it as Frankenstein's Monster of a movie.
It's a shame because Once Upon A Time In America was Leone's most ambitious project, the late director originally envisioning it as two three-hour films, but the studio execs didn't agree.
The version which hit American cinemas may have been a travesty, but the Italian filmmaker can rest easy now that a 250-minute version close to his original vision has been released on home media.