Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #9222 in DVD
• Model: 31909
• Released on: 2003-06-10
• Rating: R (Restricted)
• Aspect ratio: 1.85:1
• Number of discs: 2
• Formats: Anamorphic, Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, Dubbed, DVD-Video, Special Edition, Subtitled, Widescreen, NTSC
• Original language: English, French
• Subtitled in: English, Spanish, French
• Dubbed in: French
• Number of discs: 2
• Dimensions: .25 pounds
• Running time: 229 minutes

Additional Features
At 229 minutes, this is the longest cut seen on video, and the version seen at Cannes and in the rest of Europe. It's only two minutes longer than the version available for a long time on VHS, adding (mostly) more gruesome shots of violence in four different scenes. The sound and image have been remastered, making for a pristine presentation. Time film critic Richard Schickel does a commendable job in his feature-length commentary. Although he doesn't know all the insider stuff, he has ample knowledge and affection for Sergio Leone, and will help the interested viewer reexamine the film from a few different viewpoints. The only other extras are nearly 100 production photos and a 20-minute excerpt from a documentary on Leone, Once Upon a Time, which leads to one puzzler: why isn't the whole documentary on the disc? --Doug Thomas

Amazon.com Essential Video
This movie has a checkered history, having been chopped from its original 227-minute director's cut to 139 minutes for its U.S. release. This longer edition benefits from having the complete story (the short version has huge gaps) about turn-of-the-century Jewish immigrants in America finding their way into lives of crime, as told in flashback by an aging Jewish gangster named Noodles (Robert De Niro). On the other hand, it's almost four hours long, and this sometimes-indulgent Sergio Leone film is no Godfather. Still, it is notable for the contrast between Leone's elegiac take on the gangster film and his occasional explosive action, as well as for the mix of the stoic, inexpressive De Niro and the hyperactive James Woods as his lifelong friend and rival. --Marshall Fine