The real gangsters today work on Wall Street and on K Street. They use key strokes instead of guns. So, less blood has to flow. But, really, no less pain.
The story always revolves around power. Back then, here now.
On the other hand, ambiguity abounds from beginning to end. The end in particular: Max the elder, the garbage truck…then back in time again to that enigmatic smile plastered on Noodles face over the end credits.
ONCE UPON A TIME IN AMERICA
Directeecd by Sergio Leone
[b]Officer ‘Fartface’: Okay, boys, we’re even…
Young Noodles: The hell we are!
Young Max: You’ll be collecting your pension before we’re even!
…
Max: You’ll be carrying the stink of the streets with you for the rest of your life!
Noodles: I like the stink of the streets. It makes me feel good. And I like the smell of it, it opens up my lungs. And it gives me a hard-on.
…
Bugsy: [Bugsy and his gang have beaten Noodles and Max] You don’t work for me, you don’t work for no-one!
Young Max: I don’t like bosses.
Bugsy: You’d be better off you stayed in the Bronx.
Young Max: Woulda been better for you, too!
[Bugsy spits on him, and he and his gang walk off]
Young Max: I’m gonna kill him one of these days…
Young Noodles: Yeah? Meanwhile, it looks like he killed US!
…
Young Deborah: Fat, you better spray the toilet. I saw a cockroach in there.
…
Young Noodles: Who’re you calling a cockroach?
Young Deborah: So what are you? You’re filthy! You make me sick! You crawl up toilet walls just like a roach! So what are you?
[Noodles grabs Deborah] Young Deborah: Let go!
Young Noodles: I make you sick, huh? Then how come you showed me your tush?
Young Deborah: To a roach!
…
Young Deborah: Get down off of there, roach. That record’s just like Ex-Lax. Every time I put it on, you have to go to the bathroom.
…
Noodles: I thought you didn’t like bosses. It sounded like a good idea then. It still is.
…
Fat Moe: What’s this all mean?
Noodles: It means… …“Noodles, though you’ve been hiding in the asshole of the world, we found you. We know where you are.” It means…“Get ready.”
Fat Moe: For what? That’s the one thing it didn’t say.
…
Jimmy: You still won’t come and stop the workers or the social movement.
Chicken Joe: Listen to me, you socialist asshole! We don’t give a good fart about the socialist workers and their movements. We want you out of the factory so we can get the furnaces working again. This is the last offer you’re gonna get. You want to sign it or what?
Jimmy: Tell your bosses they can wipe their ass with it.
Chicken Joe: Fill her up.
…
Jimmy: Who are you? Who’s paying you?
Cockeye: I think this is gonna piss you off, Mac. I think it’s those dirty politician friends of yours.
Jimmy: Yeah? Well, you crawl back and tell 'em we don’t want you in with us. Our fight’s got nothing to do with liquor and prostitution and dope.
Max: I think you’d better get used to the idea, pal. This country is still growing up. Certain diseases it’s better to have when you’re still young.
Jimmy: You boys ain’t a mild case of the measles. You’re the plague.
…
Noodles [to Jimmy]: The difference is, they’ll always win. And you’ll keep getting it up the ass.
…
Reporter: Chief Aiello, moving policemen into the factory came as a surprise. The press, the unions, especially the strikers.
Police chief: What did you want, a declaration of war? Ours was a peaceable operation.
Reporter: Wasn’t that contrary to new union laws and the right to strike?
Police chief: I’m chief of police, not chief of people.
Reporter: Was there any violence to justify…?
Police chief: My motto is: “Prevention, not repression.”
Reporter: You let scabs move in and work.
Police chief: Young lady, you wanna talk to me, call them “unemployed workers.”
…
Police chief: …maybe you heard. I’m the father of a baby boy.
Reporter: We heard he’s the youngest stockholder in that factory you occupied.
Police chief: What’d you mean by that?
Reporter: They say management expressed their thanks with a present for the baby.
…
Sign on side of Bercovicz & Co. hearse: Why go on living when we can bury you for $49.50?
…
Noodles: I always thought you might have helped yourself to that million bucks. But now I know. Yeah, you’re on your ass worse than ever.
Fat Moe: But I thought it was you who…
Noodles: No, you thought wrong. The suitcase was empty.
Fat Moe: Then who took it?
Noodles: That’s what I’ve been asking myself for 35 years.
…
Carol: [looking at Noodles] Why don’t we make it a threesome, huh?
Max: Can’t you see he’s got other plans for tonight?
Carol: Well, bring her along! We’ll make it a foursome!
Noodles: I’m not that kind of guy. Besides, I’m afraid if I give you a good crack in the mouth, you’d probably like it…
…
Police chief: My son, where is he?
Noodles: Where do you think? He’s in the maternity ward. He never left. He got restless, so he wanted to change his bed. The other kids got the same idea, so they wanted to change their beds. You got screaming babies jumping from one bed to another…switching tags, so now we do have a real problem.
Police chief: Piece of shit whoever you are! What the fuck?! I want my son!
Patsy: You know what? You know, I wish I was switched when I was a kid.
Noodles: What makes you think you weren’t?
…
Noodles: I don’t know what you’re talking about. You don’t owe me a thing.
Max: Your eyes were too full of tears to see it wasn’t me burned up on that street. It was somebody else. You were too shocked to realize that the cops were in on it too. That was a syndicate operation, Noodles.
…
Max: I took away your whole life from you. I’ve been living in your place. I took everything. I took your money. I took your girl. All I left for you was years of grief over having killed me. Now, why don’t you shoot?
…
Noodles:…I have a story also. A little simpler than yours. Many years ago I had a friend, a dear friend. I turned him in to save his life…but he was killed. But he wanted it that way. It was a great friendship. It went bad for him, and it went bad for me too. Good night, Mr. Bailey.[/b]