The_Film_That_Changed_My_Life

Once Upon a Time in America
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spoke to me better than other Westerns. They weren’t as mature or serious
as a John Wayne Western. They didn’t speak to the America I knew, because
I didn’t know that stuff; I was just a kid watching Westerns.
Maybe it was because they are more cartoonish. They were framed differently,
their particular way of close-ups. The music was more on top of
the picture than any others, played so much into character that it identified
certain instruments with people.
That’s what I thought a Western should be. If someone asked me what my
favorite Western was, I’d say, “Leone,” and people were cracking a smile.
He was late in the game with the gangster epic and cowboy epic. Do you
think that contributed to him not being taken seriously?
Polish: Oh yeah, I think he wasn’t taken seriously. That was unfortunate.
He was going to be deceased before people would appreciate what he was
doing. Probably one of the prime examples of this was Krzysztof Kieslowski.
Another comparison of how genius his work was, but appreciated more after
his death. His Three Colors Trilogy, Blue, White, and Red—when you look at
Red, that was a real masterpiece. Everything he lived to do came together in
that picture; it’s just perfect.
Leone had more films to do before he passed away, but if any film was
going to kill him, it was Once Upon a Time in America. You can’t make a film
like that, for that many years, and have it released at an hour and forty-five
minutes and expect to have any reason to live after that.
He was preparing a film on the sieges of Leningrad when he died at
sixty of a heart attack.
Polish: He had a sense of widescreen and Cinemascope that probably
nobody else had. His composition was unmatched by anybody else; his
sense of close-ups and choreography is what separated probably Once
Upon a Time in America and The Godfather.
Every scene was played to its fullest extent. How much of a challenge is
it for a new audience to get into that rhythm?
Polish: It hurts me as a filmmaker, and it doesn’t give you much faith in
people viewing cinema. This culture isn’t conditioned to sit through certain