GRAD 888.29 050 N37 BFI Modern Classics Rob White Series Editor Advancing into its second century, the cinema is now a mature art form with an established list of classics. But contemporary cinema is so subject to every shift in fashion regarding aesthetics, morals and ideas that judgments on the true worth of recent films are liable to be risky and controversial; yet they are essential if we want to know where the cinema is going and what it can achieve. As part of the British Film Institute' s commitment to the promotion and evaluation of contemporary cinema, and in conjunction with the influential BFI Film Classics series, BFI Modem Classics is a • series of books devoted to individual films of recent years. Distinguished film critics, scholars and novelists explore the production and reception of their chosen films in the context of an argument about the film's .• importance. Insightful, considered, often impassioned, these elegant, beautifully-illustrated books will set the agenda for debates about what matters in modem cinema. O n c e U p o n a T i m e i n A m e r i c a Adrian Martin ~ bfi Publishing First published in 1998 by the British FIim Institute 21 Stephen Street. London W1 P 2LN Copyright © Adrian Martin 1998 The British Film Institute is the UK national agency with responsibility for encouraging the arts of film and television and conserving them in the national interest. Series design by Andrew Barron & Collis Clements Associates Typeset in Italian Garamond by DR Bungay Associates, Burghfield, Berks Picture editing by Millie Simpson Designed by Tom Cabot Printed in Great Britain by Norwich Colour Print, Drayton, Norfolk. British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library. ISBN 0-85170-554-8 4~D 3l2JQ8b"f l) fE AT Contents ·2[) -~·8 1 Acknowledgments 7 1 Once Upon a Time, Leone 9 2 A Dream and a Map 16 3 The Mummy's Curse 24 4 A Pulp Fiction 32 5 Gangster Without Glory 37 6 A Violent Night 44 7 'Been Goin' to Bed Early' 52 8 For a Few Minutes More (Or Less) 59 9 Pillar of Salt 6 7 10 I Say It Here and I Deny It Here 73 Postscript: Ashes of Time 81 Notes 89 Credits 92 Bibliography 95 For Helen Acknowledgments For their diverse forms of assistance, I thank: Stuart Kaminsky, Jonathan Rosenbaum, Bill Krohn, Kent Jones, Christopher Frayling, Rob White, Ed Buscombe, Noel King, Helen Bandis, Meaghan Morris, Jenny Darling, Anna Dzenis, and the Research and Information Library of the Australian Film Institute. I also thank Philip Brophy and Lino Caputo for encouraging me to publish my initial thoughts on Once Upon a Time in America in a 1987 issue of Stuffing magazine. Stills are from BFI Stills, Posters and Designs.