"God bless America,
Land that I love
Stand beside her and guide her
Through the night with a light from above
From the mountains
To the prairies
To the oceans white with foam
God bless America
My home sweet home "
The film 「Once upon a Time in America」starts with this melodious song,and so does it ends.Lasting for nearly 4 hours and having an irregular time line, it may give many people an impression of boredom and obscurity at first.In the beginning, it had been regarded by me as a simple story about code of brotherhood among gangsters, but as the story goes on,however,I found it fascinating ,and could not help myself exclaiming it as a masterpiece. Containing far more beyond the story itself,it is absolutely a genius,which is worth watching and tasting over and over again.At the end of the movie,a mixed feeling hit me.Somebody sees love and betrayal in the film,while as it is for me, I just see from it an inevitable destiny-- broken of an American dream.
Unwillingly,though,we must admit that most of us are just like David Aronson, the main character of the movie.The wonderful dreams about the future we harbor in our childhood usually succumb to the hardship in adult life.Many years of separation when Noodles (the nickname of David) was in jail tremendously amplified the diversity between his and Max's views towards life.One preferred life to be smooth and steady,whereas the other went to extreme to raise his status and gain power. Nevertheless, happiness seldom occurs to the persistently hard-working minority,as well. To pursue their dreams, they often have to give up something more valuable in life, love and friendship, for instance.
That is why I consider the dream's broken as a destiny.As Noodles said,"You can always tell the winners at the starting gate." Holding totally different faiths, Noodles and Deborah（the heroine） were bound to lead disparate lives. " I got to get to where I am going,to the top." when Deborah said that,lights shone in her beautiful eyes.Being a girl never resigned to ordinary,she learned everything eagerly with a badly strong will.Keeping dancing among the brooms and the empties, taking elocution lessons... she was a particular girl in the underclass,who spared no effort to improve herself ,in order that she could find a chance to escape.However,the lofty girl was desperately in love with Noodles,"a two-bit punk".She tried to change him,and when all her efforts ended up in vain,she locked the injured boy outside,just as she locked her heart seized by despair.
The fact that Deborah finally became the lover of Max（the Male2） is far from a coincidence.On one hand, they were definitely people of the same kind,who were clearly aware of what they wanted,and persevered in fighting despite anything. On the other hand,Max was no doubt a man of strong ambitions and controlling desire, and remember that Noodles was the only one in their team who was beyond him ever since.Furthermore,Shrewd though Max was,he was jealous of Noodles due to his cleverness and personal loyalty.As a consequence, Max had always wanted to prove himself badly by defeating Noodles in every aspects, even Deborah, was one of trophies he gained from this invisible war.
The audience are always arguing about two possible understanding of the end. What on earth was Max's real purpose to invite Noodles?Was the invitation a true confession of betrayal,or a well-planned utilization again?Actually,neither of them could get my totally agreement. In fact,the relationship between Max and Noodles was rather complicated.Max,the selfish man who merely took advantage of other brothers,yet had treated Noodles as a friend. Firstly he had once decided to complete his ambition together with Noodles. But after being disappointed at him,his desire for control over-wheeled their friendship. Max finally made up his mind to sacrifice his brothers in order to complete his own goal.Not out of mercy did he spared Noodles,but of jealousy and the lust of conquest.As far as I am concerned,the invitation was firstly to some extent a kind of "showing-off"."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 35 years of grief over having killed me.Now why don't you shoot?"At that time ,whether the request of killing himself was real or not,as long as Noodles took the gun,Max would be the one who pick the fruit of triumph. Everything was under his control then, except that Noodles,who would have been wrapped by rage as Max had hoped to see, looking at the lying gun, and saw nothing but his memories, in which they were both young, laughing and running,standing together and fighting against the whole world.
"Some job we took,some we didn't." said Noodles.He stood up even without touching the gun,and when Max asked him whether it is his way of getting revenge,he gave the negative answer, "It's just the way I see things." "I have a story also,a little simpler than yours,"said David,"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." Different from his former friend,David has always been a man of morality.Being betrayed and cheated for 35 years could not change his belief and character.He would do nothing against his moral principle under no circumstances.
As Deborah had said,age withered them,indeed.All that they left then were their memories.To confirm his guess,David went through the door and knew everything.His memories, however, would never vanish.While Max was calling him by his nickname,David insisted on calling the other as "Mr. Bailey".In his mind,his dearest friend had dead eternally in the night 35 years ago,leaving him a precious memory to cherish.And the man in front of him, "Secretary Bailey or whatever" was merely a total stranger.
In the end,Max,who had spent his whole life proving himself, finally to some extent did succeed. But from another perspective of friendship and morality, he lost out to Noodles forever.
No one can actually tell whether Max was dead or not when he disappeared on a garbage trunk,but so what?Life is but a dream.We are always trying to seize everything in the beginning,and inevitably lose them all at last.For some people,the life of Noodles was almost a sympathetic tragedy.He bet everything on the two people of most importance in his life,and had lost terribly. However, from my point of view,he had made a great achievement,that was standing steadfast to his faith.He may be a loser in many aspects,but he was the only one in the story whose guilty in heart remained to be none. Life is just a battle that is destined to lose,we know it deeply,and anyway ,we fight with every effort all the same.
