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No. 87: Once Upon a Time in America

The spaghetti Western turns Borscht Belt

by
Liel Leibovitz
December 05, 2011

1984, dir. Sergio Leone. Any movie featuring James Woods as a character called Max Bercovicz, De Niro as a dude nicknamed “Noodles,” barrelfuls of Jewish gangsters, and an awesome death-by-garbage-truck scene is allowed to be four hours long.

Liel Leibovitz is editor-at-large for Tablet Magazine and a host of its weekly culture podcast Unorthodox and daily Talmud podcast Take One. He is the editor of Zionism: The Tablet Guide.