Once Upon a Time in America (1984) - Analysis

Directed by Sergio Leone in 1984 this film uses many conventions of the Thriller genre such as Noir lighting, the Femme Fatale and isolated figures, categorising it as a Gangster Thriller. 

The film starts with a sound bridge from a black screen to the music of 'God Bless America' which is use ironically because the film itself is about the corruption and gangs in 1920s/30s America and used in even more irony due to the fact that the director is Italian, not American. This is also a direct intertextual reference to 'Deer Hunter' (1978) where the director uses 'God Bless America' in the final scene. 

The first figure shown is a woman dressed in 1920s clothing, setting the scene and mood of the film for the audience. Firstly the only thing shown are the pearls around her neck, used to connote tear drops and as foreshadowing to her death. Unusually for a woman she is shown in harsh key lighting, the noir lighting that is very poignant of the thriller genre. This is unusual for a woman, because the usual lighting on a woman is soft, ambient lighting to show purity and fragility. However, the strong noir lighting is used on this woman to show to the audience that she is the Femme Fatale of this film. The pearls also connote wealth, showing that she may be connected with the gangsters and the wealth of the time. Also the use of a close-up shot gives the audience someone to directly connect with at the beginning of the film. 

As more characters enter the scene the camera changes to behind the woman and she is entirely framed by the doorway and by the men - showing that there is no escape. The men then kill her and she falls onto the bed, but before they leave one of the men turns of the lamp beside her as the lamp is a metaphor for her life because the film started with her being shown in the ambient light of a lamp. 

The next scene is of a man being punched and abused by gang members - establishing the genre to be a thriller film as it very gritty and real. There is a low angle shot of the man falling to the ground, showing that he has fallen and broken due to the torture from the gangsters. A worm's eye view is also used from this man's point of view showing not only his helplessness but also the authority that everyone else has above him due to him being weak and vulnerable. 

The slight tilt shot of a man smoking a cigar is used to show him as an enigmatic figure. The low-key lighting and lift shafts are also thriller conventions due to the lighting giving a mysterious and enigmatic feel to the mise-en-scene and the lift shaft is a claustrophobic space which connotes danger, the sense of the unknown and also the fear of confined spaces.