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Once Upon a Time in America poster

Movies that feel likeOnce Upon a Time in America (1984)

A former Prohibition-era Jewish gangster returns to the Lower East Side of Manhattan over thirty years later, where he once again must confront the ghosts and regrets of his old life.

If you loved Once Upon a Time in America, the closest films we have are Mean Streets (1973), Duck, You Sucker (1971) and Carlito's Way (1993). All three share Once Upon a Time in America's gritty feel, which is what we rank on before quality.

Seen the big three already? The under-the-radar pick below is As Tears Go By (1988).

🍅 86% Rotten Tomatoes★ 8.3 IMDb ↗TMDB ↗dir. Sergio Leonecontemplativegrittyromantic
11 of 12 streaming nowNetflix · HBO Max · Amazon Prime Video

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If Once Upon a Time in America hit the spot, these will too

Mean Streets poster
Mean Streets
1973 · dir. Martin Scorsese
🍅 92%★ 7.1drama · crime

Street-level hoods bound by loyalty and guilt in a New York that owns them

The difference: Small and scrappy where Leone is vast — days, not decades

A small-time hood must choose from among love, friendship and the chance to rise within the mob.

Duck, You Sucker poster
Duck, You Sucker
1971 · dir. Sergio Leone
🍅 92%★ 7.5westernPrime Video

Leone again — two men bound by history, shot with the same mournful grandeur

The difference: A dusty revolution western, far from New York's rackets

At the beginning of the 1913 Mexican Revolution, greedy bandit Juan Miranda and idealist John H. Mallory, an Irish Republican Army explosives expert on the lam from the British, fall in with a band of revolutionaries plotting to strike a national bank. When it turns out that the government has been using the bank as a hiding place for illegally detained political prisoners -- who are freed by the blast -- Miranda becomes a revolutionary hero against his will.

Carlito's Way poster
Carlito's Way
1993 · dir. Brian De Palma
🍅 84%★ 7.9crime · drama · thrillerPrime VideoStarz

An aging criminal haunted by his past tries to outrun the old neighborhood

The difference: Propulsive and streamlined — none of Leone's dreamlike sprawl

Free after years in prison, Carlito Brigante intends to give up his criminal ways, but it's not long before the ex-con is sucked back into the New York City underworld.

A Fistful of Dollars poster
A Fistful of Dollars
1964 · dir. Sergio Leone
🍅 98%★ 7.9westernRent or buy

Sergio Leone directing both, with the same fingerprints on each

The difference: Lighter on stillness

The Man With No Name enters the Mexican village of San Miguel in the midst of a power struggle among the three Rojo brothers and sheriff John Baxter. When a regiment of Mexican soldiers bearing gold intended to pay for new weapons is waylaid by the Rojo brothers, the stranger inserts himself into the middle of the long-simmering battle, selling false information to both sides for his own benefit.

For a Few Dollars More poster
For a Few Dollars More
1965 · dir. Sergio Leone
🍅 92%★ 8.2western

Both are Sergio Leone's work, and they rhyme

The difference: Played as western first

Two bounty hunters both pursue the brutal and sadistic bandit, El Indio, who has a large bounty on his head.

Once Upon a Time in the West poster
Once Upon a Time in the West
1968 · dir. Sergio Leone
🍅 96%★ 8.5drama · western

Leone's other elegy — time, memory and loss stretched to operatic scale

The difference: A western through and through; the city and the mob are gone

As the railroad builders advance unstoppably through the Arizona desert on their way to the sea, Jill arrives in the small town of Flagstone with the intention of starting a new life.

True Romance poster
True Romance
1993 · dir. Tony Scott
🍅 93%★ 7.9action · crime · romanceNetflix

Gritty where it counts, romantic underneath

The difference: Leans further into action

Clarence marries hooker Alabama, steals cocaine from her pimp, and tries to sell it in Hollywood, while the owners of the coke try to reclaim it.

As Tears Go By poster
As Tears Go By
1988 · dir. Wong Kar-Wai
🍅 85%★ 7drama · crime · romanceMax

A doomed romance keeps pulling a gangster back toward the life he can't quit

The difference: Compact and neon-soaked where Leone stretches across decades

Mid-level gangster Wah falls in love with his beautiful cousin, but must also continue to protect his volatile partner-in-crime and friend, Fly.

The Good, the Bad and the Ugly poster
The Good, the Bad and the Ugly
1966 · dir. Sergio Leone
🍅 97%★ 8.8western

Drama built on grit, twice over

While the Civil War rages on between the Union and the Confederacy, three men – a quiet loner, a ruthless hitman, and a Mexican bandit – comb the American Southwest in search of a strongbox containing $200,000 in stolen gold.

The Talented Mr. Ripley poster
The Talented Mr. Ripley
1999 · dir. Anthony Minghella
🍅 85%★ 7.4thriller · crime · dramaParamount+Starz

Longing and self-invention shading step by step into the unforgivable

The difference: Sunlit and seductive; the underworld here is one man's lies

Tom Ripley is a calculating young man who believes it's better to be a fake somebody than a real nobody. Opportunity knocks in the form of a wealthy U.S. shipbuilder who hires Tom to travel to Italy to bring back his playboy son, Dickie. Ripley worms his way into the idyllic lives of Dickie and his girlfriend, plunging into a daring scheme of duplicity, lies and murder.

Days of Being Wild poster
Days of Being Wild
1990 · dir. Wong Kar-Wai
🍅 91%★ 7.4crime · drama · romanceMax

Both lean on stillness more than on crime

Yuddy, a Hong Kong playboy known for breaking girls' hearts, tries to find solace and truth after discovering the woman who raised him isn't his mother.

West Side Story poster
West Side Story
1961 · dir. Jerome Robbins
🍅 92%★ 7.6crime · drama · romance

Both rooted in New York City

The difference: 23 years apart, and the 1960s show

In Manhattan’s Upper West Side, rival gangs of Polish-Americans and newly arrived Puerto Ricans clash for control of the neighborhood, even as two young members from opposite sides fall dangerously in love.

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The best-reviewed films that share Once Upon a Time in America’s defining feeling.