arloGet the appMovies like Once Upon a Time in America
1984 · Movie · your starting pointIf Once Upon a Time in America is the itch, these scratch it — some louder, some quieter. Free ones first.
Movies like Once Upon a Time in America, ranked
1. Gangs of New York (2002)
Scorsese's operatic treatment of New York's criminal underworld across decades mirrors Sergio Leone's meditation on how violence and ambition shape men across time, following protagonists bound by blood debts and impossible choices.
2. GoodFellas (1990)
Scorsese's propulsive narrative about crime's seductive rise mirrors Sergio Leone's meditation on its hollow aftermath, both tracing how loyalty and ambition corrode the bonds that once defined men.
3. A Bronx Tale (1993)
Sergio Leone's operatic treatment of moral ambiguity and intergenerational mentorship resurfaces in this intimate portrait of a young man navigating between legitimate and criminal fathers in a racially divided Bronx.
4. The Irishman (2019)
Sergio Leone's meditation on time's corrosive effect on friendship finds its echo in Scorsese's three-and-a-half-hour reckoning with a hitman's fractured loyalties, both films using aging protagonists to measure how criminal choices hollow out the soul across decades.
5. American Gangster (2007)
Sergio Leone's meditation on loyalty and moral compromise across decades finds its echo in this richly textured portrait of American ambition, where a criminal empire's rise and a cop's relentless pursuit both grapple with corruption seeping through every institutional layer.
6. The Godfather Part II (1974)
Sergio Leone's epic meditation on friendship and mortality across decades finds its match in Coppola's parallel narratives of generational crime and the corrupting weight of ambition in America.
7. Once Upon a Time in... Hollywood (2019)
Tarantino captures the same nostalgic melancholy of a transforming America through aging male friendships, where loyalty and regret linger beneath surface charm in a world that's moved beyond them.
Tell me what kind of night it is — I'll pick the one for you.