Editing Once Upon a Time in America (section)

=== Editing ===
By the end of filming, Leone had ten hours of footage. With his editor [[Nino Baragli]], Leone trimmed it to almost six hours, and he originally wanted to release the film in two parts.{{sfn|Hughes|2006|page=163}} The producers refused, partly because of the commercial and critical failure of [[Bernardo Bertolucci]]'s two-part ''[[1900 (film)|1900]]'', and Leone was forced to shorten it further.<ref>{{cite web |first=Kevin |last=Jagernauth |title=Sergio Leone's Extended Director's Cut of ''Once Upon a Time in America''|date=June 9, 2014 |url=https://www.indiewire.com/2014/06/sergio-leones-extended-directors-cut-of-once-upon-a-time-in-america-coming-to-blu-ray-85044/amp/ |website=[[IndieWire]] |access-date=September 8, 2021 |archive-date=September 8, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210908133300/https://www.indiewire.com/2014/06/sergio-leones-extended-directors-cut-of-once-upon-a-time-in-america-coming-to-blu-ray-85044/amp/ |url-status=live }}</ref>

The film was originally 269 minutes (4 hours and 29 minutes), but when it premiered out of competition at the [[1984 Cannes Film Festival]], Leone had cut it to 229 minutes (3 hours and 49 minutes) to appease the distributors. The latter is the version shown in European cinemas.<ref name="festival-cannes.com">{{cite web |title=Festival de Cannes: ''Once Upon a Time in America''|url=https://m.festival-cannes.com/en/festival/films/once-upon-a-time-in-america |access-date=June 25, 2009 |work=Festival-cannes.com |archive-date=June 5, 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220605091310/https://www.festival-cannes.com/en/festival/films/once-upon-a-time-in-america |url-status=live }}</ref>