Once Upon a Time in America [Original Soundtrack]

Sergio Leone’s final film had a lot going against it — particularly the brutal cuts American studios made that turned the nearly four-hour early 20th Century crime drama into a jumbled 2 ½-hour mess — but loyalty and friendship at least ensured that Ennio Morricone would create a stunning opus to soundtrack it. Unique in incorporating the pan flute of Gheorghe Zamfir as a major melodic element, the Once Upon a Time in America score is also a heartwrenchingly evocative portrait of a time of struggle, with only occasional moments of period Dixieland swagger providing brief levity in one of his more mournful, yearning scores.