The Subjectivity of Memory and Time

The Edited Version of Memory: The Trajectory of Subjective Time

The most original and profound achievement of Once Upon a Time in America lies precisely in its questioning of the temporal structure itself. The film endlessly interweaves past and present, compelling the audience to suspect—at every turn—whether what they are watching is truth or a distorted recollection. This transcends a simple flashback technique; it is a metaphor for memory itself as "subjective narrative": not an objective record but something filtered and reinterpreted by present emotional states.

1. The Symbolism of the Frisbee: The Cycle of Fate and Memory

In the film, the frisbee (or film reel) is not a mere prop. It symbolizes the "cycle of memory"—humanity's desperate attempt to constantly rewind the flow of time and to shuttle between past and present in search of self-affirmation.

• Circular Structure: The film adopts a frame-and-recall structure in which the opening and conclusion repeat. Noodles's experience of betrayal, corruption, and eventual ruin is compared to the frisbee's endless loop: a cycle of human fate that cannot be altered no matter how many times it is revisited.
• Medium of Memory: When elderly Noodles attempts to return to the past through the frisbee, it force-plays the pivotal events he most wants to forget—or must absolutely revisit. This shows that memory is not a voluntary choice but a fateful, compelled recollection.

2. The Contrast Between Youth and Young Adulthood: The Boundary Between Innocence and Corruption

The film divides Noodles's life into two starkly contrasting periods: "childhood" and "young adulthood." This contrast is the device that most dramatically reveals the subjectivity of memory.

• Youth (Innocence and Loyalty): Life in the 1920s slums is a space governed by "pure friendship" and "loyalty." Cockeye, Patsy, Dominic, and the rest of the gang commit crimes to survive, but their relationships are founded on a familial bond. Crime in this period is driven by "necessity," and their goals are tied to the communal value of "togetherness."
• Young Adulthood (Desire and Betrayal): With the repeal of Prohibition, the desire to "climb higher" explodes. The moment Max proposes robbing the Federal Reserve—and Noodles ultimately tips off the police—captures the instant when their shared goal mutates into the greed of individual wealth and fame. Friends betray each other, and Noodles is branded a traitor and loses everything. This betrayal becomes the most subjective and painful "fact" that leaves the deepest wound in Noodles's memory.

3. Memory as the Illusion of the American Dream

Ultimately, the biggest question the film poses concerns the illusion of the "American Dream." Every success and fall that Noodles experiences, and every fragment of the past he tries to hold onto, is sustained by the fantasy of "achievement."

• The Garbage Truck and the Ocean Dump: The scene in which Max meets his end inside a garbage truck, and the cut to an ocean waste dump after Noodles falls into the sea, visually suggest that this "achievement" is an illusion ultimately discarded as refuse.
• The Meaning of the Ending: In the final scene, Noodles biting down on opium with an expression that seems to mock the world is read as a nihilistic resignation—an acceptance that all the tragedy and glory he experienced was, in the end, as worthless and insubstantial as a hallucination. This shows the process by which humanity's attempt to hold onto memories of the past becomes powerless in the face of time's flow and material waste.