By the end of filming , Leone had eight to ten hours worth of footage . With his editor , Nino Baragli , Leone trimmed this to almost six hours , and he originally wanted to release the film in two parts , each three hours . The producers refused , partly because of the commercial and critical failure of Bernardo Bertolucci 's two-part '' 1900 '' , and Leone was forced to further shorten it . The film was originally 269 minutes ( 4 hours and 29 minutes ) , but when the film 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 , which was the version shown in European cinemas . However , the American wide release was edited further to 139 minutes ( 2 hours and 19 minutes ) by the studio , against the director 's wishes
1984 Cannes Film Festival
1984 Cannes Film Festival
Once Upon a Time in America