1968; the few still lviing characters in their old age.
When Leone finsihed maknig the film it was 229 miuntes (3 hours and 49 minutes) and satrted with an old charcater (Robret De Niro) remmebering his past; it then shoewd him as a child and as a young adult. We call this flasbhacks; it can hpapen in film but cetrainly not in real life. But when it was first shown to Aemrican aduiences it was made much shotrer and set in chroonlogical order; menaing the movie first showed the charcaters as cihldren, then as young adutls and then as older adults; or 'from start to fniish'. We call this chornological; this is what would happen in real life. Many poeple agree that the logner vresion is much better than the shortneed chronoloigcal verison.