C'era una volta il West

Plot synopsis:
In the desert Southwest of America during the waning days of the Old West, three gunmen (Jack Elam, Woody Strode, Al Mulock) approach an isolated train depot; two are wearing duster overcoats. The men take over the station and settle in to wait for the train. When the train finally comes, a nameless harmonica-playing stranger (Charles Bronson) gets off and asks for someone named Frank. They tell him Frank sent them in his place. In the ensuing showdown, all four men go down. Only the man with the harmonica gets up again.The soundtrack to the opening scene is a creative orchestration of ordinary sounds in the style of John Cage. Composer Ennio Morricone uses dripping water, the clicking of a telegraph, a buzzing fly, and over all the persistent, annoying squeak of a windmill-powered pump to build tension, punctuate visual jokes, and emphasize the tedium of waiting for the train. The scant dialog allows the soundtrack to consume much more of our attention than a score usually does.On a remote farm called Sweetwater, Brett McBain (Frank Wolff) and his children are preparing an outdoor wedding feast. McBain tells his son Patrick to drive into town to pick up his new mother, who is arriving by train from New Orleans. Suddenly shots ring out from the desert, and McBain's daughter Maureen, son Patrick, and McBain himself are slain. The youngest McBain, Timmy, runs out of the house to find that his entire family has been destroyed. He watches in terrified silence as a group of five gunmen in duster overcoats emerge from the scrub brush. When one of the men calls their leader Frank by name, asking what to do with the child, Frank (Henry Fonda) draws his pistol and slowly takes aim at the last remaining witness. With a self-satisfied grin, he pulls the trigger.In the town of Flagstone, McBain's bride Jill (Claudia Cardinale) steps down from the train to find that no one is there to meet her. Giving up hope, she steps through the train station into the bustling new town still being built. She hires a carriage to drive her to Sweetwater. The farm's name draws laughter from the driver, Sam (Paolo Stoppa), who informs her that "Sweetwater" is a worthless piece of ground, and McBain is crazy for trying to farm it.Along the way, Sam speeds through a group of railroad workers busily laying their "damn rails." Then he stops at a wayside inn/tavern/trading post, and Jill follows him inside. Her beauty draws the unwelcome attentions of the barman (Lionel Stander). After a noisy off-screen gun battle, the outlaw Cheyenne (Jason Robards) enters wearing shackles on his wrists. The sounds of a harmonica again reveals the presence of the nameless stranger, who has been watching from a dark corner of the tavern. Cheyenne dubs him "Harmonica," and he uses Harmonica's gun to force another patron to shoot apart the chain between his wrists. Cheyenne's men soon arrive, too late to help him escape the prison guards who now lie dead outside. Harmonica notes that the three men he killed earlier were wearing the same duster overcoats as Cheyenne's men, and Cheyenne is annoyed that rivals may be copying his trademark dusters.Jill and Sam arrive at Sweetwater to find a crowd of somber wedding guests standing around the outdoor tables, now put to use as funeral biers. Jill is horrified at the carnage. When one of the women bemoans that this should happen to the "poor little miss" on her wedding day, Jill informs the guests that she and Brett McBain were married a month earlier in New Orleans. As the burial comes to an end, the crowd discovers that the torn-off collar of a duster overcoat was found on a nail by the door. This marks the massacre as Cheyenne's work. The men form a posse and ride off to track down the outlaw and hang him. Sam offers to drive Jill back to Flagstone, but she says she will stay at Sweetwater. That evening, she ransacks the McBain household, looking for anything of value that might have been hidden away.At the town laundry in Flagstone that night, Harmonica puts the laundry man Wobbles through a violent interrogation, wanting to know why Frank didn't show up at the train. Wobbles doesn't know; he only arranged the meeting. Harmonica suspects Frank was occupied at McBain's farm just then, but Wobbles insists otherwise: "Cheyenne did that job--everyone knows that. We got proof." Harmonica doesn't believe it: "That was always one of Frank's tricks--fakin' evidence."Jill finds a group of miniature buildings stored away in a trunk, including a model train station with a fancy swinging sign that says "STATION." She hears the sound of a harmonica outside and fires a shotgun into the darkness. The sound of the harmonica moves farther away. In the morning as she is about to leave for good, she finds Cheyenne on her doorstep. While his men wait outside, he barges in and asks for coffee. He tells of being chased by the posse all night and helps make the fire for the coffee. He says he would never kill a kid: "I ain't the mean bastard people make out." He decided to come take a look at the scene of his supposed crime. Not only is he annoyed that someone is trying to blame him, but neither he nor Jill can understand why the killings happened at all. The place looks so worthless, he imagines that McBain must have hidden a treasure away somewhere. Jill tells him that if so, she couldn't find it. Aware that she is vulnerable to any sort of mistreatment Cheyenne and his men might deal out, she serves the coffee.In a private railroad car, Morton (Gabriele Ferzetti), a crippled and dying railroad tycoon, berates Frank for killing the McBains. He only wanted Frank to scare McBain, not kill him. And now a Mrs. McBain has shown up, making the killings pointless. Morton began building his railroad in sight of the Atlantic Ocean, and he means to build his way to the Pacific before he dies. He hired Frank to "remove small obstacles from the tracks," but Frank intends to become a wealthy businessman himself. Morton tells Frank he will never be like Morton, because Frank doesn't understand that money is more powerful than guns.After sharing a congenial interlude with Jill, Cheyenne finishes his coffee and rides away with his men. Jill takes her traveling bags out to the wagon. But Harmonica is there and demands that she stay. As he throws her down roughly and begins ripping at her clothes, Jill becomes alarmed. Instead of harming her, he simply removes the white trimmings from her black dress, leaving her in full mourning. They go to the well for a drink of water, only to be attacked by two more of Frank's men. Harmonica kills them, and from a nearby vantage point Cheyenne sees how handy Harmonica is with a gun.Jill goes to the laundry and asks Wobbles to tell Frank she knows everything and wants to negotiate with Frank personally. Wobbles denies knowing anyone named Frank, but Jill repeats her demand and leaves. Wobbles heads out to Morton's private train, unaware that Harmonica is following him. Morton scolds him for coming there, but Wobbles says he wasn't followed, and he thought Morton and Frank would want to know about Mrs. McBain. When Frank sees Harmonica's shadow on the ground, he knows someone is on the roof, and he signals the train to start moving.Stopping in open country, Frank captures Harmonica. A blurry flashback appears of an indistinct man walking through a desert landscape, but no explanation is given). Frank has Harmonica brought on board and bound. He kicks Wobbles off the train (literally) and shoots him down just as Wobbles is about to reveal the presence of Cheyenne hiding in the train's undercarriage. Harmonica lets Frank know that the two men he sent to kill Jill are themselves dead. Realizing this is the man who wanted to meet with him, Frank asks Harmonica who he is. Harmonica answers with the names of two men Frank has killed. Morton interrupts the interrogation to remind Frank he has more urgent business: the woman. Taking to horseback, Frank rides away with three of his men to do away with Mrs. McBain himself. He leaves three men behind on the train to guard Harmonica and keep an eye on Morton, whom he doesn't trust. Frank tells the men to meet him at the Navajo cliff, and the train gets under way again. Over the next few minutes, Cheyenne craftily disposes of the three gunmen one by one and sets Harmonica free. They now have Morton in their power, but they will deal with him later, choosing to stop the train and ride to Jill's aid.At Sweetwater, Jill is puzzled by the arrival of a large amount of lumber and building supplies that McBain ordered. Since he paid cash, it all belongs to her. Neither the lumberman nor Sam can say what it's for, but there are enough materials to build at least eight buildings. When the lumberman shows her a blank sign and asks if she knows what should go on it, she recognizes its outline from the miniature train station and tells him it should say "STATION." Inside the house, she looks through the trunk again for the model train station. Just then, Frank captures her.At the Navajo cliff, Morton offers to buy Sweetwater to avoid more killing--he's had enough of Frank's butcher tactics. He doesn't have time to compete with Frank. But away from his train, Morton looks weak and pathetic, no competition at all as far as Frank is concerned. Frank kicks one of his crutches out from under him, sending Morton sprawling face first: "I could squash you like a wormy apple." Frank tells some of his men to take Morton back to his train and watch him.At Sweetwater, Cheyenne and his men are just as puzzled by the building supplies as Jill was. Harmonica paces off the dimensions of a train station while explaining to Cheyenne what he has seen in a document: McBain was planning to build a town at Sweetwater, which has the only water supply for fifty miles west of Flagstone. Since trains need lots of water to make steam, the railroad must inevitably come through Sweetwater. McBain contracted for the rights to operate the depot himself, provided it was built by the time the tracks reached it. Knowing that the rail gangs are just over the hill, Cheyenne puts his men to work building the station.Inside a ruin at the Navajo cliff, Frank enjoys an intimate interlude with his captive Jill. He remarks that she will do anything to stay alive and that it seems she can't resist a man's touch, even the touch of the man who killed her husband. Frank knows from inquiries sent over the telegraph that Jill was one of the most popular prostitutes in New Orleans until she married McBain. As he undresses her, he thinks of marrying her himself to take over the land. Realizing he would make a bad husband, he comes up with a quicker, simpler solution.Jill sits in quiet resignation in the saloon at Flagstone, where people have gathered for a land auction. One of Frank's men hovers over her, and several more are scattered through the crowd, ready to intimidate anyone who even starts to make a bid. It's Frank's way of getting the property for himself cheaply. The sheriff (Keenan Wynn) reluctantly gets the auction under way.Meanwhile Morton, aboard his train, senses that his dream of seeing the Pacific is growing remote. He joins a game of poker with four of Frank's men who are now his captors. Instead of dealing out cards, he deals out five hundred dollars to each of the men to buy their allegiance to him.Back at the land auction, one of Frank's still-loyal men bids five hundred dollars for the farm. Just as the sheriff is about to close the sale, Harmonica calls out a bid of five thousand dollars. In what is most likely a scheme devised by both men, Harmonica brings in an indignant Cheyenne at gunpoint and turns him in for the reward money to cover his bid. The sheriff puts Cheyenne under guard on the train bound to Yuma, where there is a new, strong, modern prison that is much more secure than the local jail. But two of Cheyenne's men follow him onto the train after buying one-way tickets to the next station. Meanwhile, one of the men on Morton's train rides into town to tell the others what transpired in the poker game.Jill is grateful that Harmonica has saved the farm for her, and she begins to look at him more warmly. Frank enters the saloon and offers Harmonica five thousand dollars for the farm, plus one silver dollar profit. Again he asks Harmonica's name, and Harmonica answers with the names of two more dead men: "They were all alive until they met you, Frank." Again the blurred flashback appears, but the image of Frank walking through the desert becomes clearer than before. Harmonica rejects the offer but uses Frank's silver dollar to pay for his drink. Having noticed suspicious activity outside, Harmonica goes to watch from the upstairs windows and balcony, breaking into the room where Jill is taking a steamy bath. Frank steps out of the saloon onto the street--and into a deadly cat-and-mouse game. His former men, now Morton's men, try to gun him down. But with some timely assistance from Harmonica, Frank manages to kill them instead and rides out. Jill is furious at Harmonica for saving Frank's life. He tells her, "I didn't let them kill him and that's not the same thing."Frank discovers the aftermath of a gun battle at Morton's train. Bodies of Frank's men and Cheyenne's men lie strewn along the tracks and in Morton's private car. He finds Morton crawling desperately to a nearby mud puddle. Frank draws and cocks his gun to finish him off but then decides to let him suffer. Morton dies with the sound of ocean waves crashing in his mind.The track laying crew is reaching Sweetwater at last, and construction crew are busily turning the stacks of lumber into the beginnings of a town. Harmonica sits at the farmyard gate as Cheyenne comes riding awkwardly in and goes inside. Not quite his usual self, he again asks for coffee, which Jill has ready this time. They both sense that outside something important is about to happen with Harmonica. Cheyenne: "He's whittlin' on a piece of wood. I got a feelin' when he stops whittlin', somethin's gonna happen."Frank rides up to the gate, and Harmonica stops whittling. They exchange a few words. Frank admits he'll never be a businessman: "Just a man." They acknowledge they're of an ancient race being killed off by the coming of the modern age--arriving right next to them as they speak. Then Frank gets to the business between them: "The future don't matter to us. Nothin' matters now--not the land, not the money, not the woman. I came here to see you. 'Cause I know that now you'll tell me what you're after.""Only at the point of dyin'," Harmonica tells him. Frank says, "I know," and they stride out into the farmyard to face off for the final showdown.Inside, Cheyenne begins to clean up and shave while he watches the railroad move up. He tells Jill she should take water out to the workers at the tracks, letting them enjoy the sight of a beautiful woman. And if one of them should pat her behind, she should just make believe it's nothing. They earned it.As Frank and Harmonica square up a few feet apart, preparing to duel, Harmonica remembers his history with Frank, in the flashback, a young Frank strides out of the desert to the isolated ruin of a Spanish mission--a lone arch with a bell hanging at the top. He places a brand-new harmonica into a young man's mouth, telling him to keep his lovin' brother happy. The youth's hands are bound behind him, and his older brother, also bound, is standing on his shoulders with a noose around his neck. Frank and his men wait for the inevitable moment when the boy's legs will give way and complete the hanging. The doomed man curses Frank and kicks his younger brother away. The harmonica drops out of the young man's mouth as he falls into the dust.Frank and Harmonica draw and shoot. Frank turns around and staggers a few steps before he falls to the his knees. He asks Harmonica again, "Who ... who are you?" In answer, Harmonica places the old, beaten-up harmonica into Frank's mouth. Frank's remembers--he sees the image of the boy falling into the dust and the harmonica dropping out of his mouth. Frank falls lifelessly into the dust and the harmonica drops out of his mouth.Cheyenne tells Jill he's not the right man for her, but neither is Harmonica. There's something inside a man like that, he tells her, something to do with death. Once Harmonica has dealt with Frank, he will come inside, pick up his things and move on.Harmonica comes in and, true to Cheyenne's prediction, picks up his belongings and tells Jill he has to go. Jill is wearing a dress whose top reveals her cleavage. They share a lingering look, and then he opens the front door and surveys the developing street scene outside. "It's going to be a beautiful town, Sweetwater," he says. Jill hopes he will come back someday. With a doubtful "Someday," Harmonica leaves. Cheyenne too says goodbye and pats Jill on the behind, telling her to make believe it's nothing.As the two men ride away, Cheyenne pauses and gets off his horse before dropping to the ground. Harmonica discovers that Cheyenne has been gut-shot, the work of Morton himself during the gun battle at the train. Cheyenne asks Harmonica to go away--he doesn't want Harmonica to see him die. Harmonica turns away and soon hears Cheyenne fall over dead. Just then, the work train rolls into Sweetwater and stops at the station, which has its "STATION" sign in place. Harmonica takes Cheyenne's body away as Jill carries water out to the newly arrived railroad workers.

Tags: suspenseful, murder, western, dramatic, cult, violence, atmospheric, flashback, good versus evil, action, revenge

Review:
Leone's masterful storytelling and Morricone's crazy, beautiful, epic soundtrack; desperate, haunted faces which look like the barren landscapes the story is set in and a plot that unfolds with impeccable pacing to culminate in THE ultimate western finale.As in Leone's previous films, music isn't just used to add to the atmosphere but is essential to the story, or perhaps even more: Morricone's main musical theme plays the actual role of a (or rather: the) protagonist in the film.
With his brutal but honest portrayal of the sheer hardness of life and death in those times he thoroughly destroys the old romantic idea of the west as a 'generally-hunky-dory-kind-of-scene with the occasional bad guy and indian' and replaces it with an eerie, dark, hot and dry place where life is cheap and only the strongest will survive.I cannot adequately convey in words the way in which Sergio Leone deepens and defines the characters by pure means of visual persuasion.
Any other director would have skipped directly to the moment of arrival, but Sergio Leone takes minutes of boredom and translates it into a visual feast, deepening the characters that are portrayed and making them more human, more real to the viewer, while at the same time encompassing us with a deep dark sense of foreboding.
Who needs words and explanations when the combined forces of cinematic mastery and heart-tearing music are not just able to carry the story, but pick it up and push it up to such heights of excellence that it has no equal in it's genre?Another great feat that adds to the power of this movie is the minimalistic way of portrayal of the characters as real, emotional people.
No superheroes or supercriminals, just real, desire-laden, traumatised, obsessed people that act upon motives inherently understood by the viewer.All in all this is without a single doubt in my mind the greatest western of all times, and even though Sergio Leone has made many more mindblowing, heart-shattering westerns like this one, like 'A Fistful of Dynamite', 'The Good The Bad and The Ugly', and 'For a Few Dollars More', none could equal 'Once Upon A Time In The West' in sheer magnitude of perfection.
Fonda, Bronson, Robards and Cardinale queue up and take Leone's choreographic direction in an epic tale of blood and revenge.Frank is a bad guy who has killed a lot of people.
The time has come for the real Americans to confront both the railroad and Frank.Leone sat down with film intellectuals Bernardo Bertolucci and Dario Argento and watched dozens of Hollywood westerns.
Gradually the fates of the main characters converge, and swim into sharp focus for the shoot-out.It is not the story, excellent though that is, which lingers in the memory, but rather a hundred individual flashes of brilliance:  Claudia Cardinale (are those eyes for real?) filmed on the bed, viewed vertically downward, through a lace canopy: Cheyenne's surprise method of concealing himself on the train: Morton ("when you're not on that train, you're like a turtle out of its shell") imprisoned by the armature that helps him walk: the 'heartbeat' of the train's engine during the cardgame: the tension of the ambush preparations against Frank: the eruption of guitar music as Bronson enters the frame: Bronson's stillness and self-possession, the emblem of his righteousness: Fonda's eyes flickering rapidly in his motionless head, denoting the waning of his self-confidence: the amazing super-close-ups of Bronson: and the weird brick arch, the only man-made intrusion into the entire terrain, and the focus of human depravity..
From the top stars, Henry Fonda and Jason Robards, through a whole host of superb supporting character actors, Charles Bronson, Gabriele Ferzeti, Woody Strode, Jack Elam, Keenan Wynn, and Lionel Stander, they comprise a film maker's dream.
Even the unknowns with the bit parts are unforgettable.Now you add a towering director, Sergio Leone, an absolutely sublime operatic musical score by the matchless Ennio Morricone, superb cinematography, great costumes and makeup, fine voice and sound work, and you end up with a seismic event.It holds up like the masterpiece it is, no matter how many times you have seen it before, no matter how many years it has been since it was made.
That today is considered the best Western ever made in the history of cinema."Once upon a time in the West" begins when the farmer Brett McBain (Frank Wolff) and his sons are murdered in cold blood by the hands of the ruthless bounty-killer Frank (Henry Fonda) who puts the blame on the criminal Cheyenne (Jason Robards).
But a web of mystery and deceit circulates between the contradictory relationship of the characters.When the film premiered at the time it was poorly received by critics and was a box office failure, only today that the critics and the public praised the film as not only the best Sergio Leone's movie, but also the best Western ever made.
Not that they are not superb and memorable (which they are): Jill is nothing more nor less than the representation of the women in the world of men in the Old West and its extreme strength and intelligence, along with an excellent performance from Cardinale; Cheyenne can be compared with Tuco from "The Good, The Bad and the Ugly", both characters are cruel bandits, but in several times they are shown to be simple human beings with their problems and their kind and innocent side; Frank is another cruel-badass villain that Leone built in his films, Frank is a bounty-killer who in previous films its showed that they are honored to their "job", do whoever they were told and paid for and nothing more.
All this makes "Once upon a time" not only one of the best Western films ever made, but a beautiful masterpiece of cinema and the beginning of another amazing trilogy!
Joining the instrument playing stranger is an unpredictable, half-breed, renegade, who is a notorious gunfighter called 'Cheyenne.' ( Jason Robards ) The entire film is a triumph to the superb direction of Sergio Leone, who christens each major character with their own theme song.
That these little films can impress all you younger fans so much says a lot about good taste and the sad lack of it in American films of recent times.Great directors, like Leone, don't come along every day and it saddens me greatly to know he died before he was recognised for the genius he surely was.
Tonino Delli Colli's cinematography is vividly descriptive and has elements which have become his and Leone's trademarks like the extreme close-ups, the quick panning of the terrain, the rotating camera shots etc.The haunting score written yet again by the master composer, Ennio Morricone enhances the grandeur of the movie tenfold.
Like I said, this thing's close to perfect.The Good The Bad and The Ugly might be a tiny bit more entertaining, and Once Upon a Time in America might have a slightly better soundtrack and stronger emotional moments (for me, personally), but it's still really hard to find much to complain about here.
Jason Robards is great as the outlaw with a good heart, Cheyenne; and Charles Bronson is very Eastwood-like as a man known only as Harmonica with a mysterious past and a quick draw.
The central character, though, is that of the beautiful Claudia Cardinale as Jill, a widow seeking revenge.Sergio Leone used a slower, more romantic style for this Western, but he still was able to produce some great images and a story that will forever be remembered.
I remember over the years that echoing mournful theme song but since I missed this movie on first release I didn't make the connection, and it never played on television because of rights issues and the unusual length for the time.finally I bought it on DVD and there it was, that theme song that gave me flashbacks big time.then I finally knew what the interview with Jane Fonda was about where she described her recollections seeing her father Henry in the unusual role as archvillian, and another one with jack Elam about how it took all day to do the scene with the handgun and the fly.this is a remarkable western, despite some stretches of credibility.the railroad indeed was the thing that finally opened the west; it was the only way to move millions of tons of goods and tens of thousands of people over the long distances, wagon trains were too dangerous and got off the beaten path too easily and couldn't carry enough provisions.
I think Charles Bronson plays the best role in his career and just like Henry Fonda he's acting great in the interesting, mysterious conflict in which they're involved.
The best character in the film, though, was "Cheyenne," played by Jason Robards.The opening credits - spaced out over 11 minutes (which was rare in "classic movie" days) - are considered by many as the most famous ever, in any genre.
Jill's survival depends on Cheyenne, who wants to find out who framed him, and a mysterious stranger called Harmonica, Charles Bronson, who has his own business to conduct with Frank."Once Upon A Time In The West" is perhaps the most beautiful western ever filmed.
The pacing and filming are pure brilliance and really build the tension as you work toward the inevitable final standoff.The way each character is introduced makes them feel real and full of personality without the need for explanatory dialogue and I love how the music suits the movie, I can still hear Harmonica's haunting tune in my head.
People who view movies as foremost an art say "Once Upon A Time In The West" is the best western Sergio Leone ever made.
An entire faceoff between Jason Robards' tough outlaw Cherokee and a dandy with an itchy trigger finger goes on for about five minutes and has but one word: "Bravo."It's really a western as epic, and an interesting response to anyone who might have thought Leone couldn't have done up anything grander than "Good, Bad, & Ugly." The use of themes and ideas from other Westerns, particularly those of John Ford, give this film a sense of taking stock of cinema's first genre.
And Leone is getting it all in, even from the very beginning: That opening shot of Frank's pistol going off into the camera quotes directly from 1904's "The Great Train Robbery," the granddaddy of westerns.I love watching this film unfold in its gradual way, and can't help feeling a sense of exultation over how everything gels, but it's impossible to ignore the flaws.
He seems to serve some mystical function, as Leone's emissary bringing down the curtain on Fonda's Frank, the ultimate bad guy, and the West that spawned him."Once Upon A Time" feels like a dead stop that way, both for Leone (who would make only two more films, neither much appreciated in their day, in the next 20 years) and for the western.
Instead of cluttering the beauty of his carefully photographed frames with dialog, close shots of these actor's iconic faces express all that needs to be said.Ennio Morricone, also my favorite movie composer, scored five distinct musical themes that embody each of the main characters: widowed new bride Jill (Claudia Cardinale), mysterious harmonica-playing gunman (Charles Bronson), bandit Cheyenne (Jason Robards), hired gun Frank (Henry Fonda) and railroad tycoon Morton (Gabriele Ferzetti).
Although Sergio Leone never really made anything better or more entertaining than The Good, The Bad & The Ugly, in my opinion, he did come incredibly close to repeating that cinematic feat with this spaghetti western epic.
Also new in town is a mysterious harmonica-playing gunman who has a personal vendetta to settle with Frank.Sergio Leone earned his reputation as one of cinema's gifted visionaries for his Dollars Trilogy but this film introduces a very mature side of this director & his keen eye for stunning detail, visual narration & cinematic art is noticeable from the opening moments where we see three men waiting at a railway station for someone or something due in the next train.
And, Ennio Morricone impresses once again by composing an even more haunting soundtrack for this film compared to his previous compositions & it's easily one of his finest works, if not the finest.Coming to the acting department, the movie features an ensemble cast of Henry Fonda, Charles Bronson, Jason Robards & Claudia Cardinale, who all chipped in with strong & genuine performances.
And last we have Claudia Cardinale making a fine contribution in the company of men.On an overall scale, Once Upon a Time in the West is one epic that shouldn't be missed by any cinema lover, especially the fans of westerns, Sergio Leone or Henry Fonda.
Leone's masterful storytelling and Morricone's crazy, beautiful, epic soundtrack; desperate, haunted faces that look like the barren landscapes the story is set in and a plot that unfolds with impeccable pacing to culminate in THE ultimate western finale.
Sergio Leone's follow up to his superlative "Man With No Name" trilogy is highly acclaimed in some circles, a bit too much so to be honest, but is still a well acted story of a woman(beautiful Claudia Cardinale) who comes to the west as a mail-order-bride, only to find that her would-be family was wiped out by a cold-hearted gunfighter(Henry Fonda, cast effectively against type).
This is clearly among the greatest movies ever made and the very top westerns ever made, its main competitor (in my opinion) being another Sergio Leone masterpiece: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly.
Everything about it is utter perfection, with the slow build-up of tension as the viewer for some time wonders what exactly is going on but can feel the tension; the quick, sharp spot of violence (another Leone trademark); the use of the sounds of the windmill, etc.; the things with which the three gunmen occupy their time whilst waiting; the images, especially the view with the close-up of the windmill and long shot of the countryside and tracks as Woody Strode casts a shadow whilst traversing the makeshift platform; every detail of the station and the characters; the references to other westerns; the arrival of the man for whom they are waiting; the image of them turning to face him.
With his dollars trilogy, director Sergio Leone proved that he was the master of the spaghetti western; with Once Upon A Time he transferred the conventions of that genre – the operatic sense of drama, the nihilism, extreme close-ups, epic widescreen photography, Ennio Morricone music and moral ambiguity – into Monument Valley, the setting of the traditional American western.
Once Upon A Time In The West is directed by Sergio Leone and stars Charles Bronson, Claudia Cardinale, Jason Robards & Henry Fonda.
Ennio Morricone scores the music and cinematography is from Tonino Delli Colli.After finishing The Good, the Bad and the Ugly in 1966, Sergio Leone felt he had done all he wanted to do with the Western genre.
But, as of now, I've only seen "Once Upon a Time in the West".The film is a classic epic spaghetti western, with great atmosphere, great performances, and, of course, an excellent soundtrack by Ennio Morricone!
It is simply incredible every point of this film, with an incredible start and tense, a development that opens our eyes, classic phrases that are remembered as celebrities, an epic ending, incredible performances, beautiful cinematography, unique sound editing, A plot of entertainment, everything, everything, I love everything about this movie.It's just so gratifying to know that directors such as Leone lived to give us the most beautiful films in history, movies so incredible in every sense that they leave us remembered the most grandiose scenes, we'll never have epic films in life, well , Probably never like these.
Perhaps this has some sort of literary value, but its just too slow for me.The Good the Bad and the Ugly is one of my favorite westerns, but just can't get through Once Upon a Time in the West, as there is always something better I can do with my time, such as watch on old John Wayne movie that I've seen 100 times.I think the director gets way too caught up in impressing the viewers with with slick camera work (which there is, by the way), but drags out each scene to the point its difficult to remember sometimes whats actually going on in the plot.I am clearly in the minority here, and I attribute that to the fact that I am perhaps a more shallow movie viewer than most who post here.
The railroad is the villain here as Henry Fonda plays an unscrupulous blue-eyed bad guy paid to force landowners to sell up cheap so the rails can pass through.Charles Bronson is a darker take on Leone's man-with-no-name character, but it is debatable whether that makes him more interesting then Clint Eastwood's version.The main characters each have a theme tune, opera-style, which is an interesting motif, but quite an irritating one when you have heard the harmonica tune for the 30th time.A fine movie, but claims that it changed the western any more than Leone's previous films or that it is better than The Good, the Bad and the Ugly should be taken with a pinch of salt..
Once Upon a Time in the West is more a work of Sergio Leone , the master of westerns , the film already shows in the beginning a great photograph, a great wardrobe , and a great cast , Henry Fonda this great Charles Bronson this great also , Frank Wolff , Gabriele Ferzetti , Woody Strode , Jack Elam , Lionel Stander , Keenan Wynn , and etc.
"Once Upon a Time in the West", directed by Sergio Leone is without a doubt, the single greatest film I have ever watched.Everything from the near silent opening scene to the monumentally epic final moments is pure cinematic perfection.