Once Upon a Time in the West (1968)

My title is a cliche but in this case it's the only phrase to use. The version of this movie available now, with its extra disc full of great bonus material, is an example of how to bring DVD format to its highest potential. First of course there's the movie, and its director Sergio Leone. Every Leone movie I've seen--Fistful of Dollars, For a Few Dollars More, The Good Bad and Ugly, Once Upon a Time in America--is wonderful, but this tops them all. Imagine the year 1969: what a great time to be a western film lover. You had this, and Sam Peckinpah's Wild Bunch in the same year. Incredible. Anyway, it's impossible to list all the great scenes, so I'll stick with the first. If you love the credit sequence you'll love the movie; it's not for everybody, however. So those credits, mostly silent except for a windmill creaking, which Leone somehow makes sinister, and one of the minimal details he uses to establish authentic mood, are the litmus test. You'll either love the movie or hate it. The scene is built on a genius contradiction: it's so tense that you want it to end, but it's so beautifully done, so built on image and gesture and glance, that you also hope it never ends. The whole movie is that delicious. And the cast--wow. Everyone is at top form, but check out Henry Fonda as the leanest meanest bastard imaginable, but also someone you can't avoid enjoying because it is the GREAT Mr. Fonda, with Leone getting maximum mileage out of close ups of Fonda's ice-blue eyes, as unforgiving as a western sky, generally acting like the amiable stalwart figure he always plays, until he shoots little kids and fat lackeys whom he doesn't trust because they wear both suspenders and belts: and as Fonda says, how can you trust a man who can't even trust his own pants? As the heroine, Claudia Cardinale isn't just gorgeous she's luscious, lust-us. And tough. Watch for the scene where she looks at herself in the mirror when she's all alone in her house. whose previous residents, her family, have been killed by Fonda and his thugs. Charles Bronson--what an underrated actor. Dangerous yet entirely sympathetic here. He finds wit in his role, knows exactly what the unique Leone's up to and gets in sync with the vision. Jason Robards is incapable of giving a performance less than brilliant, and this is another highlight in the film. As Cheyenne he is funny and tough and smart, maybe the most complex performance in the movie. There's so much more, too--the finest Ennio Morricone soundtrack, killer dialogue, extraordinary cinematography. This DVD is put together so well it's even a pleasure to look at the menus--you'll see what I mean. And all this for under FIFTEEN U.S. DOLLARS. What are you waiting for?

After having established himself as the Master of the Spaghetti Western, Italian director Sergio Leone set out to make a western epic of very stylish proportions. ONCE UPON A TIME IN THE WEST was the result. Like Sam Peckinpah's THE WILD BUNCH, which was also released in 1969, O-U-A-T-I-T-W did not receive a particularly warm welcome from either the critics or the audiences. But like Peckinpah's film, it has now come to be seen as a masterpiece among the rise and eventual fall of the West (and maybe the way Hollywood thought of the West).

Claudia Cardinale is the widow of a businessman whose land is being sought out by a ruthless railroad magnate (Gabrielle Ferzetti). The land is well sought because it is the only known place in the desert within a 50-mile radius where there is any water. Defending Cardinale are a cold, calculating gunslinger (Charles Bronson) and an amiable outlaw (Jason Robards). But standing in their way is a ruthless hired gunman named Frank, played by (are you ready for this?) Henry Fonda!

At 165 minutes in the director's original cut, ONCE UPON A TIME IN THE WEST marks a change for Leone. Although part of this film was shot in Spain, where he had shot his previous films, a good deal of it was filmed in John Ford's beloved Monument Valley. Leone gets solid performances by Bronson, Cardinale, and Robards, as well as a stunning fifteen minute opening credit sequence featuring Bronson and two of Fonda's hired hands (Jack Elam, Woody Strode). But Leone scored a real coup by casting Fonda, the man known for playing good guys most of the time, as one of the coldest and meanest villains in screen history; it is he who kills Cardinale's family, and it is he who is being sought out by Bronson for reasons we do not know until the famous confrontation at the end.

Another superb Ennio Morricone score caps this fabulous western epic, one that thankfully can be seen the way Leone had intended, not the horribly butchered version that Paramount had foisted on the public for so many years. Although very long, requiring a good deal of patience, ONCE UPON A TIME IN THE WEST is well worth seeing. A classic of the 1960s.

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ONCE UPON A TIME IN THE WEST is arguably Sergio Leone's greatest Western, although Clint Eastwood's three films with him remain among my favorites. Actually, Leone had hoped to have Eastwood in this film as Harmonica, but they were unable to work things out. As it is, I think having Charles Bronson in the role is more effective. It was central to Eastwood's persona in those three films that he be both a man with no name and with no past, but Harmonica's character is entirely driven by the past and his need for revenge.

The beginning of this film are among my favorite in the history of film. Leone is arguably the most patient director in the history of film, and is willing to take fifteen minutes for something another director would be loathe to take two. The two great instances of Leone's patience are the scene in the uncut version of ONCE UPON A TIME IN AMERICA, where he allows a phone to ring thirty or forty times, and here at the beginning, where he takes fourteen minutes to show three men waiting to men a train.

As a whole, this is a far more ambitious project than Leone's other Westerns. The plot is a bit more epic, the sweep of the film a bit grander, the relations between the characters more complex. Like most of his other films, it was filmed primarily in Europe, but unlike the others, a couple of scenes were actually shot in the United States, in particular in Monument Valley, the signature area of John Ford, the director most associated with Westerns. He handles characters a bit differently in this than in his earlier films. For instance, Leone ties a musical theme to each of the major characters in the film, much as did Prokofiev with "Peter and the Wolf."

One aspect of the film that is simultaneously a strength and a weakness is the casting. Leone here works with a group of performers he had not worked with before. A couple of the performers are simply brilliant. Charles Bronson was brilliant, and his tiny, piercing blue eyes lend an eerie intensity to many of his screen moments. The casting of the equally blue-eyed Henry Fonda as a sadistic villain was a stroke of genius, and he manages to produce one of his most memorable roles. I have, however, trouble with the other two major performers. Claudia Cardinale was certainly beautiful, but she simply does not bring as much to her role that many other actresses would have. Women do not feature prominently in Leone's films, and that might be because he simply didn't relate to women as well as men. At any rate, I think the movie would have been greatly improved with someone else in her role. I had similar problems with Jason Robards. He just did not radiate the aura of danger that his character was supposed to, and the musical theme that was tied to his character sounded somewhat clownish. I found him to be the most poorly conceived and executed character in the film.

Despite these two cavils, this is an incredible movie, and is by far one of the most thoughtful, unique Westerns ever made. The ending is perhaps the finest of his many Westerns, as well as one of the most surprising. It easily goes on any list of the greatest Westerns in the history of film.

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Occasionally, one encounters an example of film, music, etc. which transcends its genre to become a major artistic achievement. "Once Upon a Time in the West" does exactly that. Director Sergio Leone did virtually nothing that he hadn't done in his string of prior westerns; this time he created a work of stunning beauty, riveting tension and dense emotional impact.

The bare bones outline of the story (written by Leone, Bernardo Bertoluci and Dario Argento) is almost a western cliche: unscrupulous railroad tycoon wants land owned by local homesteader and sends hired gunman to persuade him to vacate. Gunman kills homesteader but homesteader's widow, with help from locals, triumphs in the end. But reducing this movie to the above is like Woody Allen describing "War and Peace" as "about some Russians". Gabriele Ferzetti, as Morton (using crutches and wearing a neck brace) hires gunman Frank (Henry Fonda) to "clear away obstacles" as his railway extends. Fonda plays about the most chilling villain in movie history. Utterly amoral and with a sadistic element barely concealed by his coldness Frank murders an entire family (including the young son). When Morton later admonishes "I told you only to scare them" Frank answers matter of factly "People scare better when they're dyin'".

Opposing Morton and Frank are characters whose goodness lies well below layers of complexity. Widow Jill, played by Claudia Cardinale, is a former New Orleans whore, taking advantage of a marriage proposal in order to begin again. She projects alternating facades of toughness and fragility, concealing real durability. she's unafraid to do whatever is required for survival but does spend a lot of time being bullied by the men around her and she immediately elicits our concern. The brilliant Jason Robards plays local outlaw, Cheyenne, who has cowed the entire community, but finds it in himself to care about Jill and to take up her cause. Laconic Charles Bronson is Harmonica (so named by Cheyenne), a man who is tailing Frank. Beyond this we know nothing and learn little until the end.

Like most Leone works, "Once..." is a visual treat (one should consider the surprising aesthetic effect his visuals had on an audience used to the comparitavely tepid Hollywood Western). The director outdoes himself here, using Montana's Monument Valley to great effect and rendering his characters true to period (grimy, unkenpt and probably malodorous) and simultaneously visually arresting. He uses lengthy shots of the actor's eyes, particularly in the climactic scene. Fonda's blues convey the icy murderousness of his character and a little squint by Bronsonsets up the "why" of their relationship. Leone's long stills, whether of people or scenery do not bore, rather small tics, gestures and movements become heightened in importance.

In addition, the score by Ennio Morricone is brilliant. Each major character has a musical motif which supports without being intrusive. Much of the incidental music is also well done (listen to the percussion/piano background during Frank's shootout with his former employees). Morricone's score also seems to heighten its absence. Long stretches of silence or desert sounds create a tension which slowly builds, then either climaxes or ebbs.

I first saw this movie in 1970, not too long after is was released. When I left the theater I found it occupying my head more than just about any film I'd seen to date. I've seen it on late night television about a half dozen times but bad editing turns it into nothing more than a pretty good movie (kind of like trimming "La Guernica" to make wallpaper). I was thrilled to see that it had been released intact and have watched it several times since getting a copy. It still occupies my head for a long time afterward.

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This is the one to get! Unlike the "Clint-Sergio" trilogy on Blu-ray which was only slightly better than the standard def. This one has been restored. Though there was only so much they could do with an older film like this, It is so much clearer than my previous DVD. And the Audio. Wow! Just listen to the train when the 3 gunmen are waiting for harmonica. Its like it's gasping for breath. Sell your old DVD for a few bucks at work and get this version.

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