Rating: 
Summary: "People scare better when they're dyin' "
Review: What better way to start a western than with a good showdown? These three gunfighters waiting for the train to arrive so they can gun down Charles Bronson are enough to make you want to cringe. I didn't put the whole story together the first time I saw it, some of it is obvious, like Bronson's obsession to pay back Fonda for killing his brother ("Keep your lovin' brother happy"). Henry Fonda's performance as a bad guy is quite convincing, a man with no conscience and no desire for one. Claudia Cardinale is so sexy she practically steals the show. I can't remember how Jason Robards fit in to it but I'm sure that somehow he does. Bronson ("Harmonica") is a constant irritation to Fonda (Frank). Something about him really bothers Fonda but he doesn't know why. Bronson's presence haunts Frank to the end, especially when he returns to Frank the harmonica given to him years ago.
Rating: 
Summary: DVD Please
Review: For two years now I've been waiting for this to come out on DVD so that, on my birthday I can purchase some high-end 100% agave sipping tequila and watch this fine, fine film. Yet sadly, no DVD version yet exists (isn't this what Criterion DOES?) Honestly it makes no sense. It is widely regarded as being one of the top 5 westerns ever made, if not the very top. Please, whoever from studios reads this, get this out on DVD already!!!
Rating:
Summary: Once Upon a Time in the West
Review: This is my favorite western of all time. I especially like what is not said in the movie as what is said. I wish this movie was on DVD.
Rating:
Summary: BEST OF THE WEST
Review: "ONCE UPON A TIME IN THE WEST"is the top movie of this kind you ever want to see.Bronson is great!Henry fonda plays the "mean"man as good as it gets.A film you can watch again and again."UNFORGETTABLE" I highly suggest anyone to purchase this movie.
Rating:
Summary: ONCE UPON A TIME IN THE WEST
Review: It is too bad that we can't get movies like this produced any more. It has a great story with great actors & actress. The scenery is beautiful (natural) not computer generated. It has to be one of the all time greatest movies made to date. In fact, all the spaghetti westerns are great. I have them all on VHS, and slowly replacing them with DVD.
Rating:
Summary: Best Western ever made
Review: "Keep your lovin' brother happy." By the time we reach the end of Once Upon a Time in the West, hear Henry Fonda utter these intensely powerful words, and discover the meaning behind a long-awaited revenge, we have been taken on a long, leisurely carriage ride through western folklore. Who would have guessed that an Italian would make the best cinema of the American West? But Sergio Leone was that man. With his "Man with No Name" trilogy (A Fistful of Dollars, For a Few Dollars More, and The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly), he made a star of Clint Eastwood and presented a vision that none had seen before and that has yet to be matched. And then he topped himself. Once Upon a Time in the West is undoubtedly the finest western ever made. All the trademarks are here: the beautiful, expansive landscapes; the extreme close-ups; the nameless hero; the operatic score by Ennio Morricone (with motifs for each character). But somehow they all come together as if for the first time, as if all that came before was simply rehearsal. From a story by the Italian triple-threat of Leone, Dario Argento (Suspiria), and Bernardo Bertolucci (The Last Emperor, Last Tango in Paris), Leone and Sergio Donati fashioned a screenplay that typifies and transcends the genre. But the plot is less important than the style. Leone's love for the genre is apparent in how he lets the scenes flow at their own speed, never hurrying, never forcing them to a conclusion. The languid pacing makes for a much longer film (it clocks in at three hours), but also one much more emotionally real. It gives us time to really experience what we're seeing: a film about the West made by one of its biggest fans.
Rating:
Summary: This is my all-time favorite western
Review: I saw this movie first when I was a teenager in Hungary. I thought then--and I still think 25 years later--that it's one of the most beautiful films I've ever seen. I now live in America and visited Monument Valley twice. Each time I looked at those majestic cliffs I could hear Ennio Morricone's music from this film playing in my head. I wish that I could buy this film on DVD. (I already have the VHS version.)
Rating:
Summary: Greatest Western Ever
Review: This epic goes beyond Western. That it has never become a more popular movie is hard to believe, how many times do you get to see Henry Fonda play a true bad guy? He's right out there with performances by any current "bad guys" like Malkovich and is evil to the core like Lecter. Sweeping, desolete beauty of the southwest is at once both stunning and sometimes frightening. There's a true feeling of how "bad" it must have been in those lonely times. Bronson brings an interesting, mysterious quality to his character and the haunting notes of his harmonica accentuate every one of his scenes. The final view of a set of evil blue eyes that have now seen the result of their ways, closes this story in a fashion that will leave everyone who sees this for the first time stunned that this is "just" a western.
Rating:
Summary: 5 stars isn't enough
Review: First let me say that Leone's operatic masterpiece is my favorite film of all time. Leone took everything we loved about the Western and put it in here in what has become, in my estimation, the grandest swan song ever to punctuate a genre. This film has it all: Larger-than-life characters (Fonda's turn as a cold-blooded killer is chilling and unforgettable). Sweeping, gorgeous cinematography. The most mythic screenplay ever written for a Western. And a brilliant score in which each character had their own piece of music composed for them (from the script no less!) and Leone played while filming so that each actor could move in rhythm to it. Just one word of advice to the first time viewer: never, and I repeat, never watch this film in anything less its original aspect ratio (widescreen letterboxed). You would be doing yourself a disservice and missing out on the sheer grandeur of this flawless epic.
Rating:
Summary: One more comment
Review: This is probably my favorite western, and I think it ranks with the greatest westerns of all time. I heard the sequel, "Once Upon a Time in the East," about a lost samurai warrior trying to find his home clan, didn't do nearly as well, despite the narration by James Clavell.
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