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Summary: I'll reitierate
Review: I'm not going to make any superlative statements about this film, because other reviewers have adequately expressed my opinion that this is perhaps the best western ever, and a necessary film for any film lover.My only comment is that Paramount, or whoever owns the video rights to this film, MUST release an anamorphic DVD version immediately. IMMEDIATELY! There are simply no excuses.
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Summary: A Truly Great Film and Western
Review: The opening ½ hour title sequence is one of the best ever filmed. It sets the eerie mood for the entire film. The skill in which suspense is built using the the camera and ambient sound is astounding. It's almost too much at some points. The photography, including crane shots, combined with Ennio Morricone's excellent score also add greatly to this film, as with the earlier Clint Eastwood "Dollars" Trilogy. Leone's style just kept developing. There are significant differences between this film and the Dollars Trilogy. The Eastwood films are action based and have more humorous elements. Once Upon a Time In The West is deadly serious--there is no humor. But this film also has elements in common, such as the importance of the score and the way the story is conveyed with very little dialogue. The grand scope is reminiscent of "The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly." Much has been made of Eastwood being Leone's first choice for the Harmonica character. In retrospect, however, Bronson was the perfect choice. Its hard to imagine anybody playing this role better. For example, when he responds to being one horse short with "You brought two too many" he makes this character his own. Bronson's character is more brooding than Eastwood's more enigmatic character and has a deep grudge that motivates him throughout. This film needs a re-mastered DVD release.
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Summary: one of the best villians
Review: Henry Fonda gives a great role as a villian in the old west in this Sergio Spagetthi Western helping to show what he is capable of doing. The camera work is brilliant like any sergio leone movie showing off the old west and helping to convey emotions about scenes and characters.
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Summary: Haunting unforgetable
Review: I first saw Once Upon a Time in the West on TV sometime in the early 70s. Even as a boy of 10 or 11, this film absolutely captivated me. I have seen it since in Letterbox on TV on AMC and most recently on TCM. I have seen it in on the big screen three times. What can one say? It is for me one of the greatest Westerns ever made. It is the one western that I usually refer to. I have even inadvertently memorized most of the dialogue. One could say I am a little over the top about this film. If I am then I have been for about 30 years now. I have never grown tired of it. Interesting if you read some of the reviews here people do tend to get a little obsessed, and with good reason. It all comes together. The story the mood the masterful direction by Leone the amazing soundtrack by Morricone. Charles Bronson has never been better in anything he did before or since. It is incredible that we have had to wait for a widescreen format of this film. In England you can get it in Widescreen on VHS In Italy you can get it on DVD. Too bad wrong region. (2) Recently a studio rep wrote that Once Upon A time in the West would most likely be released sometime in 2002. "This movie is a complex affair. We aimed originally to get it out this year but in researching what materials there are available, particularly in Italy, we don't want to rush it. The goal is to see it out next year though."
I for one look forward to it with great anticipation. Just a thought maybe we could all have a party when its released on DVD. We could all sit back and talk back to the screen like they do in Midnight showings of The Rocky Horror Picture show.
"Cheyenne what's he waiting for out there? What's he doing?" "He's whittling on a piece of wood, I got a feeling when he stops whittling something is gonna happen."
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Summary: Once Upon a Time in the West
Review: This film is the apex of the classic "Spagetti Western", with what I believe to be the best cinematography to be found anywhere. The detail shown is fantastic (ie; the fly in the scenes while waiting for the train is just great!), and the story is well executed. The cast is one that is unequalled in any movie before or since! This is just the best movie I've ever seen (and I've seen it a lot!), and I am hoping that it will be released soon on DVD.
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Summary: Leone's masterpiece
Review: 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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Summary: A Spaghetti-epic. Sweeping, intimate, brilliant.
Review: One of my top three favorite films since childhood, 'O.U.A.T.I.T.W.' is a dark, mysterious, exasperating, exhilirating, moving, funny, and ultimately very satisfying Western classic that both respects and rejects the genre while reinventing it. Although a personal favorite, I don't think as others have written that it's the genre's crown jewel, let alone one of the greatest films ever-let's be serious. What it is is a challenging and highly personal attempt to create a western where several established genre stereotypes' lives and motives intertwine and play out in a dangerous and changing environment, an environment that will retain only one of the leading characters at film's end. Having made three spaghetti-westerns dealing with greed and loyalty prior to 'O.U.A.T.I.T.W.',('A Fistful of Dollars', 'For a Few Dollars More', and 'The Good the Bad and the Ugly') Leone incorporated several recognized genre characters in this epic, earth mother(Cardinale), the scruffy loveable scoundrel(Robards), the mysterious and haunted stranger(Bronson), and the black-hearted (and hatted) villian(a devastatingly effective Fonda). Their lives dovetail for a brief period- partnerships form and break apart for numerous reasons, some genuine and noble, some simply to further a cause. As was normal for Leone in his works, not much is designed to be warm and comfortable. Characters motives are often unclear and questionable, and in Bronson's case-in a brilliant and unique use of flashback-the motive is teasingly hinted at for a good two-and-a-half hours(!) The performances are uniformly outstanding, the direction sure-handed and masterful, the score, well the score is an essay unto itself(Morricone is God) and there are at least several scenes that will undoubtedly stay with viewers and fans for the rest of their lives. Not for everyone, not for those seeking simple entertainment, but for those who demand more, 'O.U.A.T.I.T.W.' is a gem unlike most.
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Summary: One of the ten greatest films of all time (and no DVD)
Review: Hey, it's already all been said....The greatest opening title sequence ever, the rich character sketches, the Ennio Morricone soundtrack with its operatic tone including "leitmotifs" for the major chartacters,the absorbing and tight Bernardo Betolucci story, the grandiose vision to match the Monument Valley backdrop in all its wide panoramic glory,the classic deadpan one liners, the means and the motives and an unforgetable ending tracking shot. The heck with westerns, this movie is one of the greatest films ever made, period, and yet it is not out on DVD. Ironic that the Leone sophmoric predule trilogy (The Good, The Bad ..... et al) is out on disc , yet this masterpiece remains to be transfered. It must be that Clint Eastwood has bigger "market" guns than Charles Bronson. My VHS copy is starting to fade after way to many viewings...WE NEED THIS ON DISC (in anamorphic format of course) Mr Choo Choo
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Summary: Magnificent operatic western, possibly the best of all.
Review: "C'era Una Volta Il West" Once Upon a Time in the West is arguably Sergio Leone's best work, and possibly the best western made. A revisionist western, the film examines the stereotypes of its genre through Claudia Cardinale's Jill McBain - no regular woman - and the three gunslingers (Fonda's Frank, Robard's Cheyenne and Bronson's Harmonica). Each of these characters has embedded within their portrayal a motivation for their actions. Where most western gunslingers simply are, these men are drawn with so much more detail. It is the mysterious motivation driving Bronson's character, for example, which drives a large part of the story, resulting in perhaps the most satisfying pay-off ever seen in cinema. It is hard to conceive how the showdown - and the rich history motivating it - at the end of this film could ever be eclipsed. In addition to this climax is one of cinema's most brilliantly executed entrances, equalled only by Orson Welles in The Third Man and possibly Max von Sydow's in The Exorcist. When the camera tracks forward and turns onto Fonda's face, we are witnessing cinematic perfection. Also of considerable note is Ennio Morricone's score. Truly dramatic, each of the four leads has his/her own musical motif which underscores their scenes. Jill slightly nostalgic, slightly mournful tune as she enters to be left alone on the station forces us to care for her, despite the fact that she has been on screen for only a few seconds. Bronson's famous Harmonica motif is (if a little over-used) unforgettable. Outstanding. There is barely a criticism to be made of Once Upon A Time in the West. Perhaps a little over-long depending on what mood you're in watching it, but this truly is unforgettable and unsurpassable cinema.
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Summary: Only Western I'll Watch
Review: I'm really not into westerns at all, but ever since I caught this on AMC, it's become one of my favorites of all time. Henry Fonda is great in this rare performance as a villain. And that haunting soundtrack, I couldn't get it out of my head the first few times I watched it. What I want to know is who is the wonderful person that is sitting behind their desk looking at a pamphlet to their next vacation spot and not paying attention to getting this film on DVD. Come on! I think you've kept us waiting long enough. GET WITH IT! Thank you.
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