Once Upon a Time in the West (1969)

I had the opportunity to see a newly-restored version of Once Upon a Time in the West, directed by Sergio Leone, at Castro Theatre as part of a film festival this past weekend. The restoration was remarkable and the film is a masterpiece. It seems as if the restored print is scheduled to tour the country. I'm not sure if they plan on releasing it on DVD or Bluray thereafter, but hopefully they will. The story is one of murder, greed, revenge, power and lust in an era of railroad tycoons and territory struggles as the railroad was being built across the country. Despite that being a significant factor in the plot, it is truly a story about the characters in the film, above all else, and doesn't come off as a historical drama in the least. For anyone familiar with There Will Be Blood, that film took many cues from Once Upon a Time in the West and, in a way that story is almost the oil tycoon followup to the story (albeit a much darker one). Although I'm a undecided about the exact ranki... Read more

An epic, sprawling picture, and one of my favorite westerns all time. Henry Fonda is particularly good, playing against his normal type-cast, and the rest of the cast is strong, including a delectable turn by Claudia Cardinale. Contains some great dialogue, perhaps equalled in westerns in this regard only by "The Good the Bad and the Ugly" and "The Magnificent Seven" The opening sequence, the gunfight between Bronson and the trio of killers led by Jack Elam, is an absolute classic.

Leone made a great movie by, among other things, playing Henry Fonda against character. He was cast as a blue eyed killer. Fonda told Leone that he would put brown contacts on to come into character, but Leone wanted a blue eyed murderer. The film plays on Fonda's face and blue eyes. Most of the Italian directors who made these Spaghet's were Marxists and were raised in the Mussolini era. Mussolini was a former Marxist Socialist, you will remember, although Mus' abandoned the Soc's to advance into Fascism which was Socialism with good tailors, writers and set directors. Why do you think the Italians are so good at fashion and cinema? This flick has a good dose of good old Karl Marx with the rapacious railroad hiring killers and the general decadence of capitalist society. This is why the Spaghetti was so different. American Westerns glorified the system. Italian Westerns ran it down.

Sergio Leone's finest moment, in part thanks to Henry Fonda uncharacteristically (but effective) as a chillingly cold-blooded gunslinger. And then there's Claudia Cardinale...