1968 ‘C'era una volta il West’ Directed by Sergio Leone
This classic western masterpiece is an epic film about a widow whose land and life are in danger as the railroad is getting closer and closer to taking them over. A mysterious harmonica player joins forces with a desperado to protect the woman and her land.
Claudia Cardinale Henry Fonda Jason Robards Charles Bronson Gabriele Ferzetti Paolo Stoppa Woody Strode Jack Elam Keenan Wynn Frank Wolff Lionel Stander Enzo Santaniello Simonetta Santaniello Marco Zuanelli Al Mulock John Frederick Michael Harvey Benito Stefanelli Antonio Molino Rojo Fabio Testi Frank Braña Paolo Figlia Saturno Cerra Spartaco Conversi Aldo Berti Aldo Sambrell Lorenzo Robledo Bruno Corazzari Antonio Palombi Show All…
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. A stunning work of blazing originality & featuring precision craftsmanship in nearly all departments of filmmaking, Once Upon a Time in the West is western in its purest form that fuses breathtaking art into the legacy of Wild West unlike any other example before or after it.
The story revolves around a small chunk of land which is the region's only water source. The family that owns the land is slaughtered by Frank & his gang, after which the ownership transfers to Jill, the widow of…
A true masterpiece in every sense of the word! The opening scene takes the mundane (sweaty gunslingers with weathered faces, dripping water, pesky fly and a rusty old windmill) and literally turns it into a work of art!
A western that's so real you can almost see the beard stubble grow by the minute and the sweat trickling from your screen!
Gorgeous cinematography with soundtracks ranging from glorious, to thrilling, to haunting! An all star cast as magnificent as the film itself! (Henry Fonda, Charles Bronson, Jason Robards, Claudia Cardinale)
As lusty as it is gutsy! A place and time when guns and grimaces did all of the talking!
This is currently streaming on NF!
Beautifully composed, shot, and told, Sergio Leone's "Once Upon a Time in the West" is well deserving of its reputation as one of the best Westerns ever made. An epic story of lawlessness, vengeance, and the women and men conquering the untamed American west, Leone's film is meditative and gritty, sweeping and violent. It compels with its carefully composed aesthetic, archetypal-yet-specifically drawn characters, and grand themes.
Steeped in dirt, sweat, and stubble, Leone's film is made up of narrative threads well-known to genre fans. Murder, westward expansion, and frontier justice dominate the plot. The story focuses on a widow whose husband owned precious water rights near the town of Flagstone. With parties trying to forcibly rid the widow of her…
"Do you know anything about a guy going around playing the harmonica? He's someone you'd remember. Instead of talking, he plays. And when he better play, he talks."
What a pleasure it was for me to finally get to watch this masterpiece which I kept on putting off because of its nearly three hour runtime. I was blown away by Sergio Leone’s direction in The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly, and that was the only film of his that I’d seen up to this point, but now I honestly can’t say which of the two films I prefer. This is perhaps a better film because it is set on a grander and epic scale, but perhaps not as entertaining…
"There were no dollars in them days."
All of Sergio Leone's westerns have been about the arrival of capitalism (both to the historical American West and to then-contemporary 1960's Italy), but Once Upon a Time in the West takes a slightly more specific perspective. Instead of looking at the (monetary) value of life, it uses the symbol of the cowboy to chart how the arrival of capital and industry parallels the decline of traditional male heroism. Industrialization causes heroic masculinity to defensively over-inflate and begin to collapse in on itself. The film takes this macho war hero whose glory days are behind him and shows how society is moving forward without him. Removed from the spotlight, this symbolic centerpiece is…
Masterpiece
Beyond the fact that this is one of the greatest movies ever made, this movie teaches you one very important lesson. DON'T F*CK WITH CHARLES BRONSON.
"People like that have something inside...something to do with death."
THE GOOD, THE BAD AND THE UGLY is probably my favorite Sergio Leone film on a "crowd-pleasing entertainment" level, but one is almost moved to tears by the awesome power of ONCE UPON A TIME IN THE WEST. Peak Leone, an absolute masterpiece, and simply one of the greatest films ever made.
It ain't nearly as good as Leone's other classic, The Good, the Bad and the Ugly, but goddamn this is still a western of extreme fucking quality.
Esta es otra de esas películas que juegan en otra liga. Es de esas películas que mientras las estás viendo piensas que estás siendo testigo de algo mucho más grande que tu. Leone demostró todo lo que tenía que demostrar en "El Bueno, el Feo y el Malo", pero lo que era difícil era repetir el hito una vez más.
Que pena que este señor no hiciese más películas. Una verdadera obra maestra.
I think this might be my favorite movie. Epic, passionate filmmaking, with absolutely celestial music from Ennio Morricone. Henry Fonda is UNREAL.
Von diesem Werk hat wohl jeder schon mal was gehört, egal ob Filmfan oder nicht. Und das vollkommen zurecht! Überragend gespielt und sensationell inszeniert.
Nicht nur einer der besten Western, sondern einer der besten Filme überhaupt!
Il tempo diviene elemento fisico, parte della scenografia e vero nemico di ogni essere vivente. Sergio Leone porta l'orologio all'interno della sua pellicola, facendo comprendere perfettamente allo spettatore il passare dei secondi e degli anni. Una pellicola immensa, con un taglio deciso e curato, palcoscenico di personaggi spietati e scritti egregiamente. Una storia di vendetta, un racconto firmato con il sangue e con il sudore degli uomini che la caratterizzano. Un comparto tecnico che sfiora la perfezione e una trama coinvolgente ed affascinante, fanno di quest'opera uno dei punti più alti della filmografia del regista e di quegli anni. Non ci sono buoni e cattivi, ma solamente pistole e morte.
- Roveda -
Charles Bronson’s face looks like a wax sculpture of the facial prostheses for the original Planet of the Apes. Sergio Leone just loves his extreme close-ups.
Opening credits are essentially the climax from a previous story. Utterly brilliant.
"Harmonica: Did you bring a horse for me?
Snaky: [Chuckling] It looks like we're...it looks like we're shy one horse!
(beat)
Harmonica: You brought two too many."
or
"Frank's Lieutenant: What are we going to do with this one, Frank?
Frank: Now that you've called me by name?"
CHILLS.
This movie is worth owning for the opening credits alone. It's 4 Bones for the opening credits alone. Forget about Henry Fonda or Jason Robards or Claudia Cardinale or how good and epic the story is.
I've been to Monument Valley. It's not easy to get to. The fact that they had to build a small town, rail road, ranch house out there is staggering. It literally took an army and had to have been brutal conditions.
(4 Bones)
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