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Once Upon a Time in the West, 1968. The ultimate western?

Posted by free.ranger (A) on May 31, 2016 at 20:32:18

Recently seen on The Movie Channel, this was Sergio Leone's final western, having said that he had nothing more to top The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly, done earlier. That spaghetti western was the ultimate saga according to many, and was a box office success.

Leone's uncut film versions, shown in Europe ran long, approx 3 hours. The US versions were cut to about 140 minutes; a lot of cutting. As such, Once Upon a Time was successful in European theaters, but not in the US.

In hindsight, this is a great saga revolving around the western railroad building period. All characters, relationships, and action revolve within that bigger story.

At first view, this seems a bit corny, with Leone's operatic hold on facial expressions and terse, sparse language, but once you understand the genera thing, this really pulls together as a bittersweet story of several main characters -- Claudia Cardinale, Henry Fonda, Charles Bronson, and Jason Robards. This film has 3 independent male leads, not linked as a group or gang. Bronson was a replacement for Eastwood, who did the original Leone western trilogy, but turned this one down. Judging from his role here, Bronson could well have been a better choice for the earlier Leone westerns. Leone agreed to do this last one because he had contractual access to Fonda. A lot of footage is spent on sustained closeups of the actors' faces, so Fonda's swung the deal. I would have thought Cardinale's big eyes (yes, eyes) would have sealed it.

As in the earlier films, the Morricone musical score is haunting. It fits perfectly with the bittersweet saga aspect. A very beautiful and moody soundtrack.

The movie was selected in 2009 by the Library of Congress as worthy of permanent inclusion. It is now held in high regard, although it was a financial bust in the US. IMO, this is one of the top westerns of all time; worth seeing if you find it floating out there on cable.

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