Production Companies Paramount Pictures, Rafran Cinematografica (as A Rafran-San Marco Production), San Marco Production (as A Rafran-San Marco Production)
Studio Paramount, Rafran Cinematografica, San Marco Finanziera
Other Titles • Once Upon a Time in the West • C'era una volta il West (1968) • There Was Once the West • Spiel mir das Lied vom Tod (1969)
Synopses for Once Upon a Time in the West (1968)
1.
The so-called spaghetti Western achieved its apotheosis in Sergio Leone's magnificently mythic (and utterly outlandish) Once upon a Time in the West. After a series of international hits starring Clint Eastwood (from A Fistful of Dollars to The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly), Leone outdid himself with this spectacular, larger-than-life, horse-operatic epic about how the West was won. (And make no mistake: this is the wide, wide West, folks--so the widescreen/letterboxed version is strongly recommended.) The unholy trinity of Italian cinema--Leone, Bernardo Bertolucci, and Dario Argento--concocted the story about a woman (Claudia Cardinale) hanging onto her land in hopes that the transcontinental railroad would reach her before a steely-eyed, black-hearted killer (Fonda) does. (The film's advertising slogan was: "There were three men in her life. One to take her ... one to love her ... and one to kill her.") Meanwhile, Leone shoots his stars' faces as if they were expansive Western landscapes, and their towering bodies as if they were looming rock formations in John Ford's Monument Valley. --Jim Emerson
DVD features The powers behind the DVD of this Western masterpiece pay due respect to filmmaker Sergio Leone's style right down to the DVD menus: calm, slow building, and pierced by a gun blast. The location gallery is a wonderful and unique extra consisting of images of filming locations then and 30 some years later, scored by Ennio Morricone's haunting music. The new hour-long documentary (uselessly cut into three parts) is packed with new interviews from surviving members of the cast and crew (including star Claudia Cardinale and co-writer Bernardo Bertolucci) along with insight from a trio of modern film directors and Leone fans: John Carpenter, Alex Cox, and John Milius. Leone biographer Sir Christopher Frayling has the lion's share of the commentary track, and although he knows Leone cold, he often just narrates the action. Other voices are more engaging. The widescreen print (2.35:1) is immaculate with true colors we haven't seen in prints on TV or second-run theaters. Of course you'll miss the big screen of a movie theater, so we recommend you watch the film while sitting real close to your television. --Doug Thomas
2.
Morton (Gabriele Ferzetti), the power-hungry owner of a railroad company, hires Frank (Henry Fonda, playing against type), a gunfighter without a conscience, to kill anyone who stands in the way of the completion of the railroad. After Frank murders land owner Brett McBain (Frank Wolff), McBain's widow (Claudia Cardinale) hires two killers of her own to protect her and gain revenge: a mysterious, harmonica-playing desperado (Charles Bronson) and his rogue sidekick (Jason Robards). Using techniques previously unseen in the genre, Sergio Leone utilizes close-ups, color, and Ennio Morricone's trademark score to create a tense and somber meditation on death which is widely considered to be one of the best westerns in cinematic history. Soon-to-be legendary Italian directors Dario Argento (SUSPIRIA) and Bernardo Bertolucci (THE LAST EMPEROR) collaborated with Leone on the screenplay.
3.
Special Collector's Edition
Sergio Leone's original uncut masterpiece is a monumental epic. The picture itself is as big as its Monument Valley locations. As grand as it's fine distinguished cast, and as tough and bawdy as everybody imagines the old west. Henry Fonda plays the blackest character of his long career, and he's utterly convincing as Frank, the ruthless, murderous psychopath who suffers no conscience pangs after annihilating an entire family. Jason Robards is the half-breed falsely accused of the terrible slaughter. Charles Bronson plays The Man, who remembers how his brother was savagely tortured. Brilliantly directed be Leone, this glorious picture re-established the Western's significance to cinema art.
4.
Acclaimed director Sergio Leone's monumental epic stars Henry Fonda, Jason Robards and Charles Bronson. Fonda, in an out-of-character, chilling performance, plays one of the meanest villains ever to ride the big country in this power, sweeping saga of blood and lust.
5.
Sergio Leone had to be persuaded to return to the Western for Once Upon a Time in the West after the success of his "Dollars" trilogy. The result is a masterpiece that expands the vision of the earlier movies in every way. It could as easily have been called The Good, the Bad, the Ugly and the Blonde as Charles Bronson steps into the No-Name role as the harmonica-playing vengeance seeker, Henry Fonda trashes his Wyatt Earp image as a dead-faced, blue-eyed killer who has sold out to the rapacious railroad; Jason Robards provides humanitarian footnotes as a life-loving but doomed bandit and the astonishingly beautiful Claudia Cardinale shows that all these grown-up little boys are less fit to make a country than one determined widow-mother-whore-angel-everywoman. The opening sequence--Woody Strode, Al Mulock and Jack Elam waiting for a train and bothered by a fly and dripping water--is masterful bravura, homing in on tiny details for a fascinating but eventless length of time before Bronson arrives for the lightning-fast shoot-out. With striking widescreen compositions and epic running time, this picture truly wins points for length and width.
On the DVD:Once Upon a Time in the West on disc is the transfer fans have been waiting for: the longest available version of the film in shimmering widescreen (enhanced for 16:9 TVs) which lends full impact to Leone's long shots of Monument Valley scenery or bustling crowds of activity, but also highlights his ultra-close images as Bronson's beady eyes or Cardinale's luscious pout fill the entire screen. A commentary track is mostly by expert Sir Christopher Frayling, with input from other academics, participants and enthusiasts--it's good on the detail, and Alex Cox winningly points out that one scene bizarrely can't be reconciled with what happens before or after it.
Disc 2 has four featurettes which, taken together, add up to a feature-length documentary on the film, and though overlapping the commentary slightly offer a wealth of further good stuff, plus the elegant Cardinale's undiminished smile. Also included is the trailer, notes on the cast, menu screens with generous selections from Ennio Morricone's score, stills gallery, comparison shots from the film and contemporary snapshots of the locations. --Kim Newman
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