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India Press Store - Once Upon a Time in the West
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List Price: $14.95
Our Price: $10.97
Your Save: $ 3.98 ( 27% )
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Manufacturer: Paramount
Starring: Henry Fonda, Claudia Cardinale, Jason Robards, Charles Bronson, Gabriele Ferzetti
Directed By: Sergio Leone
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Average Customer Rating:  
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Audience Rating: PG (Parental Guidance Suggested)
Binding: VHS Tape
EAN: 9780792101444
Format: Closed-captioned
ISBN: 0792101448
Label: Paramount
Manufacturer: Paramount
Number Of Items: 2
Publisher: Paramount
Release Date: 1997-02-19
Running Time: 165
Studio: Paramount
Theatrical Release Date: 1969
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Spotlight customer reviews:
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Customer Rating: 
Summary: One of the Great Westerns
Comment: Is this the best Western ever made? I tend to disagree with the other reviewers. There are an awful lot of good movies to consider, including Leone's own "The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly." And of course "The Searchers", "High Noon", "Stagecoach", and "Unforgiven" all must be ranked as the possible number one.
It's a pointless exercise, of course. This movie is very, very good. Many images are unforgettable and very moving: the shots of the train, the shootouts at the beginning and end of the film, Fonda's expressions, the shots of Monument Valley, the scene at the end showing the unstoppable progress of the railroad and the new town.
But the movie has its flaws. The plot is convoluted -- and not in a good way. It's almost as if the story is secondary to the power of the images. The movie is more myth than plot. This can work, but here the movie would have benefitted from the tighter kind of story lines used in the Good, the Bad, and the Ugly.
The acting is truly great. Fonda is a wonderful villain. The cold blue eyes and the friendly expressions that morph into pure sadism as he commits one outrage after another are chilling. Bronson has the ability to play the larger than life hero with a minimum of dialogue. Apparently, Leone originally intended Eastwood for that role. It would have been fascinating to have seen Eastwood square off against Fonda. But Bronson plays the part very well, and the movie works fine with him in that role.
The dialogue is in some respects memorable. Fonda and Bronson each deliver great lines. Robards doesn't quite have the same material to work with, and sometimes his dialogue and the dialogue of Cardinale seem stilted and not quite up to snuff with the ambition of this movie to be the definitive Western.
It's a terrific movie, but one that requires patience and open-mindedness by the viewer.
*****
I've been watching some of the bonus material and commentary since writing the above, and I am marveling at Leone's technical mastery. The point of the commentators is to see the movie as operatic, in which case my concerns about plot may be misplaced. The plot in an opera is a second thought -- what matters is the emotion and message conveyed by the music and the images. One shot that blows me away on reviewing is the arrival of Cardinale at the train station. A tracking shot follows her into the station (seen through the window) and then a crane takes you up over the station so you can see her exit into a bustling half-built frontier town. It is an amazing shot.
Leone is terric. I'm going to watch or re-watch everything he ever made.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Something about death....
Comment: Note: This review contains spoilers; please do not read if you do not wish to find out important plot points before viewing the film.
This movie has so much---stunning scenery, a great cast, tight writing, economic plot, and haunting music---and it takes its time to unfold its tale of stark vengeance and redemption. This is unmistakably and indelibly a Sergio Leone vision. One could imagine that Clint Eastwood was first offered the role of Harmonica, the avenger, and then it went to Charles Bronson. However it worked out, Bronson was superb as the Everyman hero/possible avenging angel character; he projected a subtle sorrow in his piercing eyes, even his body language, that made him perfect for the role.
The plot is multilayered, revolving around a lovely widow (Claudia Cardinale) of a shrewd man named Brett McBain, who is brutally murdered along with his children by the railroad's hired guns while she is enroute to join them at their home in Sweetwater. Her property is what is coveted and it becomes Harmonica's bait to settle an old score with the chief hired gun, Frank, who is shockingly revealed to be played by wholesome Henry Fonda. His clear blue eyes, so apparently innocent-looking, become frightening in their lack of human emotions. Frank kills without remorse whatever it befalls him to kill as casually as flicking a leaf off his sleeve. Human life is meaningless to him, even more so than to his tubercular cancer-ridden boss Morton. At least he has a motive (greed) to explain his hubris; Frank evidently needs no such excuse and kills because it's what he was born to do.
Another character is brought into the tense mix, a bountied outlaw named Cheyenne, appealingly played by Jason Robards. He is also a killer, but one with a sense of humor and a kind streak, as well as a soft spot in his heart for pretty women. When both he and Harmonica are hired by Jill McBain to get revenge on her husband's killers, they form a strange alliance against Frank and the railroad, which Cheyenne sees as a threat to his way of outlaw life. Over time, he becomes friendly with the widow Jill, who in turn is oddly drawn to Harmonica. When Cheyenne realizes this, he utters his famous line: "There's something inside a man like that... something about death." Everything hinges on McBain's property, which is substantial, and his plans to build a railroad station. He had everything legally in place to build the station but if it isn't finished by the time the railroad reaches Sweetwater, his heir forfeits the right to build it and even to keep the land. Harmonica uncovers the motive for McBain's murder and will prevent his dream from failing.
Frank, who is usually so icily carefree about death and those who stalk him, grows more obsessed with finding out who Harmonica is, since every time he asks him, the enigmatic drifter keeps answering by naming off men that Frank has killed. Everything comes apart for Morton and Frank as the killer begins to slowly but relentlessly unravel, with vague flashbacks rising as to who Harmonica might be. These, however, keep his past shrouded sufficiently so that Frank cannot quite close this maddening chapter in his life by just gunning down Harmonica and being done with him.
At last, Frank is mortally wounded in the climatic gun duel by Harmonica, who strangely is less fazed by what should also be a mortal wound, leading to the speculation that Harmonica is someone other than who he appears to be. Placing his harmonica to Frank's dying lips where his weakening breath wheezes out a few ragged discordant notes, Harmonica watches as his motive is finally realized by Frank. He had sadistically stood a man upon his younger brother's shoulders with a noose around his victim's neck, then shoved a harmonica into the boy's lips. Easing back to watch for the moment when the younger man's legs would finally give out and his brother would hang, Frank is smiling with cold pleasure at his handiwork. It is at that point that the older brother cursed his killer and kicked the boy out from under him, thus alleviating the responsibility placed on Harmonica to keep him alive.
But this sequence, though gratifying from a vengeance point, does not answer the question about Harmonica's mysterious knowledge about Frank's victims or his apparent ability to shake off a serious wound with little effect. That combined with Harmonica's penchant to be in the right place at the right time, to stand outside of events while at times controlling them, gives his character a dimension that disconnects him from temporal events. He becomes at those moments like a mysterious angel of death.
Every actor was wonderful in his role, from Claudia Cardinale to Jason Robards, but the two principals were outstanding. Fonda, renowned for playing good guys, turned his reputation as an actor completely around with his flawless portrayal of the vicious and heartless killer, Frank. His foil, played to understated perfection by Charles Bronson, was the reluctant vigilante, the man consumed with revenge for his brother's murder, and yet not merely that. Bronson projected from Harmonica a deep and inexplicable sadness that permeated his words, appearance and actions.
This was not Leone's choice for a movie. He had abandoned the spaghetti Western concept after the Clint Eastwood films, but was persuaded to take on this project. It did not fare well at the box office, which is no surprise considering its length of almost three hours. A great pity, as it is sometimes overlooked by fans of the spaghetti Western genre for both its lack of commercial success, and for committing the unforgivable sin of not having Eastwood in the lead. It is a great film and works on many levels; in some ways, it is the distillation and the perfection of the SW genre even as it closed it out for good.
Customer Rating:
Summary: COWBOYS ---- an ancient race.
Comment: The epic discovered in retrospect. Not until many years after its theatrical release did 'Once Upon A Time In The West' become a "succes d'estime". In fact it failed horribly in 1969. The french and germans loved it under its name 'Play Me The Song Of Death'. But its birthland Italy and the US found it to be too slow and too long (originally 161 minutes). ....Filmed in Almeria and the USA it was Leone's homage to the art of the western cowboy genre. He included visual and verbal quotes from his favorite westerns, including High Noon, the Searchers and Shane. He honored John Ford by filming scenes in the iconic Monument Valley (reminicent of many a John Wayne movie). This was Leone's last real Western thus with it a parting and tribute. ....... . . .Seven years after 'The Good The Bad and The Ugly' Sergio became more realistic in his approach. Leone, Corbucci ,Barboni, Petroni Spaghetti westerns followed fanciful plots with fauvist characters. Then Leone got serious, real serious in this authentic view of the west. And with this movie surpassed the westerns of Ford, Boettcher and Mann. Indeed he did paramount well in his hybrid hard hollywood/spaghetti western. ..... . . . Leone's cinematic geometry is poetic. Circularity and panoramic movement add titanic dimension to both the grandeur of the landscape and depth of character interaction.. ....... . . .The magic in this classic also lies in its risky casting. Gone are the angular italian machismos. The very jewish Jason Robarts as the noble bandit Cheyenne? The very poilish Charles Bronson (Buchinski) as our harmonica playing cowboy? And Henry Fonda (our socially just hero in dozens of classics) as an amoral childkilling villan? The casting bet payed off! The contrasts are perfect. The interchanges mythic. Each character carrying their personal sountrack. Unique. ...... . . . . I must diagree with the tongue in cheek amazon profile. This is one serious western. . . . . The last 20 minutes are the absolute best western drama on film. Harmonica's vengeance turns out to be a back-handed heroic act. Saving Jill and McBain's land. . . In truth there are no heros here. Just men -- "an ancient race".
Customer Rating:
Summary: The Epic Western Opera
Comment: Sergio Leone created one of the greatest western epics in " Once Upon A Time In The West " and uncut it did pretty well when released in Europe.When the film was released in the USA it was cut and the result was a poor box office, and as such it recieved no Academy or Golden Globes the year it released, too bad because we now know in it's complete uncut version it may be the greatest western ever. If you watch close you can see some scenes similar to other classic western of it's time but what makes this so watchable for me is the MUSIC! The great Ennio Morricone is responsible here for a soundtrack that is really a opera. The musical parts have chosen a character to represent and the music cues the action. it is at the same time heartbreaking, brutal and exciting. Henry Fonda is simply unforgettable, his blue eyes are almost unreal, able to portray menace and humanity in the same momment. In a twist that was controversial for it's time you will never look at a curly red haired child the same ever, Fonda sheds his good guy image with his portrayal of this hypnotic psychopath. The all star cast has stand out performances by Jason Robards and Charles Bronson, and though the Italian female lead was relatively unknow in the USA at the time she is spellbinding in her dignity and beauty. I notice this 2 disc set is currently selling for under 7 bucks, if you don't have this film and love westerns, well you really have no excuse to collect this, very highly recommended.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Once Upon a Time in the West
Comment: Looked many places and finally found on Amazon. It arrived here promptly and I have been enjoying it very much.
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Editorial Reviews:
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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
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