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Once Upon A Time In The West
1968
Sergio Leone's monumental epic Once Upon A Time In The West ranks among the five or six all-time Western masterpieces. The picture itself is as big as its Monument Valley locations, as grand as its fine, distinguished cast. Henry Fonda plays the blackest character of his long career and he's utterly convincing. He's Frank, the .. Read more
| Starring | Henry Fonda, Claudia Cardinale, Jason Robards, Charles Bronson |
|---|---|
| Director | Sergio Leone |
| Genres | Action/Adventure |
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Once Upon A Time In The West
Sergio Leone's monumental epic Once Upon A Time In The West ranks among the five or six all-time Western masterpieces. The picture itself is as big as its Monument Valley locations, as grand as its fine, distinguished cast. Henry Fonda plays the blackest character of his long career and he's utterly convincing. He's Frank, the ruthless, murderous psychopath who suffers conscience pangs after annihilating an entire family. Jason Robards is the half-breed falsely accused of the terrible slaughter. Charles Bronson plays the harmonica playing man who remembers how his brother was savagely tortured.
| Starring | Henry Fonda, Claudia Cardinale, Jason Robards, Charles Bronson, Gabriele Ferzetti, Woody Strode, Jack Elam, Lionel Stander, Paolo Stoppa, Frank Wolff, Keenan Wynn |
|---|---|
| Director | Sergio Leone |
| Studio | PARAMOUNT HOME ENTERTAINMENT |
| Run time | DVD: 2 hrs 38 mins |
| Certificate | |
| Collections | 100 must-see movies, 100 Wild Westerns |
| Genres | Action/Adventure |
| Language | English |
| Released | DVD: 06 Oct 2003 Production year: 1968 |
| Format | DVD |
Once Upon A Time In The West (1968)
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Critics' reviews (7)
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Sergio Leone's monumental epic Once Upon A Time In The West ranks among the five or six all-time Western masterpieces. read more »
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Most helpful member's review
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61 out of 69 people found this review helpful
This disc is special features
As there is no indication on the web site I thought it appropriate to inform all that this disc is a special features disc.
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Most recent members' review
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15 out of 20 people found this review helpful
Move along please, nothing to see here.
If you've seen one Leone film you've seen this one and why this is touted as one of the best westerns ever made is, simply, beyond me. Yes the movie looks fantastic with delicious shots of Monument Valley which outdo anything in The Searchers, and the delightful little musical tics of a Morricone score highlighting characters and significant plot points, but oh the slowness of it! The tedium! The repetiveness! Let's have a shot of Claudia gazing wistfully into a mirror. Ok, now let's hold it for 2 minutes! That's a wrap...
And it's all over this film. HUGE brooding silences and unspoken glances supposedly pregnant with meaning. HUGE close-ups of eyes (Bronson, Fonda, etc) as faces scowl and ludicrously OTT macho men do their stuff with creased brows rather than anything as sensible as talk and explain, perhaps, their motivation or - even better - what the hell is going on!
It's a mess of convoluted and badly sewn together plot (how does Bronson know so much?), unconvincing acting (like Cardinali would last 5 minutes in the real wild west looking like that) and iconic moments on film which are either stolen from Leone's previous works or so predictable that you can't believe its happening (3 silent men wait at a deserted station for an unexplained someone to appear; when the train pulls out with no-one having disembarked, we find a stranger who got out of the OTHER side of the train (shock!) and who then (again, silently) shoots the 3 men dead. Oh, and let this single opening scene take 15 minutes of screen time. Oh, and lets not bother trying to work out who this arrival is ('cos no-one in the movie does) or how on earth they know he'll be on this train).
Come On!
Throw in the awful dubbing into English of the usual family of Italian bitpart actors playing stationmasters, hired hands, etc and what you've got is a pale shadow of The Good, The Bad and The Ugly but a shadow that still clocks in at 2 1/2 hours.
It sure could (and should) be shorter and if, like me, you feel the need to watch it because it's one of those films EVERYONE should watch, then go ahead. Don't say I didn't warn you though. If you're a western lover who's never seen a Leone film before (do such people exist?) you might be impressed, otherwise it's a case of 'move along please, nothing to see here.'
I've given one star for the way it looks, and one star for the score. -
News and features
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Once Upon a Time in the West
- 21 Jul 2009
Nobody could make something out of nothing the way that Sergio Leone could. Just look at the first ten minutes of Once Upon a Time in the West: a fistful of tough hombres in ankle-length dusters are waiting for a train at a railway depot out in the middle of nowhere. Their faces are familiar yet strange: Woody Strode and Jack Elam are veteran Hollywood cowboys, with dozens of movies under their belts. But they have never been filmed like this before, gazed at so long or so longingly. Leone... Read more
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Sergio Leone's monumental epic Once Upon A Time In The West ranks among the five or six all-time Western masterpieces. The picture itself is as big as its Monument Valley locations, as grand as its ... -