The MoFo Top 100 of the 60s: Countdown

Makes me want to shoot somebody through my boot. I mean, how cool is that move?

The Western as opera - something Leone had spent four years and three films perfecting before he came up with Once Upon In The West. And with it he finally mastered the concept.

It’s an epic homage really, twisting and playing with themes, images and conventions, not least with the inspired casting of Henry Fonda (who had memorably played many American heroes ranging from Abe Lincoln to Wyatt Earp) as Frank, one of the coldest villains in cinema.

Bernardo Bertolucci, who co-scripted along with the director and a young Dario Argento, was once asked by Sergio why he (Leone) was the most interesting director in Italy.

“Because you shoot the arses of the horses...” replied Bernardo, who went on to explain how horses in Westerns were often only shot in profile and it, like the whole genre, had started to become rather banal.

Once Upon A Time In The West - a horse’s arse of a film, but a savage and beautiful horse’s arse…