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Once Upon a Time in the West (1968) RR
A mysterious man playing harmonica, a widow and a former whore from New Orleans, a leader of an outlaw gang and a railroad tycoon with his cold-blooded enforcer are all brought together by a piece of land in the middle of nowhere.
Cinematically a direct continuation for Leone's Dollars Trilogy, Once Upon a Time in the West takes his style one last step further. At times its pace slows down to a crawl with all action and dialogue replaced by extreme close-ups of creased faces and dusty men trudging slowly towards their deaths. Story isn't built properly but advances almost accidentally on the heels of the dying. But somehow Leone makes this all work.
This is my favorite Leone and favorite western. It has less humor than any film in the Dollars Trilogy and has far more somber mood. The film pushes one form of cinema to the extreme and while continuously teetering on the brink of boring and ridiculous it never falters. It's like Harmonica's smile that never breaks into laughter but can't be wiped off his face either.
Whole cast is pretty much perfect. I personally prefer Bronson over Eastwood - he's less traditional macho but more edgy and threatening somehow. Fonda and his cold blue eyes make a fine villain and Cardinale is strong but still feminine widow caught up in the middle of the conflict. There's not a bad actor choice in the whole film.
Cinematography is just fantastic and Morricone's soundtrack is awesome. Settings look great and you can feel how the progress is killing the old West before your eyes. Once Upon a Time in the West is a true epic that fixes all the little issues Leone had in his previous westerns. A true masterpiece and a film that has a safe spot on my personal top-10.
A mysterious man playing harmonica, a widow and a former whore from New Orleans, a leader of an outlaw gang and a railroad tycoon with his cold-blooded enforcer are all brought together by a piece of land in the middle of nowhere.
Cinematically a direct continuation for Leone's Dollars Trilogy, Once Upon a Time in the West takes his style one last step further. At times its pace slows down to a crawl with all action and dialogue replaced by extreme close-ups of creased faces and dusty men trudging slowly towards their deaths. Story isn't built properly but advances almost accidentally on the heels of the dying. But somehow Leone makes this all work.
This is my favorite Leone and favorite western. It has less humor than any film in the Dollars Trilogy and has far more somber mood. The film pushes one form of cinema to the extreme and while continuously teetering on the brink of boring and ridiculous it never falters. It's like Harmonica's smile that never breaks into laughter but can't be wiped off his face either.
Whole cast is pretty much perfect. I personally prefer Bronson over Eastwood - he's less traditional macho but more edgy and threatening somehow. Fonda and his cold blue eyes make a fine villain and Cardinale is strong but still feminine widow caught up in the middle of the conflict. There's not a bad actor choice in the whole film.
Cinematography is just fantastic and Morricone's soundtrack is awesome. Settings look great and you can feel how the progress is killing the old West before your eyes. Once Upon a Time in the West is a true epic that fixes all the little issues Leone had in his previous westerns. A true masterpiece and a film that has a safe spot on my personal top-10.