Genres: Action | Drama | Western Countries: Italy | USA Actors: Henry Fonda Frank Claudia Cardinale Jill McBain Jason Robards Cheyenne Charles Bronson Harmonica Gabriele Ferzetti Morton (railroad baron) Paolo Stoppa Sam Woody Strode Stony (member of Frank's gang) Jack Elam Snaky (member of Frank's gang) Keenan Wynn Sheriff (auctioneer) Frank Wolff Brett McBain Lionel Stander Barman Directors: Sergio Leone Certification: IMDB Rating: 8.8 out of 10 (47767 votes)

Storyline

Taglines: 

Plot Summary: 

In Sergio Leone’s epic Western, shot partly in Monument Valley, a revenge story becomes an epic contemplation of the Western past. To get his hands on prime railroad land in Sweetwater, crippled railroad baron Morton (Gabriele Ferzetti) hires killers, led by blue-eyed sadist Frank (Henry Fonda), who wipe out property owner Brett McBain (Frank Wolff) and his family. McBain’s newly arrived bride, Jill (Claudia Cardinale), however, inherits it instead. Both outlaw Cheyenne (Jason Robards) and lethally mysterious Harmonica (Charles Bronson) take it upon themselves to look after Jill and thwart Frank’s plans to seize her land. As alliances and betrayals mutate, it soon becomes clear that Harmonica wants to get Frank for another reason — it has “something to do with death.” As in his “Dollars” trilogy, Leone transforms the standard Western plot through the visual impact of widescreen landscapes and the figures therein. At its full length, Once Upon a Time in the West is Leone’s operatic masterwork, worthy of its legend-making title.

One of numerous ’60s revisionist Westerns, Sergio Leone’s Once Upon a Time in the West (1968) turns a revenge story into a contemplation of the Western past. As in his “Dollars” trilogy, Leone transforms the standard Western plot through the visual impact of widescreen landscapes and the figures who populate them, as Harmonica appears out of nowhere and Frank chillingly commands the center of the frame. The opening credit sequence of three Western toughs (including Woody Strode and Jack Elam) preparing to kill someone at a train station artfully plays off Leone’s fixation with faces and locales and the epic effect of his meticulous narrative pace. The sense of suspended time speaks to the concerns with past, future, and history that drive the plot; Jill oversees the literal tracks of “progress,” while Frank is undone by the past he shares with memory-driven Harmonica. Among a number of “quotations” from classical Westerns, Henry Fonda’s presence as the sadistic Frank and the Monument Valley location evoke the Western movie past of John Ford, as Leone exposes the dark reverse of Fonda’s staunch Wyatt Earp in My Darling Clementine (1946). Ennio Morricone’s haunting score emphasizes the elegiac, quasi-mystical atmosphere. After the success of the “Dollars” films starring Clint Eastwood, Paramount gave Leone the money to make his monumental saga as he wished. When the film opened to critical indifference and little business, Paramount chopped 25 minutes out to speed the pace, but to no financial avail. Leone’s directorial career never quite recovered. Those 25 minutes, and Once Upon a Time in the West’s critical stature, have since been restored; the film is now considered to be Leone’s operatic masterpiece.

Plot Keywords: 

Downloads

See also

The Godfather (1972) Summary: Popularly viewed as one of the best American films ever made, the multi-generational crime saga The Godfather is a touchstone of cinema: one of the most widely imitated, quoted, and lampooned movies of all time. Marlon Brando and Al Pacino star as... IMDB Rating: 9.2 (285295 votes) Download: DVD DivX PDA

The Shawshank Redemption (1994) Summary: In 1946, a banker named Andy Dufresne (Tim Robbins) is convicted of a double murder, even though he stubbornly proclaims his innocence. He's sentenced to a life term at the Shawshank State Prison in Maine, where another lifer, Ellis "Red" Redding ... IMDB Rating: 9.2 (336524 votes) Download: DVD DivX PDA

The Godfather: Part II (1974) Summary: Francis Ford Coppola's legendary continuation and sequel to his landmark 1972 film, The Godfather, parallels the young Vito Corleone's rise with his son Michael's spiritual fall, deepening The Godfather's depiction of the dark side of the American... IMDB Rating: 9 (163530 votes) Download: DivX iPod

Pulp Fiction (1994) Summary: Outrageously violent, time-twisting, and in love with language, Pulp Fiction was widely considered the most influential American movie of the 1990s. Director and co-screenwriter Quentin Tarantino synthesized such seemingly disparate traditions as ... IMDB Rating: 8.9 (288977 votes) Download: DVD DivX PDA

Casablanca (1942) Summary: One of the most beloved American films, this captivating wartime adventure of romance and intrigue from director Michael Curtiz defies standard categorization. Simply put, it is the story of Rick Blaine (Humphrey Bogart), a world-weary ex-freedom ... IMDB Rating: 8.8 (125045 votes) Download: DVD DivX PDA