Review of Once Upon a Time in the West (1968) by David G — 08 Oct 2015

"Once Upon a Time in The West" is the definition of a classic western, directed by the incredibly talented and experienced Sergio Leone the movie revolves around two plots. Both of the conflicts in the movie take place around the fictional town called flagstone. The first plot consists of a battle of ownership for a piece of land near flagstone called Sweetwater, the reason this land is so precious is because it contains the only water source in the region and if the proposed railroad is built, it would have to stop through this piece of land. The land was bought by Brett McBain who saw this as an opportunity to capitalize on his wealth but as soon as railroad tycoon Morton hears about this he sends his Goon (Frank) to intimidate Brett off his land but instead Frank ends up killing Brett and his three children. Meanwhile a harmonica playing stranger pursues Frank and kills men that Frank sent after him.

This film really elevates Western's to Art with the brilliance of Sergio Leone's directing, most of the filming taking place in Spain, with support of the Spanish government which actually allowed the crew to move and change some sand area's to fit for the film. A few scenes were filmed in the U.S. The Unique locations of the film really transformed it and made it great using stations like "Estacion de Calahorra" were the famous opening sequence was shot. However, what made this film truly great was the acting, especially by Henry Fonda who played "Frank" (the hired gun) who was typically portrayed as this hero in hollywood westerns, always coming in and saving the day but in this particular scene his gang has just finished shooting an entire family and out comes this boy (about six-nine years old) running and seeing his whole family just laying in the floor dead and this classically western gang pulling up in horses, then one of the members says "So Frank, what are we going to do with this one?" and then he stops and says "Well... Now that you said my name" and in pure cold blood showing no emotions whatsoever in his eyes kills this boy. This scene was brilliantly directed and was a great contradictory to the roles that Fonda typically sticks to and furthermore was a great move on Sergio Di Leone's part. The other actors (Claudia Cardinale, Charles Bronson, and Jason Robards) all delivered great performances but the with this scene Fonda just changes the intensity of the movie completely and earns best actor throughout this film in my books.

The music is also very particular in this film mainly because throughout most of it there is none, in fact until the minute of "judgement" is played while Harmonica kills the three outlaws there is no soundtrack provided until the second scene and just natural sounds are played.

I'm not particularly a fan of westerns, but this film just made me want to keep on watching it and never stop until it was over. Overall I would rate this film a 5/5 and would definitely watch this film again.