Review of Once Upon a Time in the West (1968) by Bradley W — 01 Mar 2015

Once Upon a Time in the West is a masterpiece in every sense of the word, and is one of the greatest films by Sergio Leone. He directs the film with such passion and humanity in the actors, and it makes it all just feel so powerful and important to watch.

This (along with The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly) is the greatest western of all time. Some classics such as High Noon, True Grit, and The Searchers are fantastic westerns of course, but Sergio Leone has proved with this and the Dollar trilogy that he is the genius when it comes to spaghetti westerns, and John Ford is the best when it comes to regular westerns.

I mean every scene is just shot beautifully and the slow pacing and style makes it all feel like a true Sergio Leone film. The opening scene paces very slow with a few men at a train stop, but then appears a man playing a harmonica, and he single handedly kills all the man.

We don't know much about this man, but all we call his is "Harmonica." I am still not sure if this man is a hero or not, but Charles Bronson just makes the character his own and makes him about as mysterious as The Man with No Name.

Claudia Cardinale is a beautiful woman, and her performance gives the film a bit of innocence since all the characters are killers and show no mercy on one another. Henry Fonda is who really blew me away, I mean his sinister character murders children and proves to be just a terrible man throughout the film, and this is a new pace for Fonda as he usually plays a hero.

Fonda really takes the character and turns him into just a cruel dictator to his men, and he is not afraid to kill anyone who crosses him. The music is brilliantly composed by Ennio Morricone who is famous for making The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly theme, but this film really uses the music to its advantages as well because as we just listen to the beauty in the score we can feel the intensity in some of the scenes, especially the final standoff at the end of the film.

Once Upon a Time in the West is one of the most brilliant made and finest films in cinema, and I truly believe it will inspire filmmakers for hundreds of years and hopefully this masterpiece film will stand the test of time.