Review of Once Upon a Time in the West (1968) by Tomas T — 09 Jul 2012

The crown jewel of director Sergio Leone's career, Once Upon a Time in the West is hands down the best Western ever made. Leone skyrocketed to fame in the 1960s with his legendary Spaghetti Western trilogy and the fact that he made even greater film than the legendary The Good, The Bad and The Ugly only couple years afterwards leaves one awestruck. This epic 2h 45min vengeance western combines Leone's unique directing style with some of the best actors of the time resulting in a milestone film to which all westerns are measured after.

Just few minutes into the film it becomes obvious that the viewer is in for something spectacular as the film builds up tension in order to introduce the films anti hero - Mysterious harmonica-playing gunman by Charles Bronson nicknamed "Harmonica" - as he arrives at a dusted train station of Flagstone, a fictional town in the American Old West. Welcoming Harmonica are three sweaty gunslingers ready to dispatch him for better pasture and after a moment of nerve wracking battle of wills the situation diffuses itself violently with a few revolver shots. These kind of tense scenes are often preceded by Leone's trademark "dialogues" which keep talk to minimum and instead rely on body language - where every the facial gesture and eye movement is significant - to do the talking. It is the combination of this dialogue and tense scenes which define Sergio Leone's great directing style and make Once Upon a Time in the West so great.

The story is ingenious in its simplicity but still contains enough angles to keep the viewer glued to the seat for the whole epic ~3h running time. In essence Once Upon a Time in the West tells the story of mysterious harmonica playing gunman who seeks vengeance against a cold-blooded Killer Frank by Henry Fonda. Interestingly Henry Fonda usually plays the good guy, but here his stone carved face fits perfectly for the nemesis role. Charles Bronson delivers a terrific role as the anti hero Harmonica seeking revenge. Bronson's squinted eyes and personal traits make him the perfect match for the role. Besides the main characters the story involves various other characters such as the bandit leader Cheyenne (Jason Robards) and controversial lady character Jill by Claudia Cardinale. Lastly but not least is Morton by Gabriele Ferzetti, a crippled business man seeking to strike rich in a railroad station deal by acquiring Jill's ranch - Sweetwater - by all means necessary.

The story is made engaging by its obviously flawed character who all have their own end games but are brought together by the events surrounding the Sweetwater ranch. A refreshing surprise is the fact that the film has only very few real side characters and all of the major characters are given plenty of screen time to make their motives clear and they all end up having important roles in the story. To make make things perfect, the script very cleverly keeps Harmonica shrouded in mystery through the film which makes the end face off between him and Frank all the more powerful.

Once upon a Time in the West is such a monumental film that no praise seems to do it enough justice. Perhaps the fact that the film was named in 2009 into the American National Film Registry by the Library of Congress for being "culturally, historically or aesthetically" significant, best reflects the films magnitude.