Movies - Once Upon a Time in the West

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	Movies - Once Upon a Time in the West

Once Upon a Time in the West (C'era una volta il West) is a 1968 Western film directed by Sergio Leone, considered by many to be his greatest film. Its critical acclaim has led some to declare it the greatest Western ever made.

The epic film stars Henry Fonda, in his most villainous role, Charles Bronson as his nemesis, Jason Robards, as a generally benign bandit, and Claudia Cardinale, as a newly-widowed homesteader with a past.

Stylistically unique as a Western, the film has several striking features - emotionally resonant leitmotivs which relate to each of the main characters (each with their own unique theme music), as well as to the spirit of the American West, and long scenes in which there is very little dialogue and not much happens, broken by brief and sudden violence. Leone was more interested in the rituals preceding violence than with the violence itself. The dry, unsentimental tone of the film is consistent with the arid semi-desert in which the story unfolds, and imbues it with a feeling of realism which contrasts with the elaborately choreographed gunplay.

The composer Ennio Morricone wrote the score under the direction of Sergio Leone before filming began. Like The Good, the Bad and the Ugly
, the stirring music contributes to the film's mythic or operatic grandeur.

Though not as popular as the "Dollars trilogy" which proceeded it, nor as critically acclaimed as Leone's later Once Upon A Time In America (1984), West has gained an ardent cult following around the world, particularly among cineastes and film makers. John Milius, John Carpenter, George Lucas, Quentin Tarantino, Steven Spielberg, Alex Cox, and many other film directors have cited this film to be one of their personal favorites, and many of them have referenced it in their own movies. Martin Scorsese owns a prized, near-mint condition 70mm print of the film's 165 minute version which he gained some time in the mid-'70s (when the "official version" was the famous 145 minute cut); he showed it to actor/collaborator Robert De Niro to help convince that actor to appear in Once Upon A Time In America. Talk show host David Letterman also referred to it as one of his favorite films.

Origin of the Film

After making The Good, The Bad and The Ugly, Leone wanted to retire from making Westerns. He had come across the novel The Hoods by "Harry Grey" (a pseudonym), an autobiographical book based on the author's own experiences as a Jewish hood during Prohibition. (Leone would, seventeen years later, adapt this book into his final film, Once Upon A Time In America.) Leone was offered numerous other Westerns. MGM/UA (who had produced the Dollars Trilogy) came to him with an offer for a film starring Charlton Heston, Kirk Douglas, and Gregory Peck, but Leone was displeased with this. Paramount, however, offered Leone access to Henry Fonda, Leone's favorite actor whom he had wanted to work with for virtually all of his career, plus a generous budget. Leone accepted this offer.

Leone commissioned then-film critics (and future directors) Bernardo Bertolucci and Dario Argento to help him develop the idea of the film in late 1966. The men spent much of the following year watching and discussing numerous classic Westerns at Leone's house. The movie was made up almost entirely of "quotes" from American Westerns (see below).

Leone later commissioned Sergio Donati, who had worked on several of Leone's other films, to help him refine the screenplay, largely to curb the length of the film towards the end of production. Many of the film's most memorable lines of dialogue came from him or from the film's English dialogue director, expatriate American actor Mickey Knox.

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