Post by erik on Nov 25, 2011 10:35:27 GMT -5
Though he despised the term "spaghetti western", Italian director Sergio Leone did rise to world prominence as the master of said genre in the 1960s with his "Dollars" trilogy: A FISTFUL OF DOLLARS; FOR A FEW DOLLARS MORE; and THE GOOD, THE BAD, AND THE UGLY (the apex film of the style). These were often poorly dubbed, but very bizarre, wacky, and violent movies that not only made Leone an internationally known director, but also made a worldwide star out of the man who once played Rowdy Yates on TV's Rawhide--Clint Eastwood. After those films, Leone didn't really want to do another Western; but when offered $5 million to do one by Paramount Pictures, he jumped at the chance to make a truly large-scale film that would pay both homage to the mythology of the West and to the Hollywood western as a whole. The end result was ONCE UPON A TIME IN THE WEST, an incredible masterpiece that, because it was unfortunately butchered upon release here in America in late May 1969, was a critical and commercial disaster. In later years, however, after it had been fully restored to its original 166-minute length, it came to be seen for what it really was.
Filmed primarily in Spain and at Cinecitta Studios in Rome, but also utilizing the familiar landscapes of Monument Valley, the film involves a New Orleans prostitute (Claudia Cardinale) who, as the result of an unfortunate massacre in which her husband and kids have been murdered, has acquired a spread out in the Arizona hinterlands. As it turns out, this land is along a transcontinental railroad line and also sits on a vast and important underground water source. As a result, the chieftain (Gabrielle Ferzetti) of the railroad corporation wants that land for his own for as little as he can get it. Helping Cardinale out are a half-breed Mexican-American (Jason Robards) wanted for the killings of her family which he didn't commit, and a mysterious stranger known as Harmonica (Charles Bronson). And for the railroad, there's a cold-blooded corporate gunman named Frank, portrayed by (are you ready for this?) HENRY FONDA!!
What Leone set out to do was to not only make a film that separated itself from the Dollars trilogy, or even an homage to the West and to the Western, but also to comment on where America had started going in the 1880s and where it was by the end of the 1960s. Because it didn't move at nearly so rapid a pace as, or have the visceral craziness of, THE GOOD, THE BAD, AND THE UGLY, it was easy to miss the film's points. But anyone paying close attention will get what Leone's getting across. As Peckinpah did in THE WILD BUNCH, here in ONCE UPON A TIME IN THE WEST, Leone is mourning the eventual loss of what made the West wild and untrammeled in the first place, and how sullied it would become at the hands of corporate interests. At the same time, he pays homage to past Hollywood westerns by referencing so many of them here; one can spot references to dozens of such films, like THE SEARCHERS; STAGECOACH; JOHNNY GUITAR; RED RIVER; THE MAGNIFICENT SEVEN; THE IRON HORSE; and, in the film's witty 12-minute opening sequence at an out-of-the-way train stop, HIGH NOON.
Leone also got superb performances from his actors, with Cardinale being given one of the great female roles in the history of the Western, and Bronson and Robards doing stellar jobs as well. But the real coup was in casting Fonda, the essence of everything good in America, as a remorseless villain. His killing of Cardinale's family is one of the greatest shocks in cinematic history, enhanced by close-ups of Fonda's icy blue eyes, and his chilling lines of dialogue. Indeed, this is one of Leone's traits, in juxtaposing wide-open landscapes with extreme close-ups of characters' faces. The whole enterprise is topped off by the magnificent score of Ennio Morricone, whose work with Leone made the pair's relationship one of the great director/composer pairings in cinema history.
Like 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY, ONCE UPON A TIME IN THE WEST is not a film overflowing with dialogue (just 18 minutes worth in all), and must be seen multiple times to really be appreciated. The end result, however, is easily one of the greatest films, not only of the Western genre specifically, but also of cinema overall.
Filmed primarily in Spain and at Cinecitta Studios in Rome, but also utilizing the familiar landscapes of Monument Valley, the film involves a New Orleans prostitute (Claudia Cardinale) who, as the result of an unfortunate massacre in which her husband and kids have been murdered, has acquired a spread out in the Arizona hinterlands. As it turns out, this land is along a transcontinental railroad line and also sits on a vast and important underground water source. As a result, the chieftain (Gabrielle Ferzetti) of the railroad corporation wants that land for his own for as little as he can get it. Helping Cardinale out are a half-breed Mexican-American (Jason Robards) wanted for the killings of her family which he didn't commit, and a mysterious stranger known as Harmonica (Charles Bronson). And for the railroad, there's a cold-blooded corporate gunman named Frank, portrayed by (are you ready for this?) HENRY FONDA!!
What Leone set out to do was to not only make a film that separated itself from the Dollars trilogy, or even an homage to the West and to the Western, but also to comment on where America had started going in the 1880s and where it was by the end of the 1960s. Because it didn't move at nearly so rapid a pace as, or have the visceral craziness of, THE GOOD, THE BAD, AND THE UGLY, it was easy to miss the film's points. But anyone paying close attention will get what Leone's getting across. As Peckinpah did in THE WILD BUNCH, here in ONCE UPON A TIME IN THE WEST, Leone is mourning the eventual loss of what made the West wild and untrammeled in the first place, and how sullied it would become at the hands of corporate interests. At the same time, he pays homage to past Hollywood westerns by referencing so many of them here; one can spot references to dozens of such films, like THE SEARCHERS; STAGECOACH; JOHNNY GUITAR; RED RIVER; THE MAGNIFICENT SEVEN; THE IRON HORSE; and, in the film's witty 12-minute opening sequence at an out-of-the-way train stop, HIGH NOON.
Leone also got superb performances from his actors, with Cardinale being given one of the great female roles in the history of the Western, and Bronson and Robards doing stellar jobs as well. But the real coup was in casting Fonda, the essence of everything good in America, as a remorseless villain. His killing of Cardinale's family is one of the greatest shocks in cinematic history, enhanced by close-ups of Fonda's icy blue eyes, and his chilling lines of dialogue. Indeed, this is one of Leone's traits, in juxtaposing wide-open landscapes with extreme close-ups of characters' faces. The whole enterprise is topped off by the magnificent score of Ennio Morricone, whose work with Leone made the pair's relationship one of the great director/composer pairings in cinema history.
Like 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY, ONCE UPON A TIME IN THE WEST is not a film overflowing with dialogue (just 18 minutes worth in all), and must be seen multiple times to really be appreciated. The end result, however, is easily one of the greatest films, not only of the Western genre specifically, but also of cinema overall.
