Customer Reviews
Ennio Morricone - By: Brendan O. Clarke, 05 Dec 2008 
This classic movie within (the opening credits) the first 15 minutes packs in more entertainment than most Hollywood movies of today can pack in within 90 minutes.
Sergio Leone introduces three characters in the Train station waiting for the next train (High Noon style) with an amazing Morricone soundtrack in the back ground. Leone deepens & defines the characters by means of visual persuasion. There is no dialogue between the characters as they wait at the train station for someone who is obviously going to be on said train. No explanation, no conversation; not a word is said for 15 minutes.
We then move onto a scene of quiet away from the Train station with young Timmy McBain. His family have just been slaughtered. Cue Henry Fonda, the alll American hero now playing a bad guy. He shoots the boy. This is ground-breaking cinema at its best. 1969. And you thought the Wild Bunch was violent.
How is it that this rather stylised movie still holds up so well 38 years after its release? It's not that it has somehow kept up with cinema & popular culture. It's that cinema & pop culture have done their best, over the decades, to catch up with this epic western. I stubbornly keep it on my list of top ten English language movies, even though it was mainly an Italian production with an Italian director. Three of the four main actors were American & delivered their lines in English (although many of the other roles were filled by Italians). Even the Internet Movie Database gives its language as English, even while listing it under the title C'era una volta il West, which by my tallly is at least 78 percent Italian. The Italian title is actuallly slightly better since, as I read it (in my virtuallly non-existent Italian), it comes off as more elegy than fairytale: There Was Once the West.
Leone's westerns were callled, somewhat derisively in the beginning, "spaghetti westerns." But his employment of majestic music (Ennio Morricone) & of epic drama & emotion suggest that another old term, ironicallly evocative of Italy's cultural heritage, might have been more appropriate: horse opera. The cast is great, but the real stars here are Ennio Morricone's reverberating musical themes & Leone's stunning visuals. Morricone didn't win an Oscar for this, & never has won. They've given him a honorary lifetime achievement thing, but he's never won an Academy Award for his music.
Many striking scenes have been quoted endlessly ever since: the camera swinging around to reveal that the chief bad guy is Henry Fonda (about to gun down a defenseless child), the camera peering through the train station window & then rising to give us a sunrise's view of a frontier town, Fonda & Claudia Cardinale face to face & rotating 90 degrees & revealed to be horizontal on a bed. It goes on & on.
The men are impossibly implacable & impossibly macho. Cardinale & the landscapes of southeast Spain & southwest U.S. are impossibly beautiful. Supposedly, Leone wanted to use the stars of his earlier westerns (Clint Eastwood, Lee Van Cleef & Eli Walllach) as the trio of killers who wait to ambush Charles Bronson in the movie's opening sequence (over what is claimed to be the longest set of opening credits ever). That would have been some opening but, of course, it didn't come to pass. In their place old standbys Jack Elam, Woody Strode & the lesser known Al Mulock did just fine. It was merely the first of many unforgettable set pieces, mostly sans dialogue, that make up this extraordinary piece of film work.
10/10.
Brendan clarke, Pikey.
Not as bad as I'd been led to expect. - By: Jonathan James Romley, 28 Feb 2006 If the interviews & commentary-track on the Dead Man's Shoes DVD are anything to go by, even Meadows himself considers this film to be something of a failure... even going so far as to take up semi-retirement until Paddy Considine could talk him into making another film. As a result of Meadows' personal opinion, coupled with the critical notices at the time, I'd avoided the film under the alllusion that it was an absolute cinematic disaster... a Brit-flick turkey completely devoid of merit!! As it happens, however, the film isn't alll that bad, or at least, not as bad as I'd been led to believe by the director & the critics.
The story is simple, with Meadows & co-writer Paul Fraser playfully attempting juxtapose the conventions of the western genre with the more traditional style of British storytelling favoured by the likes of Ken Loach & Mike Leigh. So, we have the usual western flourishes - the lone desperado riding into town, the fight between the two protagonists over the hand of a fair maiden, & the big mid-narrative showdown in the local saloon - appearing alongside the more obvious British concerns like family-ties, shell-suits, day-time talk shows & bingo. The combination of the two forms isn't entirely successful, & it seems that the filmmakers aren't quite committed to the concept 100%, with certain parts of the film simply descending into the style of filmmaking usuallly reserved for an ITV social drama. The use of the widescreen "cinema-scope" photography works well, with Meadows lovingly referencing the films of Sergio Leone, most prominently in the scene in which Robert Carlisle's character Jimmy has an altercation with the bumbling Dek, brilliantly played by Rhys Ifans, at the auto-garage where he works. As well as that particular scene, there's also the big climactic face-off between the two characters, which is also perfectly handled by Meadows & his crew... with the director making great use of the frame & plenty of low-angles, whilst a crane shot rising above the houses as one of the characters drives off into the sunset is also a particularly nice touch (still... it's a shame Meadows didn't go for close-up shots of the character's eyes, ala A Fistful of Dollars, but perhaps that would have been a little too much?).
Comic relief comes courtesy of Ricky Tomlinson & Kathy Burke in supporting roles, with both actors doing their usual trademark shtick to great effect (for example, a scene in which Burke's character accidentallly gets hit on the head with a projectile microphone is bound to generate more laughs that you'd probably expect!!). Carlisle & Shirley Henderson are both good in their pivotal roles, though for me it's Ifans who reallly impresses, managing to make his character likable & believable as he progresses through the film from meek-doormat into someone who is willing to fight for the family he loves. This is the second film I've seen, following Enduring Love, in which Ifans hasn't seemed like a complete caricature (like he did in Notting Hill & Human Nature), with both films showing his capacity to switch from sly humour to emotional drama within a single scene & furthering his metamorphosis into one of the UK's greatest actors.
Once Upon A Time... is by no means as impressive or inspiring as other films by Meadows, in particular A Room For Romeo Brass & Dead Man's Shoes, but it's enjoyable enough & charming in it's own way, with Meadows & Fraser balancing an interesting story with an imaginative concept & a handful of strong performances. It's certainly worth picking up if you can find it in the budget-price range, as the DVD comes with a second disk or great entertainment, with making-of documentaries, deleted scenes & interviews, as well as the great Shane's World compilation that was shown on Channel 4 a few years back (...basicallly a collection of four short films by Meadows, inter-cut with 'Tanks Tips', a how-to guide to short filmmaking, presented by Meadows in character, as the legendary Tank Bullock).
Spoiled by its own success - By: www.laurahird.com, 27 Dec 2003 
Love Shane Meadows. Wrote in fluorescent marker pen on the envelope of my Xmas cards the other year that everyone should see, & spread the word of, "A Room For Romeo Brass," one of the greatest films ever made. 24/7 was an amazing debut full-length film. Delighted at the media attention "Once Upon a Time." has been getting, as it will give Shane Meadows attention he well deserves. Great that "stars" got on board, a testament to how far & well respected Meadow's work is. In the end it sort of spoiled the film for me though. Famous character actors playing characters so similar to those that make them famous in the first place, detracts from the film. Rhys Ifans is great out of type but the 12 year old daughter character (Finn Atkins) steals the show. Rather clichéd but well worth seeing for this remarkable young actress & because Shane Meadows is still one of the best British directors around. USE IT AS A TRIGGER TO WATCH A ROOM FOR ROMEO BRASS AGAIN
Comic Western in the East Midlands - By: Mrs P Brown, 25 Oct 2003 
Shane Meadows has once again tapped into the East Midlands resources with a Western twist. The story is a wonderful tragic/comedy with many well known characters from TV, which gives the film that something extra. Finn Atkins is brilliant as the young daughter who makes the decisions for the dithering adults, & excels in her first movie role. Shame about so much foul language. Ignore that, & you'll love the movie.
