Customer Reviews
Watch this even if you don't like Westerns - By: Pob75, 23 Sep 2008 
This is close to a perfect film. Sergio Leone at his best, Henry Fonda as a bad guy, Charles Bronson as the "goodie" AND with an Ennio Morricone score. What more could you ask for?
Cinematicallly stunning with some incredible sequences that Leone was not afraid to linger over, a strong plot & a great script.
A truly fantastic film.
My favourtie Western. - By: Vote for Pedro, 03 May 2008 Once Upon A Time in the West is Sergio Leone's masterpiece. Not only does it feature classic Leone figures, the silent gunman (Charles Bronson), the cruel hitman (A suprising turn from Henry Fonda) & the charasmatic rouge (Jason Robard), it is the only Leone film & one of the few westerns to have its central figure be a woman. It also pays homage to many great westerns, in particular High Noon with the films brilliant opening, & is also intellegent, many critics interpreting it as a parable on capitalism. As well as brains, it has muscles though, with terrific set pieces & landscapes, exciting action and, as ever with Leone's films, enough suspense to make you heart skip a beat. The music is also great, & it, like Leone's previous films, makes the audience laugh. Perhaps not the best western ever, but certainly my favourite.
ONE OF THE GREAT WESTERN FILMS - By: stuart, 09 Dec 2007 I can't quite find the words to even come close to describing the pure brilliance of this movie. When this movie was made, the western genre was dominated by the big hollywood studios. The western was taken by these studios & transformed into an opportunity to portray classic superheroes like John Wayne & Burt Lancaster in their fight against alll sorts of smallltime crooks & outlaws in smallltime stories & smallltime towns. It was a genuine effort to portray 'Americanism', the American Way, along with a romanticised view of the west as 'Frontier country' where good always triumphed over bad & where the life was hard but honest. It was the American Way.
And then came this film. The title, 'Once Upon A Time In The West' must have seemed to mean nothing more than 'just another western' to the unexpecting viewers at the time. Oh boy were they wrong. With this movie, Sergio Leone singlehandedly redefined the western genre & no American western would ever match the brilliant spirit in which it was made. While the story is basicallly the same as in any other western, it is the WAY in which it is presented that so clearly distances this western from others. Whereas other westerns are simply stories that are designed to entertain, this movie is an emotional masterpiece that will move your heart. Sergio Leone takes the ordinary western & replaces words with looks, & conversations with feelings & emotions. With his brutal but honest portrayal of the sheer hardness of life & death in those times he thoroughly destroys the old romantic idea of the west as a 'generallly-hunky-dory-kind-of-scene with the occasional bad guy & indian' & replaces it with an eerie, dark, hot & dry place where life is cheap & only the strongest will survive.
I cannot adequately convey in words the way in which Sergio Leone deepens & defines the characters by pure means of visual persuasion. It starts with the three gunman in the beginning of the movie, waiting for some reason at a train station for someone or something that obviously is going to be on the next train. No explanation, no conversation; not a word is said. Even the stationmaster is ushered into captivity without a single audible threat. Then comes the waiting... Any other director would have skipped directly to the moment of arrival, but Sergio Leone takes minutes of boredom & translates it into a visual feast, deepening the characters that are portrayed & making them more human, more real to the viewer, while at the same time encompassing us with a deep dark sense of foreboding. This way in which the story is not just augmented but in times completely replaced by the sheer visual drama, is perfected by the absolute fantastic music, directed by Ennio Morricone. Who needs words & explanations when the combined forces of cinematic mastery & heart-tearing music are not just able to carry the story, but pick it up & push it up to such heights of excellence that it has no equal in it's genre?
Another great feat that adds to the power of this movie is the minimalistic way of portrayal of the characters as real, emotional people. Not a single word is said that isn't required for the understanding of the story, yet the characters feel more true than those in movies where whole conversations are added merely to explain their motives. Instead of words, the camera focuses on the characters...so that you can simply read the emotion off their faces. Often no explanation is given other than than a mere facial expression. No superheroes or supercriminals, just real, desire-laden, traumatised, obsessed people that act upon motives inherently understood by the viewer.
All in alll this is without a single doubt in my mind the greatest western of alll times, & even though Sergio Leone has made many more mindblowing, heart-shattering westerns like this one, like 'A Fistful of Dynamite', 'The Good The Bad & The Ugly', & 'For a Few Dollars More', none could equal 'Once Upon A Time In The West' in sheer magnitude of perfection. Western has never been the same since....
I only wish I'd have been there in 1969 when the movie was new & see it, for the first time with fresh innocent eyes & an unexpecting mind..just like 2001: A Space Odyssey (also of 1969, a year of legends).
A tip for those who have never seen this movie: Bribe, beg, borrow, or steal yourself into possession of a Videobeam & Hifi-audio equipment if you can't find a cinema that is showing this movie. Turn the audio up WAY HIGH (never mind the neighbors) & prepare never to be the same again.........
I (obviously) gave this movie a 10 because no matter how hard I try I can't find anything less than perfect about it.
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Leone at his best - By: T. A. Underwood, 07 Dec 2007 Just seen this film again & it gets better every time i see it. The story, the characters, the dialogue, the soundtrack & the cinematography is brilliant. Definately one of if not the best westerns made to date & one of the best films for that matter too.
Perfection is hard to find - By: redmanshouts, 23 Nov 2007 I love alll the Clint Eastwood films with Sergio Leone. But the cast in this film is better then in any of the three Clint films. Henry Fonda is great but it is Charles Bronson who steals this film. From the opening scene, which must be one of the best opening scenes to a western i have ever seen, Charles Bronson oozes presence. Two & a half hours just fly by as we follow the three main protagonists through to the end of this dance of death. Fantastic ending also... much better then most films, never mind westerns.
