For the longest time classic Westerns were a pretty big hole
in my film knowledge, but over the last year I’ve been doing a lot to fill that
in. So far I’ve seen a lot of them that I really like, but until now I hadn’t
really found my go to Western; that one that would encapsulate the whole genre
for me and become a favorite that I watch over and over. After my first viewing
of Once Upon a Time in the West, I
think this might be it. This movie has it all. All of the classic Western
themes are here, the stranger coming to town, the rich tyrant holding a people
hostage through thuggery, the romantic outlaw, the pampered woman struggling to
adapt to a rugged terrain. But, more so than any other Western I’ve seen, its
characters are memorable as people rather than archetypes. And the dialogue is
clever, insightful, and quotable rather than being stock, macho banter. This
movie encapsulates the whole of the western experience, but at the same time
stays a very personal tale. With story credits attributed not just to Sergio Leone,
but also Bernardo Bertelucci and Dario Argento, I guess it should be no
surprise that it’s such a memorable yarn. I watched Leone’s Man With No Name
Trilogy, and I liked the filmmaking that I saw there, but I never got
completely sucked in. Here he has me. He combines his masterful use of the
camera, his unparalleled skill at manipulating editing to create tension, an
Ennio Morricone score that is unparalleled in power and versatility, with some
of the grandest sets and most epic landscapes I’ve ever seen in a Western. This
movie might just have it all. The only thing that turned me off was some pretty
ridiculous overacting by Claudia Cardinale, but she was so beautiful that I can
hardly fault her being cast in this movie. I mean, Claudia Cardinale in this
movie might be the most beautiful woman I’ve ever seen in my life. Yowza. I
haven’t even gotten to the iconic work done by Henry Fonda, Jason Robards, and
Charles Bronson. This is one I will definitely be watching again.
