Once Upon a Time in the West
(1965/ 165 minutes-Rated PG-13)
Director .... Sergio Leone 3
Musical Score ... Ennio Morricone
Complete credited cast:
Henry Fonda .... Frank
Claudia Cardinale .... Jill McBain
Jason Robards .... Manuel 'Cheyenne' Gutierrez
Charles Bronson .... Harmonica
Gabriele Ferzetti .... Morton (railroad baron)
Paolo Stoppa .... Sam
Woody Strode .... Stony (member of Frank's gang)
Jack Elam .... Snaky (member of Frank's gang)
Keenan Wynn .... Flagstone sheriff
Frank Wolff .... Brett McBain
Lionel Stander .... Barman
GENRE: Movies For Men Who Like Westerns
Reviewed by Shelby Sherman
MOVIE 10.0/10.0 [This review is of the DVD widescreen version viewed on a 42" Plasma with Dolby 5.1 surroundsound.] This is the best Western ever made....perhaps the greatest movie ever made. I fully realize the gravity of such a proclamation, because there is another movie out there titled "The Good, The Bad and The Ugly" that is also a masterpiece. This will be a long review and I don't apologize because it is indeed an honor to watch and to review the "perfect movie". The sad fact that this brilliant achievement won no awards and even stranger, was actually disliked by some reviewers is a testimonial to the boundless stupidity of some humans who waste space on this planet.
Sergio Leone accomplished so many things in this film that it almost impossible to contemplate. Oh my goat, that musical score by Morricone when blended with the perfect casting and the breathtaking cinematography produces a Western Opera that stands alone in brillance and watchability.
This movie is about the West's love/hate relationship with the railroad, the ruthless greed of men.....and revenge. This Western classic engages the viewer with a stealth parsimony of words, brilliantly using character close-ups to portray what thousands of words could not say. The showdown and surprise revelation of Harmonica mission of revenge is dramatic genius at the highest level. This movie is a grand lament to the passing of the Old West and the beginning of a new era. Signs of decay are everywhere as the progress is the form of two shiny rails marches steadily forward.
MUSICAL SCORE/SIGHTS/SOUNDS infinity/10.00
WoW!.......Each major character had their own
unique music and hearing this mix cranked up
on a good home theater system cannot fail to
exhilarate anyone who listens to this marvelous
score. HELL YES! The electric guitar for Frank.....that
gaiting, ambling banjo with breathtakingly potent
pauses for Cheyenne......the strings for Jill
and, of course, that haunting harmonica for
Harmonica provided an auditory feast that can
never be duplicated or topped. This movie is
all about sights and sounds, and the sounds
were magnificent. The genius of Leone turned
mundane sounds into unforgettable landmarks
in this marvelous film. I cannot say enough
about the astonishing FACT that this movie only
contained FIFTEEN pages of dialogue! Leon and
Morricone optimized the use of the musical score,
powerful close-ups of the characters and those
wonderfully potent sounds. Who could forget
that squeaking windmill, the timely whinny of
the horses, the cicadas chirping and not chirping,
the hearbeat of the powerful locomotive....I
could go on and on of how these sights and sounds
wove a powerful tapestry in this magnificent
movie. Sergio Leone puts on a director's clinic
of how to turn less into more. Magnificent!
BADASSCICITY Unchartable/10.0 Look no further, you'll find it here.
Anyone who reads my reviews knows the importance of this designation and I must make a few comments about Jill, played by the Italian beauty Claudia Cardinale. Goat-damn!, they just don't make women like this anymore! Jill is a breath-taking beauty....and a whore.....and she knows it. After being confronted by Cheyenne she DARES him and his men to bend her over a table and anally rape her, spitting out confident vitriol that leaves the bad-ass Cheyenne almost without words. She is as cool and ruthless as she is beautiful, spitting out one-liners like a Clint Eastwood...."But there again....I don't look like a poor, defenseless widow"...and proceeds to slam down a hefty shot fo straight bar whiskey! HELL YES! She could charm the devil out of his pitchfork as she "negotiates" the super-badass Frank out of killing her with pure, lusty sex. Hell, I may have blue-balls for 6 months after watching that bed scene with Henry Fonda! UNFORGETABLE!
Henry Fonda! Leone pulls off the impossible as he casts Fonda, the American icon as a bad guy, and what a bad boy he is! Fonda's character Frank has no problem putting a cap in anyone, even a nine year old boy! Frank is a ruthless killer and the very embodiment of a Western villan with that steely blue gaze. He kicks the crutch out from the crippled Morton and sends him crashing to the ground! CHILLING.
All of the gunslingers are badass or dead,and even some of the very baddest still end up dead, on the wrong end of a bullet. The one who rises above all the rest, only identified as Harmonica, is played brilliantly by
Charles Bronson. The opening scene sets the stage for the baddest of the bad who tells the 3 hired guns that they brought 2 horses too many. MEMORABLE!
The final showdown between Frank and Harmonica is one of the most dramatic scenes ever filmed in a Western.
ONE LINERS 100000.0/10.0 An absolute feast!
Think about it.....only FIFTEEN pages of dialogue in the entire movie. The one-liners are absolutely incredible. The opening scene set the stage and has never been topped....OMG, we are not worthy, we are not worthy!!!!...
Harmonica: Did you bring a horse for me?
Snaky : Well... looks like we're... .. looks like we're shy one horse.
[bad guys laugh]
Harmonica : [slowly shaking head] You brought two too many.
[bad guys are no longer laughing]
Cheyenne: Do you only know how to play....or can you shoot, too?
Harmonica: I saw three of these dusters a short time ago, they were waiting for a train.
Inside the dusters, there were three men. Inside the men...there were three bullets
Harmonica: Well, you know music, and you can count - all the way up to two.
Jill: If you want to, you can lay me over the table and amuse yourself. And even call in your men! Well. No woman ever died from that. When you're finished, all I'll need will be a tub of boiling water, and I'll be exactly what I was before - with just another filthy memory!
Cheyenne: [sighs] You make good coffee, at least?
Cheyenne: You know, Jill, you remind me of my mother. She was the biggest whore in Alameda and the finest woman that ever lived.
Frank: People scare better when they're dyin'
Frank: When you're not on that train, you're like a turtle out of its shell
Frank: So you're the one who makes appointments.
Harmonica : And you're the one who doesn't keep them.
Harmonica: Do you only know how to shoot....or can you cut, too?
Frank: How can you trust a man who wears both a belt and suspenders?
Jill: You don't look at all like a man who is the noble defender of poor, defenseless widows....
but again...I don't look like a poor, defenseless widow [slams down shot of whiskey]
SAPPINESS 0.000001/10.0 None
It's not often that I am taken by a female lead in a movie, but the character of Jill simply blew me away. Those eyes! Claudia Cardinale is a classic Italian beauty that played a powerful and sensual role in this movie. I freely admit that I would gladly give one year's corporate salary to have been Henry Fonda's hands when he was running them under that corset! When Frank admitted to killing her husband, her response was to stick her tongue about six inches down his throat! Wow! A whore is the truest sense, but a whore that you marry...a thousand times.
Spoilers Corner
If you haven't already, RUN, don't walk to your nearest outlet and purchase this wonderful DVD. Virtually every scene in this movie is memorable, but I would like to review just THREE of them.
Opening Scene- Much has been written and said about this wildly original opening scene. It is simply awesome and sets the tone for a movie that is not like anything you have ever seen before. The run-down station is the very embodiment of the decaying west, the end of an era. Sights and sounds dominate, as they do throughout the movie and who could ever forget that annoying, squeaking windmill or that fly! Three men with three horses have come to meet one man on a train, but only one walks away. One liners and BADASSCICITY are redefined in the opening scene. "You brought two horses too many" will be forever burned in my brain as the BADDEST comment ever uttered by a screen character. HELL YES!
The Bar- Lionel Stander's Bar! What a
place this was! Mere words cannot describe it,
but I'll try. Inside it was a labyrinth, with
no perceived beginning or end. There were horses
eating hay, saddles stacked up, a blacksmith
pounding a horseshoe, huge wicker jugs of hooch,
little old ladies in bonnets, huge hunks of
red meat being cut with hefty meat cleavers,
A Black Crow lawmen with a huge gun washing
his feet....AND MUCH, MUCH MORE. This is the
scene where Cheyenne meets Harmonica and they
both see Jill for the first time. Like the entire
movie, this scene is very short on words, but
rockets out of the stratosphere with heavy drama.
Sam has stopped to slake his thirst with one
of those huge jugs when Jill decides to saunter
in and strikes up a converstation with the Barman....when
[oh, the beautiful sounds!] action is heard,
but not seen outside with Cheyenne disposing
of his escort taking him to jail. Still manacled,
Cheyenne [accompanied by that strumming banjo]
bellies to the bar and says "jug, drinks and
then hears the haunting harmonica. HELL YES!
That lantern swaying to and fro with the heavy
guitar and harmonica is a stunning use of a
musical score to introduce Harmonica, who is
immediately sized up by Cheyenne. Very, very
few words are spoken, but the message is powerfully
presented, the gunslingers communicate mutual
respect without words, and after all the heavy
action, Jill and the Barman resume their conversation
almost in mid-sentence! The one-liners are awesome
in this magnificent scene, a feast for those
who love these movies!
Showdown- This is it, folks. This is
the HOLY GRAIL of Western Movie scenes. This
is the faceoff between Harmonica (Charles Bronson)
and Frank (Henry Fonda) and is a scene that
is surreal and almost supernatural in its drama.
The brilliant musical score, the panoramic shots
of the breathtaking landscape and the incredible
use of close-ups draws the viewer into scene
to end all scenes. Frank has come to find out,
once and for all, just why Harmonica is stalking
him, and Harmonica tells him that he will tell
him "only at the point of dying". Before the
shooting begins, with a revealing and chilling
flashback, it is shown that a younger Frank
and a much younger Harmonica, have met before.
The very essence of Frank's depravity is shown
as he approaches a bizarre and sinister man-made
stone arch, symbolic of the very gateway to
death and evil. Frank's henchmen are nonchalantly
lying around, their evil work done. Frank emanates
evil as he crams a harmonica into the mouth
of a sweating, crying boy, valiantly trying
to support his older brother on his shoulders...a
brother with hands bound and a noose around
his neck. The musical score and drama reach
a pitch as the boy inevitably falls to the ground
and into the dust, insuring the death of his
brother. UNFORGETABLE! This scene is replayed
in the minds eye of Frank after Harmonica caps
him right in the heart....The Angel of Death....revenge
consummated, and Frank finally realizes with
his last dying breath...just who Harmonica is.
CHILLING!
Top Pick for Western...Awesome!
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| From: |
Shelby Sherman | Subject: | 2003-12-31 12:38:24 |
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| From: |
Jeff King | Subject: | 2004-02-15 07:34:32 |
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| From: |
Eadon | Subject: | 2004-04-05 17:51:34 |
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| From: |
R. Anthony McCoy | Subject: | 2004-06-02 16:18:46 |
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