Talkback: ouatitw
Review by Shelby Sherman

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From:	Shelby Sherman	2003-12-31 12:38:24
Subject:	This movie
Comment:	Did I mention that I REALLY LIKE THIS MOVIE?
From:	Jeff King	2004-02-15 07:34:32
Subject:	Once Upon a Time in the West
Comment:	Once Upon a Time in the West is the greatest film ever. In fact, it is the greatest piece of art ever, as it combines all art (cinematography, theatre, acting, editing, directing, and above all the score) into a work that is perfection that cannot ever be attained again. In my first viewing in 1969, this film became the touchstone of my appreciation of the art of film (along with, in second place, Bertolucci's 'The Conformist' - goddamit I cannot believe this masterpiece is not on DVD) but I waited so long for the release of Once Upon a Time in the West on DVD (i viewed the film on video dubs at least more than 100 time . . . I was on my fourth worn-out cassette even before being able to tape the widescreen off of (ugh) AMC! Put me on a desert island? Let me pack the DVD of Once Upon a Time in the West, and I won't need much more, unless Claudia wants to be deserted with me. THANK YOU FOR YOUR WORDS about the greatest film (and piece of art) that was ever made! You described the ecstacy of this film very well! May I add one thing . . . and this is in addition to the great scenes you describe . . . . the long take as Jill realizes that McBain will not meet her at the station . . . the camera and Morricone follow her, they rise above to reveal the town . . . there will never be another moment like that in the cinema . . . and I have watched that sequence probably as often as the ultimate Beatle-maniac has listened to the '45 of 'She Loves You' And with each viewing, the same magnificent and unending chill goes up and down my back. After years of preaching the perfection of this film, I feel that Once Upon a Time in the West is finally being recognized as the greatest film ever made.
From:	Eadon	2004-04-05 17:51:34
Subject:	Baddassscity truly nuclear
Comment:	Shelby, thanks for recommending this movie, or I probably would have overlooked this masterpiece when it appeared on a BBC channel the other day. The movie didn't rattle me as much as I was expecting, and I was expecting a lot. Other movies have shaken me more, particularly various other older movies/foreign language movies. Indeed, another western, John Ford's The Searchers, was more quirky and less consistently brilliant, yet somehow it was more moving than OUATITW, possibly because the characters were more, well, ambiguous in their motives. On the other hand OUATITW easily scores 5/5 from me as it is a freaking work of art. You've mentioned many reasons why. I might add that I am usually relatively oblivious to movie scores, but the music of this movie was like a protagonist. Astonishing. The power of the Frank music alone, especially when it first roared, was mesmerising. Even minor scenes stunned. The early scene where the bad guy is tormented by a fly was a surreal, comic masterpiece, Leone directed this with skill, a modern director would lose his nerve to dwell on a detail like this, which shows that our ancestors made a more sophisticated audience. - Eadon
From:	R. Anthony McCoy	2004-06-02 16:18:46
Subject:	Only at the Point of Dying
Comment:	Few things move me. I love the Good the Bad and the Ugly. And for a time I thought there could never be any movie better. Then one day in 1993, after graduating from high school, I was having a lazy day. So lazy that I wouldn't get up to 'find' the remote. I knew exactly where it was. But it wasn't close at hand. As I laided on the couch, half dazed, this sound, a windmill, slowly played in my ears. In my current state it frieghtened me. I thought I was having a nightmare. I had to wake. At first I thought I was stuck in a dream world. Then reality hit. The pathetic words of the station master calmed me. At the same time those words got me curious. When I became fully coherent there on my tv where eyes that I have seen many times before. I wasn't afraid. It was the doctor from CannonBall Run. But these weren't the drugged out induced eyes I remember laughing at in my younger days. These eyes were evil. Waiting on something. Anything. I sat up. What was this, I thought. Why no words or music? And why is that damn windmill sounding like that? I had to know. I watched this movie getting upset at the commercials. Happy that no one was home to interrupt me. Then it happened. The sound that will haunt me till the day I die. The sound of the harmonica. The windmill was the hook. The harmonica was the line. To see Charles Bronson's face was the sinker for me. It's the man from Death Wish. I have to watch. Then the final shootout. Let's just say. Whenever it comes on I watch it. Faithfully.