Once Upon a Time in the West (1968) review

Following the immense success of the Spaghetti Western masterpiece, The Good, the bad and the Ugly that came out in 1966, Sergio Leone was set to retire from making Spaghetti Westerns and had plans to make ‘Once Upon a Time in America’ but postponed it due to the desperation of fans from his iconic Dollars trilogy. Now that we know where the origin to this film was from, it is extremely interesting viewing this masterpiece in his eyes!

A young woman named Jill McBain arrives to a small tower and is surprised to find no one waiting for her but sooner rather than later realizes that her entire family have been massacred by a man named Frank, portrayed brilliantly by the great Henry Fonda. Whilst also dealing with a mysterious harpoon playing man referred to as ‘Harmonica’ and another man named Cheyeene, ‘Once Upon A Time In the West’ tells, in an extremely grand way, the story of how these men must join forces in order to save both Jill’s life and her house from falling into the wrong hands.

There are very few issues that I possibly had with this film, little to no issues whatsoever. Everything about the film is grand, memorable and brilliant, especially the characters which is the biggest strength I had with this film. Even after the complete brilliance of ‘The Good, the bad and the Ugly’, which had three of my favourite movie characters, it is so easy for a director to completely fail on all levels with his next film but Sergio Leone was able to keep a cool head and start from the very beginning and succeeded in creating more memorable characters, especially Harmonica, Cheyeene and Frank who were just brilliantly portrayed. These characters are exciting to be around, funny, adventurous, intense yet incredibly interesting! Being around these characters for a 3 hour movie certainly helped make the film’s duration feel half its time, which is something that is often said but here the words are literally meant.

Being around those legendary characters made me realize another thing and that was how brilliantly paced and directed the film was. For a film just short of 3 hours, the film is made to feel more like a 90 minute adventure than a 180 minute epic. Thanks to brilliant direction, which is clearly evident everywhere throughout this film whether it be creating memorable characters, an entertaining story, brilliant pacing or fantastic use of cinematograpy, Sergio Leone proved how his name in the 1960s was one of the biggest in the business. The pacing to the film is absolutely brilliant with not a minute feeling boring or uneasy to get through. The way the film flowed through by the end was spectacular and if I had one complaint, it would’ve been that the film could’ve been even longer than it was and I would’ve been fine with it. I really would have!

The film contains an intelligent script with many fantastic lines such as when Cheyeene is hanging onto the train and warns another man to not give him away and when that man attempts to and gets shot, Cheyeene simply states “I told you not to move!” Whilst this may sound cheesy, it is delivered with upmost brilliance that it definitely is not made to sound cheesy. Also, all the dialogue in this film feels realistic and is easy to follow, entertaining, sharp and witty and definitely clever. Some of the lines delivered throughout the film are truly legendary such as Mr Morton’s explanation of weapons to Frank. Clever use of similes and comparisons worked fantastically in this film making certain scenarios and characters far easier to understand

Not only is Once Upon A Time In the West a brilliant film but it is a deeply entertaining film in many ways. The characters and story certainly have a lot to do with it, as does the writing and direction but for me, one of the film’s greatest aspects is in Ennio Morricone’s brilliant and legendary musical score which he is able to perfectly follow up since the iconic ‘The Good the bad and the Ugly’ theme he composed 2 years earlier. This theme is everything brilliant about cinema. That one scene involving Harmonica playing his harpoon in the dark with Jill attempting to gun him down is legendary but as are some of his other musical scores. Beautiful when they need to be, frightening when they need to be and exciting when they need to be, Ennio Morricone certainly found the perfect musical score to provide for non- stop entertainment in this extremely long picture, had it not being for the music.

Henry Fonda delivers an extremely brilliant performance as the cruel Frank, who has some particularly legendary moments throughout the film, especially his introduction. That scene was unbelievable in so many ways, not just from Fonda’s performance but also brilliant film making. Jason Robards was incredibly brilliant as Cheyeene right throughout the film. His performance is so brilliant that even if his character had been uninteresting, it would’ve still turned out to be a great character. Jason Robards was truly perfect in the lead role in the film, giving plenty of laughs such as when he is hanging onto the train. He was intimidating yet funny and especially lovable! Charles Bronson is able to perfectly pull off the role of playing the mysterious man playing the harmonica, which has to be one of the greatest and most iconic things I’ve seen in cinema!

‘Once Upon A Time in the West’ is a near flawless Western film that has almost no issue with the film other than the first that it could’ve been another hour longer and yet, I would’ve still loved it. It truly excels in every department to make a film more than just a masterpiece. If I had another issue with the film which shouldn’t even be considered an issue is that the film isn’t quite as good as ‘The Good, the bad and the Ugly’. It’s that brilliant that the only negative I can truly state is that it isn’t nearly as breathtaking as Leone’s previous film. 

Grade- 10/10