Monday, January 07, 2019

Once Upon a Time in the West

Once Upon a Time in the West is a 1968 spaghetti western directed by Sergio Leone and starring Henry Fonda, Jason Robards, Charles Bronson, Keenan Wynn, Woody Strode, Jack Elam, and Claudia Cardinale (the last surviving cast member). My one complaint is the length -this is just too long.


The New York Times says, "Granting the fact that it is quite bad, "Once Upon the Time in the West" is almost always interesting". Slant Magazine gives it 4 out of 4 stars and says, "Sergio Leone made a fistful of great films, but none better than 1968’s ode to the fading American frontier, Once Upon a Time in the West."

Roger Ebert opens with this:
Sergio Leone's "Once Upon a Time in the West" is a painstaking distillation of the style he made famous in the original three Clint Eastwood Westerns. There's the same eerie music; the same sweaty, ugly faces; the same rhythm of waiting and violence; the same attention to small details of Western life. There is also, unfortunately, Leone's inability to call it quits.
Empire Online concludes, "Nobody has made a better Western since. In fact, nobody has made a better Western, period." Rotten Tomatoes has a critics score of 98%.

10 comments:

  1. Too much of a good thing is not a good thing.

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    1. It's not too much for most people lol, but I felt the length with this one.

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  2. I love westerns and this is one of my favourites! I don't mind the length of the film at all ...lol 😉. Happy Monday! J 😊 x

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    1. That's exactly what my son says. After all, some of our favorite movies are longer than is usual. I'm not sure why I thought this one was longer than I wanted it to be. Still, it's one of the best, I agree :)

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  3. I am not a western fan, but as a kid I watched a lot, perhaps because it was all that was offered! Valerie

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    1. TV was very western-heavy when I was a child, and I was never much of a fan of shows like Bonanza and Gunsmoke back in the day. I do like western films now, though.

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  4. I'd like to see it on the big screen. Perhaps someday one of the art theaters will play it.

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    1. We have one of the old, fancy, big-screen theaters downtown, and they show old movies there during the summer. This would be a perfect choice!

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  5. I wasn't a fan of the "spaghetti westerns" like with Clint Eastwood dollars movies. I do remember seeing this and not being used to Henry Fonda playing a bad guy.

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    1. I'm a big spaghetti western fan. I enjoy even the worst of them lol, but I don't care as much for the comedy types.

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