Five Star Movie: Once Upon a Time in the West

Though I don't believe it to be Sergio Leone's best movie I do feel that Once Upon a Time in the West may be the greatest collection of scenes ever put to film. Leone also used some interesting techniques, taken from Akira Kurosawa no doubt, to establish a complexity to his characters and the world in which they live that go beyond dialogue. All in all Once Upon a Time in the West is not only one of the greatest Westerns ever made, but one of the greatest movies ever made.

But there is more than great direction to this film. There is also solid acting present in this movie, most notably from Henry Fonda and Jason Robards.

Every time I watch Henry Fonda play the very evil Frank, I'm disappointed to think he didn't play a bad guy more often. He is brilliant as the cold, ruthless Frank, and Leone uses Fonda brilliantly. It is easy to watch Fonda's films and think of him as the guy next door. Fonda was 63 when he made this film and he is beautiful. His eyes, his face, the way he carries himself. This beauty is used by Leone to add to his sinisterness. He has this incredible face, but Fonda can turn that beauty into evil so skillfully and so simply it's astonishing to watch. His deadpan delivery also works to great affect. In the first scene we see with Frank and Morton (Frank's boss), Fonda's delivery is perfect when he responds to Morton asking "Tell me, was it necessary that you kill all of them? I only told you to scare them." with "People scare better when they're dying."

Henry Fonda's Frank is balanced in the film by Jason Robards' Cheyenne. Where Leone uses Fonda's good looks to add to his sinisterness, he plays down Robards' looks to turn him into the guy next door. He's the crook with a big heart. He's tough and smart and kills, but he's really a good guy. Robards is brilliant at portraying Cheyenne and creating a character that it's hard not to like. Unlike Fonda who plays his character with blunt force, Robards plays Cheyenne with a bit of flair that also helps to make him seem more likable and more the lovable killer. He has the great line early in the film when talking with the Jill, "You know, Jill, you remind me of my mother. She was the biggest whore in Alameda and the finest woman that ever lived. Whoever my father was, for an hour or for a month - he must have been a happy man." Where Frank is beautiful and cold, Cheyenne is plain and warm.

I also have to mention Claudia Cardinale, Charles Bronson, and Gabriele Ferzetti.  Bronson and Cardinale are the two lead characters and Ferzetti plays Morton.  All three give very solid performances.  In this dry and barren world, Cardinale is shockingly beautiful.  But Jill is a tough woman who was making her living as a prostitute in New Orleans when she met and married Brett McBain.  It's this toughness that intrigues Cheyenne, her beauty that draws in Frank, and her difficult path that draws in Harmonica (Charles Bronson).




In the end though what really sets this movie apart is Leone's direction.  The opening scene to this movie is simply incredible.  The pace, the use of surroundings, the speed of the violence, it all blends together as maybe the best opening twelve minutes ever made and maybe the best twelve minutes ever filmed.  What's amazing though is how many of these scenes Leone was able to pull off.  From this opening, to our introduction to Frank, to our introduction to Cheyenne.  A similar formula he used in The Good the Bad and the Ugly, but he does it here with much more artistic flair. Each scene in this movie seems to have been lovingly created. The story at times can get a bit muddled, but 20 seconds into any scene in this movie and you cannot turn away.