Once Upon A Time In The West
It is extremely difficult as a filmmaker to achieve anything that can be akin to Cinematic Poetry in ANY genre, but especially that of the Western, a story style which admittedly has a limited amount of plotlines and character types, but Sergio Leone managed to do just that with this 1968 release, brutally edited prior to its original U.S. run and only recognized later as the Grand Masterpiece Classic that it is. Obviously Leone only did a handful of films as a director, and most fans forever associate him with his earlier The Good, The Bad, And The Ugly, but while that film was a rousing adventure story with three great lead performances, this one surpasses it by having the (much) deeper thematic elements, not so much being about any quest by its characters but more about each of them coming to terms with the end of the Old West and the advancement of modern civilization, as symbolized by the railroad that will allow for people and cities to develop further and further along. Much of this is displayed in the four amazing lead performances, one of which unusually enough is that of a woman: Claudia Cardinale as the woman who inherits a seemingly worthless piece of land only to have it be built up as a station for the impending railroad as well as the town that will come to fruition around it is truly a stunner in both the acting AND looks department, no surprise since she was one of the greatest beauties in the history of Italian cinema; Jason Robards as the rogue outlaw Cheyenne, who falls in love with this woman and takes it upon himself to become her protector, balances equal amounts of sensitivity and badassery to positive effect; Charles Bronson (in the role that made him a worldwide superstar) as the mysterious stranger who also watches over Cardinale all while waiting to settle a score that is of a deep personal nature to him, maintains a stoic yet ideal presence complete with his habitual playing of a harmonica that adds to his mystique; and best of all (and most legendarily) Henry Fonda as Frank, without a doubt the most unforgettable Villain in Western history (and perhaps ever), a very cold-blooded killer for hire who vows to drive Cardinale off the land to make room for the railroad baron that he works for, completely subverts his iconic good guy screen image to create a chilling portrait of Evil Incarnate, best shown in his indelible introduction, as an innocent family with children is brutally gunned down only for those responsible to make their entrance and have the viewer recoil in shock as he realizes that the leader of these twisted bastards actually IS Henry Fonda (exactly the effect Leone was going for with the casting)! Although Frank is a stone cold killer and a rugged frontier badass, his greatest fallacy stems from the fact that he wishes to be RESPECTABLE too, wielding money and power the same way that he would wield a gun, but alas, must face the fact that he (along with Cheyenne and Harmonica) are a dying breed that will be turned out and no longer needed when the great cities are built and a civilized code of conduct is established, leading him to face his final fate at the end with almost a weary acceptance. The amazing thing about Leoneās direction is that for a 2 hour 45 minute film, the pacing is leisurely but NEVER slow, starting with an opening scene showing three of Frankās men waiting at the train station for Harmonica to show, and as long as Leone keeps one of his four leads on screen, we continue to want to see more, which also allows for various āguest starsā such as Lionel Stander and Keenan Wynn as well as Italian actor Gabrielle Ferzetti (doing very well as the railroad baron) to make their own contributions to the overall piece. Then there is the musical score by the legendary Ennio Morricone which, while not quite hitting the highs of GBU, actually turns out to be more diverse and better than GBU, with distinctive cues for each main character, and a more sweeping sense of the epic scope of the story. And the ending, with its final showdown and overall sense of melancholy afterwards as the wheels of progress make its inevitable move forward, makes one realize as the closing credits roll and beyond, that in a genre full of hard, tough classics, this is no doubt THE Greatest Western Ever Made, directed by a master who had a full grasp of what made these types of films greatā¦
10/10