Starring: Claudia Cardinale, Henry Fonda, Charles Bronson, Jason Robards and Gabriele Ferzetti

Director: Sergio Leone

Synopsis: Hired gun Frank (Fonda) comes face to face with the mysterious Harmonica (Bronson) in an epic western that tells a story of the impact of loss and the search for retribution.

Sergio Leone intended to retire from Westerns after the conclusion of his Dollars Trilogy, but was ultimately swayed by Paramount Pictures to return with one more epic having been promised a hefty budget and the chance to work with one of Hollywood’s leading men. Where his previous films had a combined budget of $2 million – with $1.2 million invested into The Good, The Bad and The Ugly alone – Paramount gave Leone $5 million to work with for this one, and it really shows. While I love the “less is more” feel of the Eastwood films, which I’d go as far as to say is a major part of their charm, the small sets and very few cast members are replaced with grand scenery and dozens of extras.

It’s that scenery that immediately draws us in to Leone’s vision of The Old West. Using territories in Arizona, Utah and Spain, the picture painted to convey this time and place is sensational. On the subject of time, that is definitely what Leone takes to draw us into the film’s main plot, which can be looked at as a flaw, though I see it as an opportunity for the audience to get a feel for the spectacle that this film is. The only aspect that I find to be somewhat poor is that the dialogue has evidently been re-recorded over some scenes, as was the case in the Dollars Trilogy. Likewise with the trilogy, however, I can happily ignore that in favour of aspects such as Tonino Delli Colli’s cinematography, as this is genuinely one of the most beautifully shot films I’ve ever seen and, arguably, the highlight comes in the opening sequence, where Delli Colli’s camerawork combines with Leone and Donati’s screenplay to create something that any fan of cinema should look to as a prime example of it at its best.

The opening scene is essentially fifteen minutes of unspoken silence, where instead of dialogue the focus is placed upon aspects of The Old West, such as the heat of the Spanish sun where the scene was filmed, and what comes with such heat: drops of sweat, drips of pumped water and the buzzing of flies, or in this instance, just the one fly that has Jack Elam puffing for two minutes to remove it from his face before he sneakily traps it in his gun. It’s a sequence without music also, and the opening credits are accompanied instead by the sounds of a creaking windmill, the rumbling of a train bringing Harmonica into town and the locking of a gun that’s waiting for him. It’s not until the train pulls away that we hear one of the film’s two recurring pieces of music, Harmonica’s menacing harmonica playing that evokes the definitive sound of the West. He’s always playing it – which makes it all the more effective when he doesn’t with his first encounter with Frank and it plays over the top.

The other recurring piece of music can’t be any more different to Harmonica’s theme, and that’s the film’s main score, the beautiful and poignant theme we hear primarily in scenes featuring Jill McBain (Cardinale). If it wasn’t for Morricone’s “The Ecstasy of Gold” in The Good, The Bad and The Ugly, there is no doubting that I’d be telling you it’s his greatest piece of music. There’s also no doubt in my mind when I say it’s one of the finest sounds in the history of film.

It’s excellent as well as interesting in how the music reflects the personalities of the characters. Where Harmonica’s theme indicates his threat and mystique and Jill’s her beauty, the prominence of banjo in Cheyenne’s (Robards) theme can easily be compared to his somewhat unstable personality. There’s a beauty to the theme of Morton (Ferzetti), but underlying are sinister piano riffs that mirror the evil personality hidden by his defenceless persona. In fact, the only theme that contrasts the mirroring of a personality is Frank’s. It’s tinged with something of a remorseful sound, and that’s the complete opposite of what he is. It’s a testament to Fonda’s acting as, despite being cast against type, he and Leone pull out all of the stops to make audiences forget this is the same man who played the heroic Tom Joad in John Ford’s The Grapes of Wrath. Murdering a child, sexually assaulting Jill, attacking the disabled Morton, Fonda does all of this and more as Frank, while those blue eyes cut right through the screen. His evilness works well against the defiant Bronson – “Instead of talking he plays, and when he better play he talks.” – who is deadpan, but also witty in his quips – “you’ve brought two horses too many“. The evil and bravado of the male cast contrasts greatly with Cardinale, who is very sympathetic as Jill, but also very strong willed and, as we learn halfway through, not completely innocent as a character, which I really like. Jill McBain is not simply a one-dimensional female character to be saved by a strong man, instead she has a life before arriving in Flagstone, she is flawed by memories of her past, and we are made to care for her as her chance of a fresh start is immediately prevented. Even though at the end she is smiling, there’s a sadness to this film that is filled with loss. Redemption might be had, but it can’t bring back what’s gone, and in Jill’s case, it can’t bring back what she never had a chance to have.

It might have a two hour and twenty-four minute run time, but this landmark moment of the Spaghetti Western genre and of cinema as a whole is close to over before you know it, unless of course you’re pausing it and rewinding it frequently to be enthralled by the many marvellous sights and sounds that Once Upon a Time in the West has to offer.

Rating: 5/5