Once Upon a Time in the West [VHS] Overview
The so-called spaghetti Western achieved its apotheosis in Sergio Leone's magnificently mythic (and utterly outlandish) Once upon a Time in the West. After a series of international hits starring Clint Eastwood (from A Fistful of Dollars to The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly), Leone outdid himself with this spectacular, larger-than-life, horse-operatic epic about how the West was won. (And make no mistake: this is the wide, wide West, folks--so the widescreen/letterboxed version is strongly recommended.) The unholy trinity of Italian cinema--Leone, Bernardo Bertolucci, and Dario Argento--concocted the story about a woman (Claudia Cardinale) hanging onto her land in hopes that the transcontinental railroad would reach her before a steely-eyed, black-hearted killer (Fonda) does. (The film's advertising slogan was: "There were three men in her life. One to take her ... one to love her ... and one to kill her.") Meanwhile, Leone shoots his stars' faces as if they were expansive Western landscapes, and their towering bodies as if they were looming rock formations in John Ford's Monument Valley. --Jim Emerson
Customer Reviews
There was a lot of Italians from Western, ranging from touching, really good. This is one of the best of the group.
One thing to note is the beginning of the film, which is the story so much for the pictures of the actors' faces, as they say
dialogue. Nothing is racing, everything is slow and deliberate, with the exception of violent scenes do a surprisingly good
Contrast. The construction is almost painfully slow and then explodes and is finished in seconds.
But this proves that you can play not only bad, but one of the monsters really cool. In one scene, almost a smile
and you can see the joy in his eyes as the cold-blooded killing a 10-year-old child.
Another is the Western graphics (which were shot mostly in the West or even the United States), which are really in the eye. Edge
ofCivilization. Everything is raw and a half to build towards the rough hand cut logs and lumber. People because of what
evident as they have always done in difficult times. Want something truly authentic atmosphere to the image.
The story and action are old ones that were good in '60, when the film was made using. But here `s not so much the
History as the story is told that you are addicted.
Overall `s an excellent western.
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