With an all-time great casting against expectations,the legendary Henry Fonda showed just how evil a villain he could be in 1968’s ONCE UPON A TIME IN THE WEST.
Fonda stars as Frank, a lethal assassin working for the railroad as it drives its way through the west. Casually shooting anyone in his way, including children (Henry! What the hell!?) Frank is one bad hombre.
He meets his match in Cheyenne (Jason Robards in one of his best performances) and ‘Harmonica” played by Charles Bronson in his big screen follow up to “The Dirty Dozen”.
Rounding out the cast in stunning fashion is Claudia Cardinale as Jill McBain, who travels to newly settled Utah to join her husband and his children.
Upon arrival, she discovers that they’re all dead at the hands of Frank and his gang, who have been hired by the railroad to ruthlessly clear the way for the never ending tracks driving west.
The four converge in a huge, long, sprawling epic from Sergio Leone, the Italian master of long takes, swirling dust and quick draws set on a barren landscape. This was his follow up the hugely successful Clint Eastwood trilogy that culminated in “The Good, The Bad and The Ugly” two years before.
While not the equal of that film classic, this one stands on its own as a great Western.
Just look at the long opening sequence at the train station. Dialogue-free, tone setting and suspenseful, it’s a slow burn that probably only Leone and Tarantino could pull off in modern cinema. Both share the same gift for balancing close-ups, long shots, ambient sounds and music into something wholly new. Here, water dripping, flapping trench coats and a squeaky windmill become characters along with the filthy strangers waiting for the train.
Speaking of music, the great Ennio Morricone built off the “spaghetti western” scores he’d created in the Eastwood trilogy to create something bigger, more sweeping, but still with those occasional twangs and bizarre noises we’ve come to expect.
At two hours and 45 minutes long, Leone takes his time to unwind his tale. This isn’t the romanticized West of John Wayne films, it’s a lethal, dangerous place where every day could be your last. All the stars have great moments. Cardinale and Robards are flawed people wanting to change, Fonda is brutal killer with no morality to get in his way and Bronson is the mysterious stranger, this film’s “Man with No Name”.
Morricone’s harmonica theme when Bronson saunters into frame is the perfect set up.
Leone never disappoints on what he delivers on those set ups, and I think he pulled Bronson’s finest acting out of him in the role.
More of an art house western than an action thriller, ONCE UPON A TIME IN THE WEST stands as one of Leone’s best and gets an A.
Comments