Once Upon a Time in the West starring Henry Fonda
Director: Sergio Leone


Essential Actor / Actresses Here

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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.
Synopsis
Sergio Leone's epic homage to the Hollywood western has become a cinematic classic. Leone plays with the genre's conventions primarily through evocative camerawork and music, and with a minimum of dialogue. The film follows several stories, all centering on greed, murder and revenge. In one, gunmen slaughter an entire family who are awaiting the arrival of their father's new bride. The wife valiantly attempts to hold on to the land she has inherited. But the cold-blooded outlaws who committed the massacre want to complete the job by killing her. There's also a mysterious "Nameless Man" who has his own reasons for hunting down these bandits... and he has murder on his mind.

Video Description
Possibly Leone's best work, this film features Henry Fonda in a particularly villainous role - he savagely murders an entire family without feeling even a trace of remorse. An unusual western, with an outstanding supporting cast. Ennio Morricone provides the score and Dario Argento and Bernardo Bertolucci helped Leone write the screenplay.

Video Annotation
According to Dario Argento, who is credited with co-writing the film's original story, he and Bernardo Bertolucci were on the set during the filming, and both constantly rewrote the script. Co-produced by Safran and San Marco. Color by Technicolor; shot in TechniScope on location in Monument Valley, also Spain and Cinecitta Studio in Rome, Italy. The film has been shown on the AMC Cable Network in Letterbox format, in its original uncut version. When Henry Fonda first received the script from Leone, he was not impressed with it. But close friend Eli Wallach, who had been in Leone's "The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly," convinced him to take the part. Wallach told Fonda that Leone used the script only as an outline for the film, which was improvised as the production went on and strengthened by the addition of evocative music and stylized action. Fonda got hold of the scripts of other Leone films, and then watched the finished products; he quickly realized that what Wallach had told him was true. Original distributor United Artists refused to release the film with Henry Fonda cast as the cold-hearted, sadistic killer in the lead role, so Leone took the deal to Paramount, who ultimately distributed the film.

 

 

 

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