Joshua Kronengold

Once Upon a Time in the West (1968) dir. Sergio Leone

Three gunslingers in duster coats (Jack Elam, Woody Strode and Al Mulock) wait at a train station. When the train arrives, at first it seems there were no passengers. But then music is heard, and as the train pulls away we see the man we will come to know as Harmonica (Charles Bronson). He is here to meet "Frank" but that man has sent the gunslingers instead. Only one man will ride away.

In another part of the territory, Brett McBain (Frank Wolff) and his family prepare for his new wife to arrive from New Orleans. There's to be a big party with all the neighbors, and Brett is talking about planning to get rich. They are instead slaughtered by Frank (Henry Fonda) and his gang.

At the train station (a different one from the first we saw), Jill McBain (Claudia Cardinale) alights from the train only to find no one waiting for her. She's disappointed and a little worried, so hires a carriage to take her out to the homestead, which is called Sweetwater. Along the way, they stop at an inn, where Jill witnesses an interaction between Harmonica and Cheyenne (Jason Robards), a bandit who's just escaped from the deputy trying to take him to jail. The two men verbally spar, but seem to like each other, as much as is possible for men like them.

When Jill arrives at the ranch, she learns she is a widow, and that supposedly Cheyenne is responsible. (Frank left evidence framing the bandit.) Despite this horror, she decides to stay for at least a little while.

This was originally intended to be director Sergio Leone's final word on the Western genre (but contractual issues made him do one more anyway), so the movie is filled with tributes to other classic Western movies. See if you can spot them all! It's a big movie, with the standard cut weighing in at 165 minutes, and even then Leone had to cut some scenes. This running time does allow the movie to slow down for long quiet minutes of dramatic tension, making the action moments stand out.

Henry Fonda is playing against type as Frank, having been the hero in so many other movies that having him play the sort of person who smiles when he murders a child was mind-blowing for 1960s audiences. Even rail baron Mr. Morton (Gabriele Ferzetti), who hired him to make sure construction of the rail line to the Pacific Ocean goes through before he dies of "tuberculosis of the bones", finds Frank appalling. He realizes too late that his hireling is less interested in earning a paycheck than in killing in cruel ways.

Cheyenne is a fun character, who might sometimes make you forget he's a murderous bandit. He has a sense of humor, and of proportion. He's a bad person, but he doesn't let that be his only character trait, helping out Jill because it feels right to do so.

Charles Bronson's Harmonica is a mystery man, who comes out of the darkness and doesn't share his past with anyone. We know from early on that he's got a grudge against Frank but Frank is drawing a blank on who Harmonica is or why this man might be after him. He's killed oh so many men, after all. Harmonica does some things that make Jill think he might be attracted to her, but he has no time for romance or anything that might get in the way of his final showdown with Frank.

And Jill is the pivot point that all these men focus on. She has a possession that makes her important to all their plans, even if she doesn't initially understand what it might be. While she's distressed, the widow McBain is no innocent damsel and she rapidly learns what it takes for a woman to survive in the Wild West.

At the end of the tale, many people are dead who were alive at the beginning, and the train comes to Sweetwater. The frontier days are coming to a close, and Mr. Morton is more the future than Cheyenne, Harmonica or Frank. Jill might be willing to live with that.

Content note: Lots of gunplay, often fatal. A minimum of blood. Death of children. A man is hanged. Rape. Jill's former profession as a prostitute is discussed. Partial nudity. Frank is ableist towards his boss. Due to the heavy subject matter (Harmonica's flashback is particularly shocking) and the long slow bits, I'd say younger teens may want to skip this.

There's some great scenery shots, cool action, and a good Morricone soundtrack. You can spot in various places that the movie is dubbed, and some of the slow scenes take too long, but overall this is a top Western for fans of spaghetti.