PG-13 | 2h 45m | Western | 1962
When the American Civil War (1861–1865) ended, a tremendous economic boom saw multitudes of adventurers, settlers, and scurrilous opportunists moving out west to carve out a better and more prosperous life for themselves.
Of course, when a lot of people move into the same region, there’s bound to be conflicts over who settled where first, and who has the rights to the more valuable parcels of land, such as watering holes and arable land useful for crops.
Known for his Italian, or “Spaghetti” Westerns, director Sergio Leone helmed a film a decade later that was a completely different kind of Western, yet set in the same era. Leone avoided many of the generic conventions common to most Westerns of the day; all that his film “Once Upon a Time in the West” has in common with Wyler’s masterpiece is its plotline about range wars.
The action starts out in typical Leone fashion, with an air of mystery and an unhurried pace. A trio of grizzled gunslingers show up at a train station outside of the town of Flagstone on the Western frontier. After stuffing the poor old station master into a closet and locking him up, the men wait for a train to arrive.
The train indeed arrives and the men’s fingers begin to twitch around their holstered guns with anticipation. Dust swirls around the station as the train leaves and the men disappointedly turn away ... until they hear the haunting melody of a harmonica. Thus ensues the first trademark Leone gunfight, with his typical slow build of tension that suddenly bursts into a cascade of life-ending actions by very violent men.
The man playing the instrument in question is aptly named “Harmonica” and is played by the rough-hewn acting standout Charles Bronson, doing a variation of Clint Eastwood’s “Man with No Name” character from previous Leone Westerns.
Soon, we are introduced to Brett McBain (Frank Wolff), an enterprising Irishman who has shrewdly built up a sprawling ranch called “Sweetwater” on soon-to-be valuable land. McBain predicted that a rail line would eventually pass through his patch of land, which he intends to capitalize on.
However, a gaggle of gunfighters led by a psychopath named Frank (Henry Fonda) show up and wipe out the entire family. The gunfighters were originally hired by Morton (Gabriele Ferzetti), a land-grabbing railroad magnate, to scare the McBains but not kill them. As it turns out, Frank has his own agenda, and he leaves clues that implicate Manuel “Cheyenne” Gutiérrez (Jason Robards) in the heinous crime, who is soon arrested.
Thrown into this widening web of deception is Jill (Claudia Cardinale), who arrives by train to meet up with McBain, whom she married in New Orleans. She learns that she’s the rightful heir of Sweetwater after discovering that the entire McBain family has been killed.
Cheyenne escapes and encounters Harmonica and, after a tense encounter, the two have more in common with each other than they thought, at least with regards to facing Morton and his killer gunslingers led by Frank. Will their unexpected partnership endure in the face of overwhelming odds to protect Jill and her newly acquired land?
Although this Western features Leone’s trademark stylistic flair, I’ve always considered it to be the most substantive of his works. While the film is nearly three hours long, it’s also seamless and polished, with a tight focus and a deep narrative.
The film’s characters are decently fleshed out as well, with Bronson standing out as the mysterious drifter bent on revenge, and Fonda playing well against type as the sinister villain. Cardinale also deserves mention as an alluring, opportunistic woman caught up in some chaotic circumstances beyond her control.
Leone’s long takes entail taking in sumptuous shots of far-off mesas and dusty, wind-strewn prairies, which makes the imagination drift and wonder what life must have been like toward the end of the 19th century.
“Once Upon a Time in the West” is a beautifully constructed Western that has aged well and is one of Leone’s best.
