ONCE UPON A TIME IN THE
WEST aka C'ERA UNA VOLTA IL WEST		 Search all of phase9.tv






Year: 1968
UK: BFI Collections
Cast: Claudia Cardinale, Henry Fonda, Jason Robards, Charles Bronson, Gabriele Ferzetti, Paolo Stoppa, Woody Strode, Jack Elam, Keenan Wynn, Frank Wolff, Lionel Stander
Director: Sergio Leone
Countries: Italy / USA
Language: Italian (English subtitles)
UK: 168 mins
UK Release Date: 24 July 2009 (Limited Re-release)
UK Release Date: 14 April 2000

Movie reviews
Official website UK Distributor

Synopsis

Sergio Leone spent months watching classic Westerns with Bernardo Bertolucci and Dario Argente. Then he asked Sergio Donati to help transform their treatment - a mosaic of hallowed movie moments, held together by a simple story about water rights in the desert - into a brilliantly choreographed elegy on American myths (Once upon a time') and grown-up historical reality ('in the West). The Italian title translates as 'Once Upon A Time There Was The West'.

From the opening sequences, and their balletic re-mixes of moments from HIGH NOON, SHANE, PURSUED AND THE SEARCHERS, to the climax inspired by John Ford's THE IRON HORSE, this Western dance of death is ' not so much a series of citations for citation's sake, as a collision between worn-out stereotypes of the West and the new, pitless era which was advancing across the continent '. Henry Fonda plays a sadistic killer, Charles Bronson an avenger with no name, Jason Robards a romantic bandit and Claudia Cardinale a prostitute/earth mother. All of Ennio Morricone's main musical themes were written in advance, and played on the set ' to create rhythms'. The ultimate horse opera.


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