Four men in duster coats walk slowly towards a house. A young boy stares in shock as his family lay dead around him. The outlaws stop. The camera pans to reveal the face of the groups leader. Henry Fonda’s bright baby blues are familiar, but the sinister and cold look on his face isn’t. The gang lieutenant utters ‘what are we going to do with this one Frank?’. Fonda callously replies, ‘now that you’ve called me by name?’ We stare at the four outlaws from the perspective of the young boy as Fonda draws his pistol and fires. And that’s how Sergio Leone turned Henry Fonda from the caring, loving and humble American hero into an evil killer in minutes.
Leone’s masterpiece isn’t just another spaghetti western from a genius director, it’s the culmination of all of his work up until that point. Leone takes his time, each shot is carefully crafted with precision. For the first 15 minutes of the film we wait with three outlaws at a train station in the middle of nowhere. There is barely any dialogue, just the diegetic sound of the West holding you in its grasp. When the train does arrive, Charles Bronson’s ‘Harmonica’ is staring at the outlaws with a look of vengeance. Bronson is cool, calculated and most of all, calm. However, It’s the vengeance that separates Bronson from Clint Eastwoods earlier protagonists in The Dollar Trilogy. Once Upon a Time in the West (1969) is more personal, for Harmonica, this story isn’t about money, rival gangs or buried treasure, it’s about revenge. With a one liner and a quick draw of his revolver, Harmonica dispatches of the three outlaws and the film officially begins.
This opening scene sets the precedent for the rest of the film. The long wait for Bronson is Leone speaking to the audience, preparing them for the slower pace of the rest of the movie. Often in film criticism, ‘slow’ is a derogatory word, something to be thrown at an action film that takes too long with its story but here, it’s a compliment. It’s obvious that every scene is hand crafted by Leone to give the audience the most suspense possible. Once Upon a Time isn’t slow, it’s methodical, it’s uniquely paced, it’s a masterclass in suspenseful direction. For every second the audience is on the edge of its seat waiting for the guns to be unholstered, the eventual climax will have more impact.
Despite the enigmatic performances from Bronson and Fonda, the unlikely protagonist of the film is Jill McBain, played by Claudia Cardinale. By modern standards of female empowerment McBain would surely fail to hit the mark that is often set for female protagonists. However, when put into context, Cardinale’s performance is progressive for a western film from 1969. Formerly a prostitute, McBain uses her sexuality to be empowered when going up against Frank. For every scene that might make audiences cringe slightly, there’s multiple others where McBain stands up for herself and refuses to bow to these ‘tough guys’. A simple synopsis of the film could be that two gunslingers protect a woman from an evil man but that would land McBain as a ‘damsel in distress’ which certainly isn’t warranted. Actually, the scene where McBain is captured by Frank, she isn’t saved by Harmonica or Cheyenne (the often comedic relief of the piece), she uses her sexuality to survive. Cardinale’s performance is unlike any you’re likely to find from this era of cinema regardless of genre, she’s strong, beautiful and refuses to let any of the men have power over her.
Like all other western masterpieces, Once Upon a Time in the West (1969) has a score to rival any other in cinema history. It’s not the first film that Morricone should have won an Oscar for and it certainly won’t be the last, but this is a standout from his prolific career. Morricone provides each of the main characters with their own theme. As all great Western scores should, the music puts you right in the middle of every gunfight and confrontation in the West. What’s particularly impressive is the way that Frank and Harmonica’s score blend together to create a final scene that rivals the end of the Dollar trilogy. As Harmonica’s reason for revenge is revealed to not only the audience, but to Frank, the conclusion of the nearly three-hour story is worth it. Leone sets the audiences expectation for a slower, methodical Western in the first scene and goes above and beyond with the climax. In the hands of a lesser director, this style would surely be boring, lacklustre and self indulgent. In the hands of Leone, style meets substance in a way that has yet to be matched over forty years later in the genre and that’s why Once Upon a Time in the West (1969) is the quintessential western.
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