Enthuse over Once Upon A Time In The West please

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Look, I really don't want to hide this thread away on I Love Film. Easily one of the Top 10 films of all time, Once Upon A Time In The West was just mentioned on another thread today and having watched it again the other night, I am full of fluffy love for Leone's masterpiece.

If you love it too, then this thread is for you. Please heap hyperbolic praise, favourite quotes, moments and random trivia here. Oh, and could the moderators immediately delete any posters who dare to attempt to suggest that it's overlong, painfully drawn-out and deadly dull, mindlessly violent, impenetrable indulgence.

― @lex K (Alex K), Thursday, 15 January 2004 14:44 (twenty-two years ago)

freaky-ass score.

they screened the intro in my intro-to-film class.

― Kingfishee (Kingfish), Thursday, 15 January 2004 14:46 (twenty-two years ago)

Claudia Cardinale = swoon!

― Llahtuos Kcin (Nick Southall), Thursday, 15 January 2004 14:51 (twenty-two years ago)

Harmonica: Did you bring a horse for me?
Snaky: Well... looks like we're... hehe, looks like we're shy one horse.
Harmonica: You brought two too many.

Apparently Leone wanted to use Eastwood, Wallach and Van Cleef as the three doomed gunfighters in the opening sequence. Wallach and Van Cleef were willing to sign up but Eastwood supposedly didn't see the beauty of the idea. But how good would that have been???

― @lex K (Alex K), Thursday, 15 January 2004 14:51 (twenty-two years ago)

8000 kajillion times better than Mystic River, that much is certain.

I love this movie, even though my favorite Leone western is still probably The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly.

― El Diablo Robotico (Nicole), Thursday, 15 January 2004 14:53 (twenty-two years ago)

The moderators must be doing a tip top job. Or something. *sigh* So much for ilx enthusiasm.

― @lex K (Alex K), Thursday, 15 January 2004 15:08 (twenty-two years ago)

Leone+Argento=Love+Phenomena+Once Upon A Time In America=My Two Favorite Jennifer Connelly Movies

thanx for the dvds movie godz (now that i have west/america in their rightful form i can die happy)

― scott seward (scott seward), Thursday, 15 January 2004 15:32 (twenty-two years ago)

It's a fantastic film. Classic.

― Alfie (Alfie), Thursday, 15 January 2004 15:38 (twenty-two years ago)

wicked opening scene

― s1ocki (slutsky), Thursday, 15 January 2004 17:20 (twenty-two years ago)

After years of searching, I finally saw my favorite again - a rarity called Fistful of Dynamite, also know as Duck, You Sucker! James Coburn as an IRA terrorist on the run, who goes to help the Mexican revolutionary (played by Rod Steiger) blow up the Federales.

Easily as quality as The Good, Bad, etc., but a hard one to find. And the most haunting Leone soundtrack ever.

― andy, Thursday, 15 January 2004 17:50 (twenty-two years ago)

(...is it wrong of me to say that while I've heard all the music from these Leone films I've never actually seen any of them?)

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Friday, 16 January 2004 02:27 (twenty-two years ago)

Yes, yes it is.

― El Diablo Robotico (Nicole), Friday, 16 January 2004 02:36 (twenty-two years ago)

Hm. I've seen part of Once Upon a Time in America, does that count?

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Friday, 16 January 2004 02:37 (twenty-two years ago)

I bought this for my father for Christmas, but I haven't had the time to steal/borrow it for my viewing.

― miloauckerman (miloauckerman), Friday, 16 January 2004 02:39 (twenty-two years ago)

yeah the Morricone scores for this and Duck, You Sucker! aka Fistful of Dynamite aka Giu la Testa are great.

― oops (Oops), Friday, 16 January 2004 02:49 (twenty-two years ago)

the score completely dominates and overwhelms the movie.

all movie threads should be on ILF. it is not 'hiding away'.

― Julio Desouza (jdesouza), Friday, 16 January 2004 12:17 (twenty-two years ago)

The score sets it all off perfectly Julio - you do know that Morricone and Leone worked in tandem and the score was meticulously composed scene by scene, and was built around the complex plans that Leone had in his head, down to the personalities of the characters and the events that take place in the movie. Even Harmonica’s blowing is deliciously well conceived – I mean who plays a harmonica like that – nobody right, because it’s the sound of a dying man’s last breaths, the sound it made when it was lodged in his mouth by Frank all those years ago and the same sound it makes when he later rams it in Frank’s mouth. The entire score was apparently written before shooting, and was actually played to the actors by Leone throughout filming to help what strikes me at least as the film’s immaculate cohesion and ambience.

― @lex K (Alex K), Friday, 16 January 2004 13:07 (twenty-two years ago)

I love Morricone & cowboys.

― Ian Johnson (orion), Friday, 16 January 2004 13:36 (twenty-two years ago)

six months pass...

Seen this one yet, Raggett??

― Gear! (Gear!), Saturday, 7 August 2004 07:23 (twenty-one years ago)

Nope, but I was thinking about it the other day.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Saturday, 7 August 2004 13:30 (twenty-one years ago)

I just ordered this from amazon.uk! Was gonna order "The Seven Samurai", too, but the European version lacks special features and I don't feel like watching another movie on my comp (which is the only region 1 compatible tool that I have.)

― Daniel_Rf (Daniel_Rf), Saturday, 7 August 2004 13:34 (twenty-one years ago)

one month passes...

Saw it, hooray! it's grebt, I think, tho some of the plot was lost on me. Harmonica's origin scene tho, that's some awe-inspiring superhero type shit.

The Pogues used to act out movie scenes for fun - apparently "Once Upon A Time In The West" was a speciality. There seems to be very little to work with, tho, dialoguewise...I wonder which scene they did? Only one I could fathom is the "you don't sell a dream" one.

Are there real ties* between this and "Once Upon A Time In America", or did Leone just think it was a cool gimmick? Cos it is.

* I mean thematically and stylistically, not plotwise, though of course if this movie had a secret Noodles cameo that would be the greatest thing ever.

― Daniel_Rf (Daniel_Rf), Friday, 10 September 2004 23:08 (twenty-one years ago)

one year passes...

make sure to vote for this in the '60s poll!

― gear (gear), Wednesday, 30 November 2005 06:18 (twenty years ago)

The Pogues used to act out movie scenes for fun - apparently "Once Upon A Time In The West" was a speciality. There seems to be very little to work with, tho, dialoguewise...I wonder which scene they did?
http://images.amazon.com/images/P/B00022350I.01._SCLZZZZZZZ_.jpg
coincidence?

― literalisp (literalisp), Wednesday, 30 November 2005 06:41 (twenty years ago)

"Are there real ties* between this and "Once Upon A Time In America", or did Leone just think it was a cool gimmick? Cos it is."

Once Upon A Time in America was actually the movie he wanted to make in 1969, but apparently the studio forced him to make another "spaghetti" western instead and so he just "borrowed" the title for the gangster flick he was intending on making. As far as I know there is no other connection.

― Alex in SF (Alex in SF), Wednesday, 30 November 2005 06:54 (twenty years ago)

I love OUATI America to death; never quite got around to OUATI The West; having Leone'd out after a five film run.

― Forksclovetofu (Forksclovetofu), Wednesday, 30 November 2005 07:03 (twenty years ago)

OUATI is marvy.

― like a circle in a spiral, like a wheel within a wheel (Jody Beth Rosen), Wednesday, 30 November 2005 07:04 (twenty years ago)

FFS SEE THIS FILM

― gear (gear), Wednesday, 30 November 2005 07:05 (twenty years ago)

see the first ten minutes and skip the rest

― dude dude, Wednesday, 30 November 2005 07:51 (twenty years ago)

don't listen to this dude

― gear (gear), Wednesday, 30 November 2005 08:10 (twenty years ago)

Just added to 'flix.

― Forksclovetofu (Forksclovetofu), Wednesday, 30 November 2005 08:14 (twenty years ago)

Not a word on Jason Robards yet? A legend for his stage work, this is likely his best movie perf. Can you believe Paramount cut his last scene in '69??

I go back and forth between this and The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly as SL's best, but I always choke up at the water-carrying finale.

Also, seeing at least a couple Ford films where Fonda is the hero should be a prerequisite for enjoying him fully in this; it was considered shocking casting.

"Keep yer lovin' brother happy."

― Dr Morbius (Dr Morbius), Wednesday, 30 November 2005 16:54 (twenty years ago)

four months pass...

http://www.bbc.co.uk/bbcfour/cinema/images/once_in_the_west_lead.jpg

― gear (gear), Tuesday, 11 April 2006 05:55 (twenty years ago)

on the commentary track to bird with the crystal plumage, alan jones sez that when he met morricone the maestro asked him to name his favourite e.m. score - when aj replied "once upon a time in the west' morricone said "oh you're one of THOSE people"

― Ward Fowler (Ward Fowler), Tuesday, 11 April 2006 06:11 (twenty years ago)

This = greatest movie of all time.

Also, seeing at least a couple Ford films where Fonda is the hero should be a prerequisite for enjoying him fully in this; it was considered shocking casting.

I just saw "Fort Apache" the other day, and it's one example of Fonda not being a goody-goody before OUATITW.

The "Duck, You Sucker!" love baffles me, to be honest.

― Daniel_Rf (Daniel_Rf), Tuesday, 11 April 2006 12:26 (twenty years ago)

... you know there are at least two different versions of "Duck, You Sucker!"? Maybe you've seen the wrong one

― Dadaismus (Dada), Tuesday, 11 April 2006 12:45 (twenty years ago)

It's absolutely hypnotic. Genius.

― chap who would dare to be a stone cold thug (chap), Tuesday, 11 April 2006 13:32 (twenty years ago)

one of the best ever. I thought it seemed very Japanese, and then I started watching some of the DVD extras & one of the actors commented that Leone had indeed been influenced by Japanese cinema.

― dar1a g (daria g), Tuesday, 11 April 2006 13:45 (twenty years ago)

it's been said kurosawa was liddle bit 'influenced' by man like john ford though innit. given the film is a compendium of western cliches, i would call the western leone's main source.

― enrique's new pseudonym, Tuesday, 11 April 2006 13:48 (twenty years ago)

compendium of western homages shurely?

― Dadaismus (Dada), Tuesday, 11 April 2006 13:54 (twenty years ago)

Well, we all know the story of A Fistful Dollars borrowing it's plot from Yojimbo which in turn borrowed it's plot from, um, Red Harvest.

― The Day The World Turned Dayglo Redd (Ken L), Tuesday, 11 April 2006 14:21 (twenty years ago)

Which is not in fact a Western, but a noir.

And is not a movie of itself, as far as I know.

― The Day The World Turned Dayglo Redd (Ken L), Tuesday, 11 April 2006 14:21 (twenty years ago)

there is a '30s film of 'red harvet', i think, but it isn't well-known.

Well, we all know the story of A Fistful Dollars borrowing it's plot from Yojimbo which in turn borrowed it's plot from, um, Red Harvest.
-- The Day The World Turned Dayglo Redd (louder...), April 11th, 2006.

aha, but also some italian playwright -- goldoni? somethig like that.

but ouatitw script dude bertolucci almost filmed 'red harvest', and '1900' is the kind of crap result.

― enrique's new pseudonym, Tuesday, 11 April 2006 14:32 (twenty years ago)

I only know that guy from the "lost play" in Va Savior, but yeah he seems to be mixed up in this as well.

― The Day The World Turned Dayglo Redd (Ken L), Tuesday, 11 April 2006 14:36 (twenty years ago)

http://digilander.libero.it/paololandi/servant/note.html

― enrique's new pseudonym, Tuesday, 11 April 2006 14:45 (twenty years ago)

Mine's 147 minutes. There is some good wtf stuff in there (the flashbacks of irish frollicking, the way that John Mallory is introduced in a scene where he's just dropping dynamite through the hills for no apparent reason), and that one speech about the revolution's ok, but as a whole it's just way too presumptious about having us love the characters, and since everything pretty much depends on that the movie never really works: I mean, Tuco and Blondie and Harmonica, for all of their cartoonishness, earned our attention; with "Duck, You Sucker!" it's just kind of "yeah, these two are OPRESSED ROGUE OUTLAWS, so you'll adore them" w/o the characters ever actually doing much to make us care. The political stuff is mostly cringeworthy in its heavy-handedness, and all those scenes of executions, hitting you over the head with it w/o actually ever raising much emotion at all IMO. Same thing with the buddy relationship, there's just not much *there* to make it, and wtf is with that ending scene? "You said we were going to america!" No dude, that was you.

(a few xposts)

― Daniel_Rf (Daniel_Rf), Tuesday, 11 April 2006 15:11 (twenty years ago)

Well, I think it's great! Since when was Leone ever subtle? Or good at politics?

― Dadaismus (Dada), Tuesday, 11 April 2006 15:21 (twenty years ago)

the movie version of Red Harvest is called Last Man Standing, stars Bruce Willis and was directed by Walter Hill, this is considered Leone's number 1 influence. All versions of Red Harvest, as well as Millers Crossing which is like Red Harvest crossed with the Glass Key, owe a debt to Brick, which actually just came out.

― Dan Selzer (Dan Selzer), Tuesday, 11 April 2006 15:50 (twenty years ago)

Millers Crossing which is like Red Harvest crossed with the Glass Key
Yes, that's what I've always thought.

― The Day The World Turned Dayglo Redd (Ken L), Tuesday, 11 April 2006 15:57 (twenty years ago)

Where did I ask for subtelty? :)

I don't expect Leone to be much adept at political theory or anything, but the war stuff in "The Good, The Bad & The Ugly" takes the simple point of war = ;-( and runs with it for great emotional impact.

― Daniel_Rf (Daniel_Rf), Tuesday, 11 April 2006 15:58 (twenty years ago)

(Leone's my all-time fav director and OUATITW my all-time fave movie, so I feel a bit weird being the sourpuss on this thread, and an off-topic one at that. But I don't really have anything new to say about "Once Upon...", so...)

― Daniel_Rf (Daniel_Rf), Tuesday, 11 April 2006 16:01 (twenty years ago)

About all I remember from DYS! is Steiger hyperventilating and "SeanseanSEAN!"

― Dr Morbius (Dr Morbius), Tuesday, 11 April 2006 16:13 (twenty years ago)

i do find this film astonishingly moving, particularly in the moments involving claudia cardinale, perhaps because at its heart this is a story about her finding herself, and less a story about revenge and battles over land.

― gear (gear), Tuesday, 11 April 2006 17:07 (twenty years ago)

You Claudia Cardinale fans gotta check out the soon-to-be-out-on-DVD Girl With A Suitcase.

― The Day The World Turned Dayglo Redd (Ken L), Tuesday, 11 April 2006 17:10 (twenty years ago)

For more info, follow the link here.

― The Day The World Turned Dayglo Redd (Ken L), Tuesday, 11 April 2006 17:13 (twenty years ago)

You Claudia Cardinale fans

Surely not being a Claudia Cardinale fan is an impossibility?

― Dadaismus (Dada), Tuesday, 11 April 2006 17:15 (twenty years ago)

four months pass...

Got a copy of the DVD at a garage sale a few weeks ago. I'd forgotten how great & hilarious Jason Robards is in this flick.

― kingfish high command (kingfish 2.0), Saturday, 26 August 2006 05:42 (nineteen years ago)

http://people.zeelandnet.nl/vazed/funstuf/claudia-cardinale.jpg

― kingfish high command (kingfish 2.0), Saturday, 26 August 2006 05:45 (nineteen years ago)

Is that from The Professionals?

― My Little Ruud Book (Ken L), Saturday, 26 August 2006 05:46 (nineteen years ago)

I found the double DVD edition of it for something like $5 a couple of months back. I love finds like that.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Saturday, 26 August 2006 14:10 (nineteen years ago)

Now I want to watch this again, but I don't have it accessible.

Oh well, The Wild Bunch it is, then.

― 100% CHAMPS with a Yes! Attitude. (Austin, Still), Saturday, 26 August 2006 14:40 (nineteen years ago)

"Just pretend it's nothing."

― Dr Morbius (Dr Morbius), Saturday, 26 August 2006 14:48 (nineteen years ago)

one year passes...

i just saw a new restoration at the goldwyn theater on a screen so big it should be in heaven. For a fistfull of $5. Absolutely breathtaking.

― strgn, Saturday, 21 June 2008 10:29 (seventeen years ago)

ten months pass...

― "Together we could rape the universe" (omar little), Tuesday, 5 May 2009 06:49 (seventeen years ago)

one year passes...

http://voxelshow.com.br/images/uploads/iwdrm17.gif

― omar little, Thursday, 18 November 2010 06:13 (fifteen years ago)

http://mattthomas.files.wordpress.com/2010/11/tumblr_lasmpzzeeo1qe0eclo1_r2_500.gif

― omar little, Thursday, 18 November 2010 06:13 (fifteen years ago)

I once read that Morricone had written a musical piece for the opening sequence, but after attending a John Cage performace, he decided to simply emphasize the repetitive creaks, whirs, drips etc. of the old train station. The result is one of the great uses of atmospheric sound in cinema - at least of films I've seen. I love this film overall, but the first twenty minutes or so are >>>>>>>> the rest of the movie & pretty much anything else Leone/Morricone have done imo.

― strangled by a necklace of mexicans (Pillbox), Thursday, 18 November 2010 06:20 (fifteen years ago)

Netflix needs to get this on streaming. You *always* might need to see this movie anytime/anywhere (just reading this thread again makes me want to see it now)

― Stockhausen's Helicopter Quartet (Elvis Telecom), Thursday, 18 November 2010 06:40 (fifteen years ago)

I've bought it 3 times and yet am still stuck now without a copy. It's a great go-to movie, I found.

― Gukbe, Thursday, 18 November 2010 06:42 (fifteen years ago)

― strangled by a necklace of mexicans (Pillbox), Wednesday, November 17, 2010 10:20 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark

yeah, this anecdote is related on the film's commentary track (criterion edition, i think). and OTM about the opening 20 min. lead up to the final shootout is pretty goddam impressive, though.

― naked human hands and a foam rubber head (contenderizer), Thursday, 18 November 2010 08:31 (fifteen years ago)

Christ, this really is the greatest Western ever made, isn't it?

― Crazed Mister Handy (kingfish), Saturday, 20 November 2010 07:31 (fifteen years ago)

IT IS no doubt

― phish in your sleazebag (contenderizer), Saturday, 20 November 2010 07:57 (fifteen years ago)

seven months pass...

not much doubt, no

― the waitress and the frogbs (darraghmac), Tuesday, 21 June 2011 16:37 (fourteen years ago)

one year passes...

Even Harmonica’s blowing is deliciously well conceived – I mean who plays a harmonica like that – nobody right, because it’s the sound of a dying man’s last breaths, the sound it made when it was lodged in his mouth by Frank all those years ago and the same sound it makes when he later rams it in Frank’s mouth.

― @lex K (Alex K)

i still think this is one of the most genius things ever

― christmas candy bar (al leong), Tuesday, 12 March 2013 22:12 (thirteen years ago)

http://i.imgur.com/UMHQv.gif

― discreet, Wednesday, 13 March 2013 01:31 (thirteen years ago)

two years pass...

http://i.imgur.com/9py9YMh.gif

― nomar, Monday, 29 February 2016 20:10 (ten years ago)

Ah god

― Soon all logins will look like this (darraghmac), Monday, 29 February 2016 21:18 (ten years ago)

two years pass...

Harmonica: The reward for this man is 5000 dollars, is that right?

Cheyenne: Judas was content for 4970 dollars less.

Harmonica: There were no dollars in them days.

Cheyenne: But sons of bitches... yeah.

― omar little, Sunday, 27 May 2018 05:00 (eight years ago)

OUATITW isn't even a top ten Western to me, but it's my second favorite opera.

― oder doch?, Sunday, 27 May 2018 10:58 (eight years ago)

challopera morelike

― laurel or hardyhearin (darraghmac), Sunday, 27 May 2018 16:52 (eight years ago)

It's a slow, meaty, greasy spectacle for drunkards and I'd rather watch a Sartana movie.

― oder doch?, Sunday, 27 May 2018 17:01 (eight years ago)

The music is wonderful but, Jesus, is it overused.

― Poisoned by Johan's pea soup. (Tom D.), Sunday, 27 May 2018 17:09 (eight years ago)

I’m sorry are you suggesting that slowness, meatiness, greasiness and drunkardry are poor qualities

― El Tomboto, Sunday, 27 May 2018 17:10 (eight years ago)

It's got the most American flavor of any of the major spaghettis, which was by design. A lot was borrowed from US westerns.

Henry Fonda's entrance is straight up chilling.

I always laugh at the idea that someone who looks like Claudia Cardinale would be called Jill McBain.

― Josefa, Sunday, 27 May 2018 17:15 (eight years ago)

xpost, I do object to slowness.

― oder doch?, Sunday, 27 May 2018 18:36 (eight years ago)

In a movie.

― oder doch?, Sunday, 27 May 2018 18:38 (eight years ago)

In an opera, idgaf.

― oder doch?, Sunday, 27 May 2018 18:43 (eight years ago)

one year passes...

Leone biographer Frayling has a new book on the making of this film

https://www.reelartpress.com/catalog/edition/118/once-upon-a-time-in-the-west

― a Mets fan who gave up on everything in the mid '80s (Dr Morbius), Tuesday, 2 July 2019 15:01 (six years ago)

This has been on my mind lately, I've been meaning to rewatch it, only saw it once a long time ago. I remember liking it quite a bit, but I dont really think of it as a western when I think of it - the opera comments upthread are otm, it feels like very grand elaborately staged theater, in my brain I rank it as being closer to something like Ivan the Terrible than with other westerns.

― One Eye Open, Tuesday, 2 July 2019 19:20 (six years ago)

I watched this once in college and cannot recall if I even made it all the way through it; I do recall the opening sequence making an impression. Watched the whole thing within the past year and was blown away by it, it's by far the best of the Leone westerns. One of the many things that sticks in my head is that dolly shot of the crucifixion w lil Harmonica, that is just incredible.

― Οὖτις, Tuesday, 2 July 2019 20:32 (six years ago)

A friend very kindly bought me the Frayling book for my birthday - it's huge! Morbs will love the opening chapter, a long conversation with Tarantino on Leone, recorded at QT's private home cinema.

― Ward Fowler, Tuesday, 9 July 2019 09:11 (six years ago)

My libraries don't have it (as yet) ad I'm not spending $75.

― a Mets fan who gave up on everything in the mid '80s (Dr Morbius), Tuesday, 9 July 2019 11:50 (six years ago)

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