Quarantine Binge: "Once Upon a Time in the West" (1968) Review
Editor’s Note: With no new theatrical releases for the foreseeable future, we will be reviewing a variety of old and new films that are available to stream on popular services such as Netflix and Amazon Prime. For a full ranking of films in this series and to find our other reviews, please follow this link.
Plot synopsis courtesy of IMDb.com: “A mysterious stranger with a harmonica joins forces with a notorious desperado to protect a beautiful widow from a ruthless assassin working for the railroad.”
Directed by: Sergio Leone (Once Upon a Time in America)
Written by: Sergio Leone and Sergio Donati (Raw Deal)
Music by: Ennio Morricone (The Hateful Eight)
Starring: Henry Fonda (12 Angry Men), Charles Bronson (Death Wish) and Claudia Cardinale (8½)
Once Upon a Time in the West is rated PG-13.
The classic spaghetti western, Once Upon a Time in the West is the fifth film directed by famous Italian filmmaker, Sergio Leone. Once Upon a Time was released in 1968, following Leone’s trilogy of films starring Clint Eastwood. The film pits Charles Bronson against Henry Fonda as the two vie to take control of a patch of land in Utah left to Jill McBain (Claudia Cardinale) after her husband was murdered.
If you are turned off initially by the film’s runtime of two hours and 45 minutes, take a mental inventory of your to-do list for the coming week and maybe reconsider. Once Upon a Time in the West is clearly a relic from a different time and not well-suited to being streamed on a cell phone, but proves to be at least eye-opening for anyone willing to give it a shot.
To say this film is slow would be an understatement, but that isn’t entirely a negative thing. Ennio Morricone’s score is hauntingly beautiful and actually seems to work better at a slow pace. This isn’t a western packed with gunfights and horse chases (although it does have both) and chooses a (very) slow-burn approach to the western genre.
It’s hard to fault a 52-year-old film for feeling cliché, and for much of the film, Once Upon a Time in the West is cliché in the best way. Although I have never seen it before, it had a soothing, familiar quality to it — up to, and including the ending, with a lone horseman riding off into the sunset as the credits roll.
As you would expect, a film this old has its fair share of things that haven’t aged very well. As fantastic as Cardinale is, the script seemed to envision her as little more than an object of desire for her much older, male counterparts (Fonda was 33 years older than Cardinale). A handful of blatantly misogynistic remarks make it painfully and uncomfortably dated, erasing most of the feel-good nostalgia mentioned previously.
Once Upon a Time in the West is expertly made, but it’s length and roundabout storytelling make it hard to really engage with. It satisfies a novel curiosity to look back into a different time and delivers a few thrills. At nearly three hours long, it is a film made to be appreciated and admired, but not necessarily enjoyed.
Reel Rating: 7/10
Once Upon a Time in the West is available to stream now on Netflix and Amazon Prime.
