| Once Upon a Time in the West | |
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 Theatrical release poster byFrank McCarthy | |
| Italian | C'era una volta il West |
| Directed by | Sergio Leone |
| Screenplay by |
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| Story by |
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| Produced by | Fulvio Morsella |
| Starring | |
| Cinematography | Tonino Delli Colli |
| Edited by | Nino Baragli |
| Music by | Ennio Morricone |
Production companies | |
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Release dates |
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Running time |
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| Countries | |
| Languages | Italian English |
| Budget | $5 million |
| Box office | $5.3 million (United States) 40 million tickets (worldwide) |
Once Upon a Time in the West (Italian:C'era una volta il West) is a 1968epicspaghetti Western film directed bySergio Leone from a screenplay he co-wrote withSergio Donati. It starsClaudia Cardinale,Henry Fonda,[5][6]Jason Robards,Charles Bronson,Gabriele Ferzetti,Woody Strode,Jack Elam,Lionel Stander,Paolo Stoppa,Frank Wolff, andKeenan Wynn. The widescreen cinematography was byTonino Delli Colli and thefilm score was composed and conducted byEnnio Morricone.
After directingThe Good, the Bad and the Ugly, Leone decided to retire fromWesterns and aimed to produce his film based on the novelThe Hoods, which eventually becameOnce Upon a Time in America. However, Leone accepted an offer fromParamount Pictures providing Henry Fonda and a budget to produce another Western. He recruited Bertolucci and Argento to devise the plot, researching other Westerns in the process. AfterClint Eastwood turned down an offer to play the protagonist, Bronson was offered the role. During production, Leone recruited Donati to rewrite the script due to concerns over time limitations. The film is the first installment in Leone'sOnce Upon a Time trilogy, followed byDuck, You Sucker! andOnce Upon a Time in America, though the films do not share any characters.[7]
The original version by the director was 165 minutes when it was first released on December 21, 1968. This version was shown in European cinemas, and was a box-office success. For the U.S. release on May 28, 1969, it was edited down to 140 minutes by Paramount and was a financial flop.
In 2009, the film was selected for preservation in the USNational Film Registry by theLibrary of Congress as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant".[8][9] The film is regarded as one of the greatest Westerns andone of the greatest films in history.[10][11][12]
A train arrives at theOld West town of Flagstone where a man with aharmonica (later dubbed "Harmonica") kills three men attempting to ambush him. Although Harmonica was expecting an outlaw named Frank, he concludes the men belonged to the outlaw Cheyenne's gang. Meanwhile, Frank and his gang murder Brett McBain and his three children as they prepare for a celebration at his ranch Sweetwater. Shortly after, a former prostitute arrives at Sweetwater and reveals she is Jill McBain, who married McBain a month earlier in New Orleans. Frank leaves evidence at the murder scene implicating Cheyenne. Jill searches for a motive behind the murders.
Railway tycoon Morton hired Frank to intimidate, not murder, McBain. McBain intended to profit by building a watering station on Sweetwater, knowing that the railroad from Flagstone would pass through his property. However, if the station was incomplete by the time the railroad reached Sweetwater, the property would revert to the railroad. McBain's murder puts Morton at odds with Frank, who desires the land for himself. Jill, as McBain's surviving widow, now owns Sweetwater.
Harmonica encounters Cheyenne, now a fugitive, who denies his men tried to ambush him. Harmonica saves Jill from two of Frank's men and spies out the railway carriage where Morton (owing to hisspinal tuberculosis) is confined on crutches. Harmonica discovers the connection between Frank and Morton but is captured. Frank is called away and Cheyenne rescues Harmonica. The two collaborate to help Jill save Sweetwater, using stockpiled materials to start building a station.
After a threatening sexual encounter with Frank, Jill is forced to auction the land; however, Frank's henchmen intimidate bidders so Frank can buy it at a low price. Harmonica appears with Cheyenne in tow and bids $5,000, which is the bounty on Cheyenne as a wanted fugitive. Frank is unsuccessful in buying Harmonica out, and wonders why Harmonica is pursuing him. Morton bribes Frank's own men to kill him, but Harmonica intervenes to save Frank, due to having unfinished business with him.
Cheyenne escapes custody, and he and his gang engage Frank's remaining men in a gunfight on Morton's train. Except for Cheyenne, who heads to Sweetwater, everyone is killed, including Morton. When seeing the fight's aftermath, Frank rides to Sweetwater, where Harmonica is waiting. Cheyenne arrived earlier, but remains inside the ranch house with Jill. Outside, Harmonica and Frank engage in a showdown. Through a flashback, it is revealed that Frank had once prepared to hang a man, forcing his younger brother to support him on his shoulders while playing a harmonica. Eventually, the boy collapsed, dooming his brother. Now Harmonica, the boy grown up, beats Frank to the draw and, as Frank lies dying, he pushes the harmonica into Frank's mouth.
After Harmonica and Cheyenne leave Sweetwater together, Cheyenne collapses and dies from a gunshot wound he got during a fight with Morton. Harmonica puts Cheyenne's body on his horse and rides off as Jill serves water to railroad workers.
In addition to the credited cast, uncredited actors in the film includeEnzo Santaniello (Timmy), Simonetta Santaniello (Maureen), and Stefano Imparato (Patrick) as the McBain children;Al Mulock as the third station gunman Knuckles;Conrado San Martín as Vecino, Marco Zuanelli as Wobbles, and Claudio Mancini as Harmonica's brother.
Members of Cheyenne's gang are played byAldo Sambrell,Lorenzo Robledo, andBruno Corazzari. Members of Frank's gang are played byRomán Ariznavarreta,Frank Braña,Antonio Molino Rojo, andFabio Testi.[13]
After making his American gunfighter epicThe Good, the Bad and the Ugly, Leone had intended to make no more Westerns, believing he had said all he wanted to say.[14] He had come across the novelThe Hoods by the pseudonymous "Harry Grey", a fictionalized book based on the author's own experiences as a Jewish hood duringProhibition, and planned to adapt it into a film (17 years later, it would become his final film,Once Upon a Time in America). Leone, though, was offered only Westerns by the Hollywood studios.United Artists (which had produced theDollars Trilogy) offered him the opportunity to make a film starringCharlton Heston,Kirk Douglas andRock Hudson, but Leone refused. When Paramount offered Leone a generous budget along with access toHenry Fonda—his favorite actor, and one with whom he had wanted to work for virtually all of his career—Leone accepted the offer.[15]: 81
Leone commissioned Bernardo Bertolucci and Dario Argento to help him devise afilm treatment in late 1966. The men spent much of the following year watching and discussing numerous classic Westerns, such asHigh Noon,The Iron Horse,The Comancheros andThe Searchers at Leone's house, and constructed a story made up almost entirely of references to American Westerns.[15]: 30–31
ForOnce Upon a Time in the West, Leone changed his approach over his earlier Westerns. Whereas the "Dollars" films were quirky and up-tempo, a celebratory yet tongue-in-cheek parody of the icons of the Wild West, this film is much slower in pace and somber in theme. Leone's distinctive style, which is very different from, but very much influenced by,Akira Kurosawa'sSanshiro Sugata (1943), is still present, but has been modified for the beginning of Leone's second trilogy, the so-calledOnce Upon a Time trilogy. The characters in this film are also beginning to change markedly over their predecessors in theDollars trilogy. They are not quite as defined and, unusually for Leone characters up to this point, they begin to change (or at least attempt to) over the course of the story. This signals the start of the second phase of Leone's style, which was further developed inDuck, You Sucker! andOnce Upon a Time in America.
The film features long, slow scenes with very little dialogue and little happening, broken by brief and sudden violence. Leone was far more interested in the rituals preceding violence than in the violence itself. The tone of the film is consistent with the arid semidesert in which the story unfolds, and imbues it with a feeling of realism that contrasts with the elaborately choreographed gunplay.
Leone liked to tell the story of a cinema in Paris where the film ran uninterrupted for two years. When he visited this theater, he was surrounded by fans who wanted his autograph, as well as the projectionist, who was less than enthusiastic. Leone claimed the projectionist told him, "I kill you! The same movie over and over again for two years! And it's so SLOW!"[16]
Interiors for the film were shot inCinecittà studios,Rome.[17] The opening sequence with the three gunmen meeting the train was one of the sequences filmed inSpain. Shooting for scenes at Cattle Corner Station, as the location was called in the story, was scheduled for four days and was filmed at the "ghost" railway station in the municipality ofLa Calahorra, nearGuadix, in theProvince of Granada, Spain, as were the scenes of Flagstone. Shooting for the scenes in the middle of the railway were filmed along the Guadix–Hernán-Valle railway line.[18][19][20] Scenes at the Sweetwater Ranch were filmed in theTabernas Desert, Spain; the ranch is still located at what is now calledWestern Leone. The brick arch, where Bronson's character flashes back to his youth and the original lynching incident, was built near a small airport 15 miles (24 km) north ofMonument Valley, in Utah, and two miles fromU.S. Route 163 (which links Gouldings Lodge and Mexican Hat). Monument Valley itself is used extensively for the route Jill travels towards her new family in Sweetwater.[17]
Henry Fonda did not accept Leone's first offer to play Frank, so Leone flew to New York to convince him, telling him: "Picture this: the camera shows a gunman from the waist down pulling his gun and shooting a running child. The camera tilts up to the gunman's face and... it's Henry Fonda". Fonda also had not seen any of Leone's previous work including his Dollars Trilogy with Clint Eastwood so Leone arranged a screening of the trilogy for the actor. After the screening and a meeting with Leone, Fonda called his friendEli Wallach, who had co-starred inThe Good, the Bad and the Ugly. Wallach advised Fonda to do the film, telling him "You will have the time of your life."[21][22]
When he accepted the role, Fonda came to the set with browncontact lenses and ahandlebar mustache. Fonda felt having dark eyes and facial hair would blend well with his character's evil, and also help the audience to accept this "new" Fonda as the bad guy, but Leone immediately told him to remove the contacts and facial hair, saying he did not want Fonda to look like a cliche villain.[14]
Leone said he castClaudia Cardinale in part because she was an Italian national and, as such, they could get a tax break.[14]
Leone wanted the three men who ambush Harmonica and are subsequently killed to be played byClint Eastwood,Lee Van Cleef, and Eli Wallach in a symbolic killing of theDollars Trilogy which Leone wanted to put behind him. However, though Wallach was willing, Van Cleef was unavailable and Eastwood was not interested in the role.[14]
French actor-filmmakerRobert Hossein was set to play a supporting role as a member of Frank's gang, and is listed in the cast by some sources (including theAFI Catalog of Feature Films[23]). However, Hossein stated in a 2015 featurette for his filmCemetery Without Crosses that he did not actually appear in the film.[24]
Following the film's completion,Once Upon a Time in the West was dubbed into several languages, including Italian, French, German, Spanish, and English. The film's dialogue was translated into English by expatriate American actorMickey Knox.[25] For the English dub, the voices of many of the American cast, including Fonda, Bronson, Robards, Wynn, Wolff, andLionel Stander, were used. However, the rest of the cast had to be dubbed by other actors – including Claudia Cardinale, who was dubbed by actressJoyce Gordon, Gabriele Ferzetti, who was voiced by Gordon's husband,Bernard Grant, andJack Elam.[26]
The music was written by composerEnnio Morricone, Leone's regular collaborator, who wrote the score under Leone's direction before filming began. As inThe Good, the Bad and the Ugly, the haunting music contributes to the film's grandeur and, like the music forThe Good, the Bad and the Ugly, is considered one of Morricone's greatest compositions.
The film featuresleitmotifs that relate to each of the main characters (with their own theme music), as well as to the spirit of the American West.[27] Especially compelling are the wordless vocals by Italian singerEdda Dell'Orso during the theme music for Jill McBain. Leone's desire was to have the music available and played during filming. Leone had Morricone compose the score before shooting started and played the music in the background for the actors on set.[27]
Except for about a minute of the "Judgment" motif, before Harmonica kills the three outlaws, no soundtrack music is played until the end of the second scene, when Fonda makes his first entry. During the beginning of the film, Leone instead uses natural sounds, for instance, a turning wheel in the wind, sound of a train, grasshoppers, shotguns while hunting, wings of pigeons, etc., in addition to thediegetic sound of the harmonica.
The film was a massive hit in France,[28] and was easily the most successful film released there in 1969, with 14.8 million admissions, rankingseventh of all time.[29][30] It sparked a brief fashion trend forduster coats, which took such proportions that Parisian department stores such asAu Printemps had to affix signs onescalators warning patrons to keep their "maxis", as they were called, clear from the edges of moving steps to prevent jamming.
It was also the most popular film in Germany with admissions of 13 million, rankingthird of all time.[31]
In the US, Paramount edited the film to about 145 minutes for the wide release, but the film underperformed at the box office, earning $2.1 million in North America.[32]
These scenes were cut for the American release:
Otherwise, one scene was slightly longer in the US version than in the international film release: Following the opening duel (where all four gunmen fire and fall), Charles Bronson's character stands up again, showing that he had only been shot in the arm. This part of the scene had been originally cut by director Sergio Leone for the worldwide theatrical release. It was added again for the U.S. market, because the American distributors feared American viewers would not understand the story otherwise, especially since Harmonica's arm wound is originally shown for the first time in the scene at the trading post, which was cut for the shorter U.S. version.
The English-language version was restored to around 165 minutes for a re-release in 1984, and for its video release the following year.
In Italy, a 171-minute director's cut features a yellow tint filter, and several scenes were augmented with additional material. This director's cut was available on home video until the early 2000s, and still airs on TV, but more recent home-video releases have used the international cut.
After years of public requests, Paramount released a two-disc "Special Collector's Edition" ofOnce Upon a Time in the West on November 18, 2003, with a running time of 165 minutes (158 minutes in some regions).[nb 1] This release is the color 2.35:1 aspect ratio version inanamorphic widescreen,closed captioned, andDolby. Commentary is also provided by film experts and historians, includingJohn Carpenter,John Milius,Alex Cox, film historian and Leone biographer Sir Christopher Frayling,Dr. Sheldon Hall, and actors Claudia Cardinale and Gabriele Ferzetti, and director Bernardo Bertolucci, a co-writer of the film.
The second disc has special features, including three recent documentaries on several aspects of the film:
The film was released on Blu-ray on May 31, 2011, with a limited edition 4K UHD Blu-ray released as part of the Paramount Presents series (#44) on May 14, 2024.[33] A standard issue 4K UHD was released on January 15, 2025.[34]
A restored 4K version was published byCineteca di Bologna in 2018, with improved colors and image quality.[35]
In Italy, the film sold 8,870,732 tickets.[36] In the United States, it grossed $5,321,508,[37] from3.7 million ticket sales.[38] It sold a further 14,873,804 admissions in France[28] and 13,018,414 admissions in Germany,[31] for a total of 40,462,950 tickets sold worldwide.
Once Upon a Time in the West was reviewed in 1969 in theChicago Sun-Times byRoger Ebert, who gave it two and a half stars out of four. He found the film "good fun" and "a painstaking distillation" of Leone's famous style, with intriguing performances by actors cast against their type and a richness of detail projecting "a sense of life of the West" made possible by Paramount's larger budget for this Leone film. Ebert complained of the film's length and convoluted plot, which he said only becomes clear by the second hour. While viewing Cardinale as a good casting choice, he said she lacked the "blood-and-thunder abandon" of her performance inCartouche (1962), blaming Leone for directing her "too passively".[39] Ebert eventually warmed up to the film, calling it "an unquestioned masterpiece" in his "Great Movies" review ofThe Good, the Bad and the Ugly.[40]
In subsequent years, the film developed a greater standing among critics, as well as acult following.[41] Directors such asMartin Scorsese,George Lucas,Quentin Tarantino,[42] andVince Gilligan[43] have cited the film as an influence on their work. It has also appeared on prominent all-time critics lists, includingTime's 100 greatest films of the 20th century andEmpire's 500 greatest movies of all time, where it was the list's highest-ranking Western at number 14.[42]Paul Schrader toasted it as "one of the greatest films ever made".[15]: 204
On review aggregation websiteRotten Tomatoes it has a 96% approval rating based on 68 reviews, with an average score of 9.1/10. The critical consensus reads: "A landmark Sergio Leone spaghetti Western masterpiece featuring a classic Morricone score".[44]Metacritic gives the film aweighted average score of 82 out of 100 based on reviews from 9 critics, indicating "universal acclaim".[45]
The film is recognized byAmerican Film Institute in these lists:
Leone's intent was to take the stock conventions of the American Westerns ofJohn Ford,Howard Hawks, and others, and rework them in an ironic fashion, essentially reversing their intended meaning in their original sources to create a darker connotation.[58] The most obvious example of this is the casting of veteran film good guy Henry Fonda as the villainous Frank, but many other, more subtle reversals occur throughout the film.
According to film critic and historianChristopher Frayling, the film quotes from as many as 30 classic American Westerns:[15]: 59–63
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