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Once Upon a Time in the West (1969)
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Reviews Counted: 32
Fresh: 31
Rotten:1
Average Rating: 8.9/10
Runtime: 2 hrs 45 mins
Genre: Westerns
Synopsis: Morton (Gabriele Ferzetti), the power-hungry owner of a railroad company, hires Frank (Henry Fonda, playing against type), a gunfighter without a conscience, to kill anyone who stands in the way of... Morton (Gabriele Ferzetti), the power-hungry owner of a railroad company, hires Frank (Henry Fonda, playing against type), a gunfighter without a conscience, to kill anyone who stands in the way of the completion of the railroad. After Frank murders land owner Brett McBain (Frank Wolff), McBain's widow (Claudia Cardinale) hires two killers of her own to protect her and gain revenge: a mysterious, harmonica-playing desperado (Charles Bronson) and his rogue sidekick (Jason Robards). Using techniques previously unseen in the genre, Sergio Leone utilizes close-ups, color, and Ennio Morricone's trademark score to create a tense and somber meditation on death which is widely considered to be one of the best westerns in cinematic history. Soon-to-be legendary Italian directors Dario Argento (SUSPIRIA) and Bernardo Bertolucci (THE LAST EMPEROR) collaborated with Leone on the screenplay. [More]
Starring: Henry Fonda, Claudia Cardinale, Jason Robards, Charles Bronson
Starring: Henry Fonda, Claudia Cardinale, Jason Robards, Charles Bronson, Gabriele Ferzetti, Paolo Stoppa, Woody Strode, Jack Elam, Keenan Wynn, Frank Wolff, Lionel Stander
Director: Sergio Leone
Director: Sergio Leone
Screenwriter: Sergio Leone, Sergio Donati
Story: Dario Argento, Sergio Leone, Bernardo Bertolucci
Producer: Bino Cicogna
Composer: Ennio Morricone
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Reviews for Once Upon a Time in the West
If only the first 10 minutes of Sergio Leone's Once Upon a Time in the West still existed, this most hyperbolic of oat operas would still be acknowledged as one of the genre's greatest exhumations.
It is mostly fun for the way it cherishes movie styles and attitudes from the past.
The 165-minute feature doesn't always make perfect sense, but it's a thrill to just sit back and enjoy the scenery.
The movie stretches on for nearly three hours, with intermission, and provides two false alarms before it finally ends.
Explores legends and entombs myths into a film that is timeless and will live on as a work of art even if the western as we once knew it disappeared alongside its heroes.
'even the quieter romantic or reflective moments are filled with a sense of energy coming from the expectation that at any given moment something huge is going to happen.'
Visualmente espetacular, este clássico cerca a bela Cardinale de atores fantásticos, que duelam não apenas com suas armas, mas também com suas ótimas performances.
A Leone masterpiece: its deep-focus panoramas, looming widescreen closeups and brilliant sound design are as distinctive as the ballistic signature of a bullet.
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