B+ | A newly-widowed woman must defend her late husband's property from a railroad baron. Directed by Sergio Leone Starring Henry Fonda, Claudia Cardinale, and Charles Bronson Review by Jon Kissel |
In Sergio Leone’s final film set in the American West, he immediately communicates something vital to the setting and to the genre. In the first scene of Once Upon a Time in the West, a trio of goons terrorize a ticket taker and stuff him in a closet while they wait for their prey. The frontier exists in America as this romantic place where society can be reinvented and started anew by anyone with the foresight and will to make their way, but some rules and customs exist for a reason, like the free exchange of goods and services or the entering into a personal transaction with good faith. If everyone in an unsettled environment is remaking the world based on strength of will, the will to dominate will win out. Our introductory goons, in service to another goon who himself is in service to a robber baron railroad tycoon, are imbued with the power to do whatever they want. If they wanted to kill the ticket taker, no one would stop them and no one would pursue them. Once Upon a Time in the West ultimately tells a happy story of the forces of domination being thwarted and the promise of the frontier being fulfilled, but it comes within a pervasive package of corruption that implies this outcome is a rare one.
The ostensible hero of the film, Brett McBain, is implied to be a man who did everything right. An Irish immigrant who took his red-haired family on the perilous journey west, McBain made an educated bet on a plot of land, got all the legal requirements and paperwork taken care of, and waited for his moment. He placed his trust in the rule of law and planned to defend himself with bureaucracy, until men more powerful than him decided his life was worth no more than the paper his contracts were printed on. Sent by railroad magnate Mr. Morgan (Gabriele Ferzetti), Frank (an against-type Henry Fonda) murders McBain and his family over a loophole written into the contract. Unbeknownst to Morgan and Frank, McBain had recently married a New Orleans prostitute named Jill (Claudia Cardinale) and she’ll have to be taken care of before Morgan’s railroad can proceed unencumbered. Frank’s ruthlessness, seen on McBain’s farm, has made him many enemies over the years, like rogue gunslinger Harmonica (Charles Bronson) and gang leader Cheyenne (Jason Robards), and they’re both happy to help Jill thwart their hated enemy.
Released two years after Leone had completed his Dollars trilogy, Once Upon a Time in the West is both a continuation of the Spaghetti Western that Leone popularized and a movement away from it. A Fistful of Dollars and For a Few Dollars More are both adaptations of Akira Kurosawa samurai films. The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly is more original, but all three films share a reliance upon archetypes more than arcs. With Once Upon a Time in the West, characters are attempting to change their station or their perception in a way that Clint Eastwood’s Man With No Name is not. That character would pass through town and help Jill McBain with her problems, or team up with Cheyenne against Frank and Mr. Morton, but the movie wouldn’t be about them. There’s nothing wrong with Leone’s earlier procedural approach, where a protagonist is solving some dilemma before riding off to their next adventure, but Once Upon a Time in the West feels more contained and therefore more serious.
Seriousness might imbue meaning, but that doesn’t mean Once Upon a Time in the West is more entertaining than some of Leone’s other work. His standout remains Good, Bad, Ugly, a film that’s equally long but moves at a quicker pace. So much of this film plays out in pauses and staring contests. Though these scenes play out as an appreciated replay of the opening, where both parties are considering their looming deaths or the commitment of a murder and/or theft and time must be taken in the consideration, it does get a little interminable after the sixth or seventh face-off.
If a director is going to just let his audience sit in simmering tension, Leone must be allowed the latitude to do that if he’s going to do it so well. There are incredible shots throughout this film, accentuated by Ennio Morricone’s score. Harmonica being revealed by Cheyenne in the ‘truck stop’ demanded several rewinds, one of many chill-inducing introductions or reveals. Charles Bronson, as Harmonica, has a leathery mug that demands close-ups. The film has its greatest admiration for his character, providing him with a painterly childhood tragedy that’s not revealed until the film’s final minutes and a diegetic musical intro that gives him his name.
Even if I’m a little impatient with Once Upon a Time in the West, there’s so many precise observations about America that I can tough out the waiting. Lots of featured extras and side characters are shown going about their lives like everything is on the up and up, when in actuality, they all effectively live in a monarchy with Morgan and men like him as their king. They’re benign rulers as long a citizen doesn’t wander into their path, at which point they’re crushed. The auction scene is played as something of a joke, but it’s an infuriating travesty and an example of a rigged game that’s not even trying to hide its corruption. The frontier is where the West goes to refresh itself and release society’s pressure valve. Those that believe in it are hopeful that things will be different than they were in the past but the truth always asserts itself: there is no new world that the old one can’t subvert in its own image. The lords and the earls are always close behind, and their knights will always do their bidding for them until they too are corrupted. Things work out for Jill by the end, but there’s another Mr. Morgan coming along, with another Frank in tow. Maybe she can withstand the tide, or maybe, like so many others, she gets washed away. B+
Released two years after Leone had completed his Dollars trilogy, Once Upon a Time in the West is both a continuation of the Spaghetti Western that Leone popularized and a movement away from it. A Fistful of Dollars and For a Few Dollars More are both adaptations of Akira Kurosawa samurai films. The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly is more original, but all three films share a reliance upon archetypes more than arcs. With Once Upon a Time in the West, characters are attempting to change their station or their perception in a way that Clint Eastwood’s Man With No Name is not. That character would pass through town and help Jill McBain with her problems, or team up with Cheyenne against Frank and Mr. Morton, but the movie wouldn’t be about them. There’s nothing wrong with Leone’s earlier procedural approach, where a protagonist is solving some dilemma before riding off to their next adventure, but Once Upon a Time in the West feels more contained and therefore more serious.
Seriousness might imbue meaning, but that doesn’t mean Once Upon a Time in the West is more entertaining than some of Leone’s other work. His standout remains Good, Bad, Ugly, a film that’s equally long but moves at a quicker pace. So much of this film plays out in pauses and staring contests. Though these scenes play out as an appreciated replay of the opening, where both parties are considering their looming deaths or the commitment of a murder and/or theft and time must be taken in the consideration, it does get a little interminable after the sixth or seventh face-off.
If a director is going to just let his audience sit in simmering tension, Leone must be allowed the latitude to do that if he’s going to do it so well. There are incredible shots throughout this film, accentuated by Ennio Morricone’s score. Harmonica being revealed by Cheyenne in the ‘truck stop’ demanded several rewinds, one of many chill-inducing introductions or reveals. Charles Bronson, as Harmonica, has a leathery mug that demands close-ups. The film has its greatest admiration for his character, providing him with a painterly childhood tragedy that’s not revealed until the film’s final minutes and a diegetic musical intro that gives him his name.
Even if I’m a little impatient with Once Upon a Time in the West, there’s so many precise observations about America that I can tough out the waiting. Lots of featured extras and side characters are shown going about their lives like everything is on the up and up, when in actuality, they all effectively live in a monarchy with Morgan and men like him as their king. They’re benign rulers as long a citizen doesn’t wander into their path, at which point they’re crushed. The auction scene is played as something of a joke, but it’s an infuriating travesty and an example of a rigged game that’s not even trying to hide its corruption. The frontier is where the West goes to refresh itself and release society’s pressure valve. Those that believe in it are hopeful that things will be different than they were in the past but the truth always asserts itself: there is no new world that the old one can’t subvert in its own image. The lords and the earls are always close behind, and their knights will always do their bidding for them until they too are corrupted. Things work out for Jill by the end, but there’s another Mr. Morgan coming along, with another Frank in tow. Maybe she can withstand the tide, or maybe, like so many others, she gets washed away. B+
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