On 4 July 1969, Once Upon a Time in the West was released in the United States. It makes sense that this western classic from Italy should come to our country on Independence Day.
But let me get a little controversial here. Once Upon a Time in the West is a good film. But like almost all Sergio Leone films, it would be better with a strong producer who could have limited Leone’s excesses. The international versions of the film are almost 3 hours long. And the US cut was almost two and a half hours long. There is also his cringy sexual fetishes, which I could do without. Thankfully, there isn’t that much of it here.
The film is still very good — and the only one that comes close to Leone’s best, A Fistful of Dollars. But I used to think even more highly of the film.
The more I study film, the more I lose my admiration for directors. When it comes to “great” directors, people normally can’t provide much more than one example of what makes them great. Stanley Kubrick? Axial cuts! Martin Scorsese? Steadicam! Orson Welles? Ceilings! And with Leone, it’s the extreme close-up.
Don’t get me wrong: he was a wonderful director. But I don’t think the work of any director in history has suffered as much as Leone’s did because of his reputation for greatness. If it weren’t for the fact that the money people and Leone himself thought he was a genius, we would have gotten better films — and probably many more of them.
But I’ll take what I can get. Once Upon a Time in the West is one of his best. Sadly, it isn’t available to stream for free as far as I can tell.
Once Upon a Time in the West poster via Wikipedia under Fair Use.
