Once Upon a Time in the West (1968)
A chance to see this absolute epic western in the theater cannot be missed. While I have seen it a handful times at home, the cinema experience always adds an extra layer of focus and attention, opening up new aspects of a film for me.
I mostly remember the whole revenge plot between Frank and Harmonica, but this time I got to pay more attention to everything else that happened, and the revenge is probably the least interesting part of the narrative. Mostly Jill and Cheyenne and what lovely little romance they have going. Jason Robards also has a lot more emotional range than Bronson, and his character arc has more depth. He and Claudia has proper chemistry on screen, which is a rare thing to see in westerns.
Since I have also seen a lot of “smaller” spaghetti westerns recently, seeing this again made it clear that Leone’s “magnum opus” is practically too big, too epic, too high production value to feel like a “proper” spaghetti western. Of course it technically still is, but I think the narrative has more in common with American westerns actually. Mostly because its thematics has that frontier spirit that is usually completely removed in Italian westerns. There are many difference between classic American westerns and the new approach the Italians took in the 60s, but I think one of the foundational thing is the Italian counterpart don’t have the same optimistic view of new opportunities in the western frontier. They don’t concern themselves with praise for communities of settlers who built the country. But at its core, because the whole revenge plot is a minor thing really, Once Upon a Time in the West is a big celebration of that settler frontier spirit.
On practically all metrics, this is one of the absolute best westerns ever made, I am just somewhat conflicted about including in the “spaghetti canon”.
Rating: 5