Once Upon a Time in the West (DVD)

1967 was the year that Sergio Leone shot to world fame. With the legal entanglements with Akira Kurosawa on the subject of plagiarism of Yojimbo for A Fistful of Dollars ending in a settlement, Leone's earliest western was now free for wider distribution with no worries, and it was in the year of 1967 that MGM imported Leone's films to the United States, with A Fistful of Dollars, For a Few Dollars More, and The Good, the Bad and the Ugly premiering within only months of each other. What was even better was that the films were also successful there, just as they were in their home country of Italy, and this also opened up American eyes for this style of western that was ...  Read the complete review

At the end of 1966, after the release of 'The Good, the Bad and the Ugly', the final film of his so-called 'Dollars' trilogy, Italian film director Sergio Leone was looking forward to taking a break from westerns. In fact, he had in mind a project that had been simmering for a while, an American gangster fable with the provisional title of 'Once Upon a Time in America'. But his new US backers at Paramount, though nominally agreeing to finance the gangster pic sometime in the future, insisted first upon one more western, so Leone, slightly piqued (but delighted with the money offered), decided to give them what they wanted: a movie to remember! Together with a ...  Read the complete review

Oh how I wish I could begin this opinion with the soulful blow of a harmonica. Second best the hop-along character theme of Mister Cheyenne. Thirdly the lilting loveliness of Claudia Cardinale's tune (along with her heaving breasts). Damnations; I can do none of the above, so it's back to the tedium medium of text for me. *The Film. Hmnn, how much can I give away without a) spoiling this adventure for you, and b) lowering Sergio Leone's Western classic to the level of my writing skills? I'll try: Three no good, yella bellied, snake eyed, gibbet fodder ruffians assume control of the train ...  Read the complete review

A film only review: Every now and then, along comes a film to make you stop and think. One that makes you wish you had been there. One that reminds you of things you have seen in different snippets of films and books more recently. Essentially, one that is so good that it inspires others and creates future elements in films that are so subtle that you only notice them restrospectively. And this is how I would class Sergio Leone's 1968 epic 'Once Upon A Time In The West'. It is regarded as the fourth in the trilogy of 'Spaghetti' Westerns and provides an apt depiction of the end of the Wild West. 'West' is a very slow film, and Leone relies very much ...  Read the complete review

Let's get this straight - you're never going to fully appreciate this film on the small screen. I don't care if you have a forty inch widescreen TV with surround sound - you just can't do it justice at home. I'd seen it a few times on video before finally experiencing it on the big screen, after which I was in a kind of daze for about a week. Director Sergio Leone is perhaps most famous for his 'Dollars' Trilogy (Fistfull Of Dollars, For A Few Dollars More, The Good The Bad And The Ugly), all set in America but shot in Spain by an Italian crew, and all memorably starring Clint Eastwood. On the back of the success of these films, ...  Read the complete review