Apr. 19, 2002 - 5:16 pm

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C'era una volta il West (1969)

a.k.a. Once Upon A Time In The West, this is a very famous Sergio Leone western starring Henry Fonda, Charles Bronson, and Jason Robards. oh, other than Best Pictures I'm also working on finishing up the top100 rated films on the imdb. C'era una volta il West is ranked #75 today.

Ok, excellent score on this film. the music really helped the scenes and was actually the driving force for some of them. it's also much less corny than in Buono, il brutto, il cattivo, Il (1966), a.k.a. The Good, The Bad and The Ugly, which I also watched within the past week or so.

just overall this was a better film. much better character development and a more intriguing story.

the cast for this film baffled me. wow, henry fonda plays the most evil character of the 3 men? amazing. charles bronson as a gunman? and whatever would make you put jason robards in as a desperado? or in a western at all? i'm by no means saying that they weren't good in their respective roles. they were actually very excellent. it's just weird for about the first 15 minutes you're watching each character. one side note about the casting. i was very happy to see Lionel Stander in this film. His most memorable role was probably in Frank Capra's Mr. Deeds Goes To Town (1936) as Corny Cobb. a quite likable and funny character of a man. unfortunately during the whole HUAC thing that went down in the early 50s he was implicated as being a member of the communist party and was blacklisted due to his refusal to name names. he couldn't get work for about 12 years. it's good to see him getting work again in the 60s.

so yeah, the film itself. i gave it an 8/10. i think it's very hard to make a good western, but this one does a solid job. it's interesting and makes you think about the principles behind vengence. in other words it's not just a no-brainer like some westerns were...but then again, those didn't stand the test of time did they?