Title: Once Upon A Time In The West
Rating: 5 Stars
Still working through the BFI best films list, I decided to choose a film from a bit deeper in the list. Since I’ve never seen it and it is generally acknowledged as one of the best Westerns, I went with Sergio Leone’s Once Upon A Time In The West. It clocked in at 95 on the list. Weirdly enough, right after it is another Western, Howard Hawk’s Rio Bravo.
The film centers on five characters. Three are emblematic of the old West. There is Harmonica (we never learn his real name, Leone really must like characters with no name), played by Charles Bronson. He’s a loner that, yes, plays harmonica a lot. He seems to be on some kind of mission to kill Frank (Henry Fonda) and his minions. Frank is a brutal killer in the employ of a railroad magnate. He will stop at nothing to get the rights to the land that the railroad needs to pass through. The third character is Cheyenne (Jason Robards). He is also leading a band of outlaws, but he’s much more likely to be sympathetic to the cause of the individual than to the railroad. The three of them are on a collision course.
The other two characters are symbolic of the change that is coming to the West. First of all is the railroad magnate Mr Morton (Gabrielle Ferzetti (this is after all, a spaghetti Western)). He is not at all interested in the ways of the old West. His obsessive mission is to build a railroad that runs from the Atlantic coast to the Pacific. He has a painting of the Pacific ocean that he continually stares at.
The other character is Jill McBain (Claudia Cardinale). She has just become a McBain. A sex worker in New Orleans, she falls in love with Brett McBain. She marries him and agrees to travel later to his home in Flagstone. Although McBain is barely eking out a living on his poor land, he knows that it’s the only path that the railroad can take on its way to the Pacific. Therefore, he thinks that he’s going to be rich.
Instead, Frank and his gang, impersonating Cheyenne and his gang, raids McBain’s ranch and kills McBain and all of his children. The next day, Jill arrives in Flagstone to discover her brand new happy life that she envisioned has been destroyed. Not sure what to do, Harmonica, Cheyenne, and Frank all conspire with and against her for their own motivations.
That’s essentially the film. Who is Harmonica and what does he want? Will Frank either kill Jill or somehow manage to steal the land? Will Frank continue to work for Mr Morton or take over his operation? Cheyenne is the wild card. Where does his loyalties lie?
It’s not until nearly the final scene that we learn who Harmonica is and why he keeps playing that same mournful tune on his harmonica. Since it reminded me of Rosebud’s sled burning in the furnace, that inspired the title of this post.
Although it’s titled once upon a time, Leone’s places it at a very specific point in time, the time when the West began to be tamed. At least according to the American myth of the West, the West was originally populated by strong, brave, self-reliant individualistic men. Harmonica, Frank, and Cheyenne all represent this ideal. When people today talk about the days when men were real men, this is the myth that they refer back to.
The film represents the point in time when that begins to change. Just look at Mr Morton (a name very close to the historic Morgan business family dynasty). Mr Morton is not a strong, brave man. In fact, he suffers from some physical ailment such that he can’t even stand on his own. He walks with crutches. He is only mobile because of the train car that he commands. Even though he is physically weak, the power of his money allows him to command Frank, even though Frank clearly despises his physical weakness. Mr Morton cares nothing about the land itself. It is only a vehicle that allows him to lay tracks to the Pacific Ocean.
The railroad itself brings change to the West. It will no longer be simple log houses and men on horses. The railroad shows that mechanization is coming to the West. With mechanization will come increased goods and increased population. The hard, solitary life will be coming to an end.
Jill McBain represents the feminization of the American West. This land will no longer be the sole province of men. She is bent upon building the town that will surround the soon to be constructed railroad station. She is destined to be the wealthiest person in the area. By that fact alone, she will probably become one of the most powerful local figures.
Why did I only give is three stars? Well, it runs for two hours and forty minutes. That wouldn’t be a problem except for the fact that it felt like it ran for about four hours. At least for this film, Leone isn’t content with a five minute scene if he can extend it to ten minutes. There are so many scenes of Harmonica, Frank, and Cheyenne eternally looking sternly amongst themselves. The pacing of the film made it seem interminable.
This is especially so when considering Leone’s inspiration. I’ve mentioned before how his film A Fistful of Dollars is basically an outright ripoff of a Kurosawa samurai film (written about here). Although this film is not based upon a specific Kurosawa film, it clearly has elements that would not be out of place in a samurai film. There’s the helpless victim apparently without recourse. There’s the cadre of purposeful men bound to steal the victim’s property. There is the loner hero that takes on the mission of destroying the gang and saving the victim.
The difference is that Kurosawa’s film is full of action with overwrought characters. Leone’s film, in contrast, is composed of, at best, intermittent action taken by taciturn men. It’s pacing seems catatonic in comparison.
I’m guessing that I might have had a different experience if I watched it on a Cinerama 70mm print on a big screen. Scenes are beautifully shot. Although filmed primarily in Spain and Italy, Leone did some shooting in Monument Valley to capture its grandeur. I’m sure that I lost a lot by watching it on my laptop.
As I continue to work through the list, it’ll be interesting to compare it to the other Westerns to see how it stacks up. Also, Leone’s Once Upon A Time In America is also on the list. Considering that that film is nearly four hours long, it’ll be interesting to see the pacing of that film.
dorkenstein 