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Amazon.co.uk Review
Sergio Leone had to be persuaded to return to the Western for Once Upon a Time in the West after the success of his "Dollars" trilogy. The result is a masterpiece that expands the vision of the earlier movies in every way. It could as easily have been called The Good, the Bad, the Ugly and the Blonde as Charles Bronson steps into the No-Name role as the harmonica-playing vengeance seeker, Henry Fonda trashes his Wyatt Earp image as a dead-faced, blue-eyed killer who has sold out to the rapacious railroad; Jason Robards provides humanitarian footnotes as a life-loving but doomed bandit and the astonishingly beautiful Claudia Cardinale shows that all these grown-up little boys are less fit to make a country than one determined widow-mother-whore-angel-everywoman. The opening sequence--Woody Strode, Al Mulock and Jack Elam waiting for a train and bothered by a fly and dripping water--is masterful bravura, homing in on tiny details for a fascinating but eventless length of time before Bronson arrives for the lightning-fast shoot-out. With striking widescreen compositions and epic running time, this picture truly wins points for length and width.
On the DVD: Once Upon a Time in the West on disc is the transfer fans have been waiting for: the longest available version of the film in shimmering widescreen (enhanced for 16:9 TVs) which lends full impact to Leone's long shots of Monument Valley scenery or bustling crowds of activity, but also highlights his ultra-close images as Bronson's beady eyes or Cardinale's luscious pout fill the entire screen. A commentary track is mostly by expert Sir Christopher Frayling, with input from other academics, participants and enthusiasts--it's good on the detail, and Alex Cox winningly points out that one scene bizarrely can't be reconciled with what happens before or after it.
Disc 2 has four featurettes which, taken together, add up to a feature-length documentary on the film, and though overlapping the commentary slightly offer a wealth of further good stuff, plus the elegant Cardinale's undiminished smile. Also included is the trailer, notes on the cast, menu screens with generous selections from Ennio Morricone's score, stills gallery, comparison shots from the film and contemporary snapshots of the locations. --Kim Newman
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60 of 64 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Once upon a Time in the West,
By A Customer
This review is from: Once Upon a Time in the West -- Special Collector's Edition (2 discs) [DVD] [1969] (DVD)
The best spaghetti western ever made, arguably the best western and one of the most glaring omissions from Channel 4's recent 100 best films.From the wonderful crescendo of the opening scenes (the longest start to a movie without a word of dialogue?) to the eerie, bewitching harmonica strains of Charles Bronson, this is a piece of film-making you will remember for a long time. Henry Fonda was famously cast against type - since Twelve Angry Men in '57 he had played numerous whiter-than-white roles - and the American cinema-going public were shocked at the cold and vicious Frank... Jason Robards is great as the laconic, amused middleman, Charles Bronson dark and quiet doing what he does best, the impenetrable, mysterious, native-American stranger. Anyway, what with Leone's lingering, photographic landscape shots, the fact that the score was played on set so that the actors and cameras could move with the music and the choreographed, dance-like gunfight scene at the end (Fonda, filmed from behind at foot level, taking off his black jacket, dropping it to his right and slowly stepping to his left - a movie moment!), this really is an all-time classic. A film for Friday night, a few Mexican beers, darkened room and preferably a big wide-screen TV...
29 of 31 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
"Only at the point of dyin",
By
This review is from: Once Upon a Time in the West -- Special Collector's Edition (2 discs) [DVD] [1969] (DVD)
'Once Upon a Time in the West' is an opera. Its direction and music tell more than any script could. The film is a calculated, lyrical work of genius and my favourite film. From the off, Sergio Leone has surpassed his 'Dollars' trilogy and has produced a poignant farewell to the Western, before moving on to make 'Once Upon a Time in America'. Orignially made soleley to please the studio, Leone's masterpiece combines some big names on screen (Henry Fonda, Charles Bronson) and off screen (Bertolucci and Argento!) to create a stirring Western that's as ritualistic as a samurai film. Three characters are brought together because they each have a score to settle with stone-cold sadist Frank (Fonda). As the film continues (at a pace which Hollywood audiences would not accept), we begin to realise that Leone is counting down... to death. The characters don't expect to survive and are simply awaiting the inevitable. The pace of the first 10 minutes sets the standard and if you don't like those 10 minutes, switch off - in fact, stop reading now. This is more than a Western, it's a ceremony, played out to Ennio Morrocone's greatest score ever - the film was shot to fit the music! The words "best ever" can be applied to any of the following... 'duel' 'one-liners' 'scenery' 'direction' 'score' 'villian' and anything else that I've missed. Once Upon a Time in the West, there was a DVD collector's edition. This double disc set boasts some superb commentaries from various people (inc. John Carpenter!) and some interesting documentaries. Nevertheless, you buy a film FOR THE FILM! In this case, you pay £15 for the greatest western ever and two and a half hours of beautiful filmmaking.
16 of 17 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Once upon a Time in the West (Blu-ray version),
By
This review is from: Once Upon a Time in the West [Blu-ray] [1968] [US Import] (Blu-ray)
Serigo Leone epic picture "Once upon a Time in the West", is presented in a new meticulously restored version for its Blu-ray release which looks and sounds stunning along with the restored version which is now a "Unrated" cut the disc also has the "Theatrical version" as well which is still rated PG-13, along with similar special features that the region 2 double DVD released in 1999 that version of the film running time was 159 minutes, this time the restored version has a running time of 166 minutes which is closer to the Italian version which had a running time of 175 minutes.
This disc is region-free,the signal type is MPEG4 in full 1080p resolution which shows the features beautiful range colours and the now the greater range of blacks, the actors sun-baked skin now look even more stubbly and sweaty, the sound which is now up-graded to 5.1 DTS Master Audio this jumps out of the speakers, the first gun fight at the railway station which has very little dialogue, is now even more impressive as the sound effects sound like they have been on steroids the gunfire now rattles across your living room, the dripping water and squeaking water wheel create the atmosphere as never before bringing the viewer even closer to the action. This Blu-ray also has Dolby mono in English as well as dubbed French and Spanish; there are subs in English for the hard of hearing, subtitles in French, Spanish and Portuguese with commentary contributions from Directors John Carpenter, John Milius and Alex Cox and Film Historians Sir Christopher Frayling and Dr Sheldon Hall as well as cast and crew. The Special features include "An Opera of Violence" "The Wages of Sin" "Something to do with Death" "Railroad: Revolutionising the West" "Locations now and then" Production gallery and the Theatrical trailer in HD. If you love Westerns this for me is the yardstick to measure by along with the "Wild Bunch" from Sam Peckinpah from the year after, now give us Leone last Western "A Fistful of Dynamite" or "Duck you Sucker" to the same standard please...
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