Quicknation    Cera una volta il West

Images of: Cera una volta il WestG Y AOL AV MSN Desc of: Cera una volta il West IMDb  Y! DVD: DVD

C'era una volta il West , 1968), directed by Sergio Leone, is considered by many to be his greatest film. Its critical acclaim has led some to declare it the greatest Western ever made.

The epic film stars Henry Fonda, in his most villainous role, Charles Bronson as his nemesis, Jason Robards, as a generally benign bandit, and Claudia Cardinale, as a newly-widowed homesteader with a past.

Stylistically unique as a Western, the film has several striking features - emotionally resonant leitmotivs which relate to each of the main characters (each with their own unique theme music), as well as to the spirit of the American West, and long scenes in which there is very little dialogue and not much happens, broken by brief and sudden violence. Leone was more interested in the rituals preceding violence than with the violence itself. The dry, unsentimental tone of the film is consistent with the arid semi-desert in which the story unfolds, and imbues it with a feeling of realism which contrasts with the elaborately choreographed gunplay.

The composer Ennio Morricone wrote the score uder the direction of Sergio Leone before filming began. Like by "Harry Grey" (a pseudonym), an autobiographical book based on the author's own experiences as a Jewish hood during Prohibition. (Leone would, seventeen years later, adapt this book into his final film, UA (who had produced the Dollars Trilogy) came to him with an offer for a film starring Charlton Heston, Kirk Douglas, and Gregory Peck, but Leone was displeased with this. Paramount, however, offered Leone access to Henry Fonda, Leone's favorite actor whom he had wanted to work with for virtually all of his career, plus a generous budget. Leone accepted this offer.

Leone commissioned then-film critics (and future directors) Bernardo Bertolucci and Dario Argento to help him develop the idea of the film in late 1966. The men spent much of the following year watching and discussing numerous classic Westerns at Leone's house. The movie was made up almost entirely of "quotes" from American Westerns (see below).

Leone later commissioned Sergio Donati, who had worked on several of Leone's other films, to help him refine the screenplay, largely to curb the length of the film towards the end of production. Many of the film's most memorable lines of dialogue came from him or from the film's English dialogue director, expatriate American actor Mickey Knox.

Leone later said that his last three films (this,

Leone's intent was, in essence, to take the stock conventions of the American Westerns of John Ford, Howard Hawks, and others, and rework them in an ironic fashion, essentially reversing their intended meaning in their original sources into a darker connotation. The most obvious is the casting of veteran movie good guy Henry Fonda as the villainous Frank (and the brief appearance of Monument Valley), but there are also many other, more subtle such reversals throughout the film. According to film critic and historian Christopher Frayling, the film quotes from as many as 30 classic American Westerns.

Some of the major films used as references for the movie include:

- The opening sequence is a parody of this film, which features three bad guys (Lee Van Cleef, Sheb Wooley, and Robert J. Willkie) waiting for the noon train for their gang leader, also named Frank (Thomas Mitchell). The opening scene of this film takes over eight minutes, and features Jack Elam (who appeared in a small part in ), Woody Strode, and Canadian actor Al Muloch as the three gunmen. This scene has become famous for its use of natural sounds: a squeaky windmill, knuckles cracking, Jack Elam's character trying to shoo a fly off of him. The train in this movie, however, is several hours later, and its passenger is the film's hero (Charles Bronson) rather than villain. - Clint Eastwood, Lee Van Cleef, and Eli Wallach - were offered the parts, but Eastwood turned down the offer. There appears to be at least some truth to this rumor, though Eastwood was also offered the part of Harmonica as well. - This cult Western by Delmer Daves appears to be one of the most influential films to this movie. The main villain in each film (Glenn Ford in thisC'era una volta il West is an actor who ordinarily plays good guys, and is cast against type. The film also features the use of "internal music" (characters creating music onscreen, with Ford at one point whistling the film's theme song), and the scene where Van Heflin's character escorts Ford to the railroad station while avoiding an ambush by his gang likely inspired the ambush of Frank by his own men in Leone's film.The most obvious reference is a brief exchange between Keenan Wynn's Sheriff and Cheyenne, where they discuss sending the latter to Yuma prison. - The characters of Jill McBain, who was based on Joan Crawford's character Vienna, Harmonica (Sterling Hayden's title character), and several smaller roles have clear counterparts in this film. Also, a lot of the basic plot (settlers vs. the railroadC'era una volta il West is recycled from this film. - Several subtle references, including the downward angle shot of a shrieking train rushing towards the screen used in the opening scene, and the shot of the train pulling into the Sweetwater station at the end of the film. - Quite a bit was taken from this film. The massacre scene features young Timmy McBain hunting with his father, just like Joey in this film. The funeral of the McBain's is also taken almost shot-for-shot from this movie. - The use of sounds - rustling bushes, the stopping of cicada chirps, and fluttering pheasants - to suggest a menace approaching the farm house, were all taken from this movie, by Leone's own admission. - Henry Fonda's character wears a very similar wardrobe at the end of this film to what he does throughout Leone's film. The movie also features a discussion about "mothers" between Fonda and Dorothy Malone, similar to the ones between Cheyenne and Jill in . There's also a sequence where Fonda's character kicks a crippled man off his crutches, which he does to Mr. Morton. - A very subtle reference. Right before the final duel, Harmonica (BronsonC'era una volta il West is whittling on a piece of wood. Bronson's character in this film also does so, albeit in a different context. - The scenes at the trading post were allegedly based off of those in this film, but there is slight (if any) resemblance. - The dusters worn by Frank and his men in the opening massacre resemble those worn by Valance (Lee Marvin) and his henchmen during their introduction in this film. The auction scene in Leone's film was also meant to recall the election scene in this film. - The final duel between Frank and Harmonica is shot almost exactly the same as the duel between Kirk Douglas and Gregory Peck in this film. - The character of Morton (Gabriele Ferzetti), the crippled railroad baron, was based on the character played by Lionel Barrymore in this film. - In this John Ford Western, there's a scene where Constance Towers' character falls asleep in a chair with a rifle in her lap, looking out for hostile Apache - which Jill McBain does in Leone's film. - A deleted scene featured Frank getting a shave with perfume in a barber's shop, much like Fonda's Wyatt Earp in this film., Victor Sjöström's silent epic. According to Bernardo Bertolucci, he looked at a map of the southwestern United States, found the name of the town in Arizona, and decided to incorporate the name of the town into their film. However, a "Sweetwater" - along with a character named McBain - also appeared in a John Wayne Western, Alternate Versions