Once Upon a Time in the West (2 Disc Set) previews

Sergio Leone's “Once Upon A Time In the West” is quite probably the best Western ever made. In fact the only other ones that comes close are the same director's “The Good, The Bad and The Ugly” and Peckinpah's “The Wild Bunch” The opening scene is practically a “how to” guide on creating suspense in movies as three men in ‘dusters’ wait for a train to arrive.

All the Leone trademarks are here of course- extreme close ups, wide vistas, excellent music scoring and shady characters of few words.

The casting is excellent. Henry Fonda as a bad guy, Charles Bronson as a Clint Eastwood type of guy and Claudia Cardinale as the new bride soon to be widowed.

It's a long movie but it never feels too long. In this age of rapid cuts and frenetic pacing it is good to sit back and enjoy a movie that takes its time developing character, suspense and atmosphere.

This DVD version looks stunning too and is the longer cut Leone originally released.

Filmed beautifully, star cast, and about as far from an American western as you could get (at the time of release).

Sergio's previous films, Fistful of Dollars/A Few Dollars More/The Good, The Bad, and Ugly, are superb movies, but this took the anti hero western to a new level.

Went down badly in USA on release, it has Henry Fonda as the bad guy, he must have loved that, but the American public didn't. It gained cult status in Europe, and finally general acceptance in USA.

Quirky start, with a real underlining element of ugliness running through it.