Western Wednesdays: Once Upon a Time in the West (1968)

      After single handedly creating  the Spaghetti Western genre with A Fistful of Dollars in 1964 (a film that he followed with two, increasingly grandiose “sequels”, connected only by the presence of Clint Eastwood playing a character with similar personality and fashion sense) Sergio Leone went to the United States to direct what many consider to be his masterpiece.

     Once Upon a Time in the West feels much closer to the American westerns that inspired Leone then any of his earlier work. It was shot in Monument Valley, the location made iconic by John Ford in Stagecoach, The Searchers, and countless other westerns. There are also a lot of iconic western movie faces: Woody Strode, Jack Elam and of course Charles Bronson and Henry Fonda. Leone who had paid tribute to the western in a tongue-in-the cheek way with his earlier films, wanted to make something more elegiac and somber. Leone recognized that The Western was America's mythology, a vehicle to explore our national identity through the prism of a romanticized past. He felt that American filmmakers were losing touch with that notion and wanted to make a film that would really get at the heart of what the western meant.

     Like many films in the genre, Once Upon a Time in the West focuses on the ascendance of civilization over the wilderness. Leone saw this as an emasculation of the rugged purity of the west. Subsequently, while Leone's work tends to be largely male-centric, this film is unique in the that plot revolves around a woman, Claudia Cardinale’s Jill. Jill is a prostitute from New Orleans who is brought out west to the town of Flagstone by Brett McBain (Frank Wolff), a farmer who owns a worthless piece of land outside of the town. McBain is the classic American opportunist. Realizing that the coming railroad will have to pass through to provide water for the steam engines, he buys the seemingly worthless piece of land for a psalm, hoping to build a station there and profit from it. This act, symbolically completed by bringing his new wife Jill to the wilderness, makes McBain a sort of would-be purveyor of civilization.

     Of course, McBain's dream is cut short. On the day Jill is set to arrive, he and his family are mercilessly gunned down by a gang of killers under the employee of a railroad tycoon named Morton (Gabriele Ferzetti). Morton is a corrupted version of McBain. His dream is to complete the raildroad and see the Pacific Ocean with his own eyes. But, to do this, he is willing to work with violent, vicious men. In many ways Morton and his railroad ("their damn rails" in the words of the stage driver Sam), represent the corrupting elements of civilization: greed and the replacement of manual labor with automation. Morton himself is a cripple and dying from tuberculosis. Jill, on the other hand, could be seen to represent the more positive aspects of civilization, bringing fertility and compassion to the unforgiving wilderness.

     Leone had a certain preoccupation with trios. In For a Few Dollars More Lee Van Cleef's Colonel Mortimer and Clint Eastwood’s Monco are pitted against Gian Maria Volonte’s El Indio and in The Good, The Bad and the Ugly Eastwood's Blondie, Van Cleef’s Angel Eye's and Eli Wallach’s Tuco all compete to find hidden Confederate gold. In this film Charles Bronson's Harmonica, Jason Robards Cheyenne and Fonda's Frank all alternatively try to manipulate, threaten or coerce Jill to fulfill their own ends.

     Harmonica is basically the Man With No Name from Leone's Dollars films. Indeed, Bronson was the director's first choice for that role in A Fistful of Dollars. Like Eastwood, Bronson imbues his character with a dangerous, steely presence. Harmonica is a man supremely in control and is more of a force of nature than an actual character. It is revealed, near the end of the film, that Harmonica, not unlike Mortimer from For a Few Dollars More, is out for revenge for a past wrong committed, in this case, by Frank. His existence revolves around finding retribution and the meticulous way he orchestrates this (a perfected version of what we saw in Dollars), manipulating Frank to come to him and to face him one-on-one, is an expression of the characters unrelenting, single minded purpose in life.

     Leone enjoyed casting against type. Lee Van Cleef, who played the noble (as bounty hunters go) Douglas Mortimer in For a Few Dollars More, was cast as the villain in The Good, The Bad and the Ugly. Similarly, in this film, Henry Fonda, an American icon of integrity and decency, plays the deplorable Frank who, the first time we see him, guns down an innocent child. Frank is a character  without any real redeeming qualities. He is also a confused (not confusing) one. At one point Morton asks him how it feels to sit in his chair, Frank replies, "It's almost like holding a gun. Only much more powerful." He wants to take over Morton's business. To be the one controlling the money and giving the orders.

     Frank wants to pass over into the new, civilized west. What he doesn't realize is that this is impossible. The western man is fated to walk off into the sunset, to die with the west or else to fade away, like Tom Doniphon in The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance. Harmonica, on the other hand is acutely aware of this. In maneuvering Frank into a confrontation he makes him realize this as well. When he comes to Harmonica before the final duel, Harmonica asks him, "So you found out you're not a businessman after all?" To which Frank replies, "Just a man" leading Harmonica muse, "An ancient race."

     Cheyenne is the most straightforward of the three characters. His motives are simply to stay out of jail and, hopefully, make some money. The west is his playground, where he can continually break the law, get caught and then escape. Meeting Jill softens Cheyenne somewhat, she reminds him of his mother and of his childhood. Like Frank he feels attracted by a civilized, domestic lifestyle but he understands that this is impossible. After escaping the law one last time, he and his gang attack Morton's train, killing the man responsible for the end of the west and getting himself killed in the process.

     Many have accused Leone of misogynistic tendencies in his films.This one, in particular, contains some potentially problematic scenes. Both Harmonica and Cheyennes seem to threaten Jill with rape. But Cheyenne's threat seems to be an empty one, a fact which is quickly exposed by Jill, while Harmonica, in ripping the lace from her clothes, is simply trying to protect her from assassins but refrains from explaining this to her because making yourself look like an asshole is just what men do in Leone's films. The more problematic scene is when Frank sleeps with Jill while she is captured, essentially raping her. He even goes so far as to suggest that she enjoys this. However this seems to me to be Frank's assumption, and not one we are supposed to share. In fact, by underestimating Jill and not killing her immediately, Frank contributes to his own downfall.

     Leone's direction is absolutely brilliant here. The opening scene, where we wait along with three hired killers for a full ten minutes before seeing them dispatched by Harmonica, is a masterpiece of editing and the sparing use of sound. The way he frames the flashback's, teasing the connection between Harminca and Frank throughout the film, is absolutely brilliant. The film is very slowly paced, like a dirge. It feels almost as if Leone wanted to make a funeral for the genre. The always brilliant Ennio Morricone did some of his best work for this film weaving the various motifs and themes effortlessly. The fusion between his music and the cinematography and editing of Leone's film was never more pronounced then it is here.

     I do think the film has some flaws. The attack on Morton's train by Cheyenne is not shown, we only see the aftermath and I've always felt this was a mistake. Cheyenne is one of the main characters, sidestepping the action which leads to his death makes the last act feel unbalanced. In addition to this there's a plot point involving a small model of the station that McBain wants to build that never made sense to me.

      Though it's never been one of my personal favorite westerns (it's a little too self aware for my taste) Once Upon a Time in the West is nonetheless a brilliant piece of cinema and one of the best films the genre has to offer. It's also a wholly unique one, not really fitting comfortably in the classic or Spaghetti Western mold. I highly recommend to any fan of cinema or of good art in general.

Score: 9/10