Perhaps I should not have watched this again after a 50-year hiatus, because I remembered it as a western masterpiece, a 10 rather than a 6. It could have been a masterpiece, but it isn't. There's too much style, too much movie tradition that overshadows realism.
For one thing, it's hard to imagine a fat herd of shorthorns in the Arizona desert, where there's no grass in evidence. For another thing, the actors are far too clean, too neat, close shaved from start to finish. One can almost smell the after shave lotion. The fictional town, Contention, Arizona, is too posh, especially the hotel which is the site of much of the plot.
But this is a character study, a tale of morality, not a realistic story of the old west. There are overtones of Rambo and High Noon, especially the latter. All this is fine, but it might have worked better, played against reality instead of the western background we've seen a hundred times.
I haven't seen the new version of this yet and may never see it. It's too bad Leone couldn't have had a go at this morality play.
For one thing, it's hard to imagine a fat herd of shorthorns in the Arizona desert, where there's no grass in evidence. For another thing, the actors are far too clean, too neat, close shaved from start to finish. One can almost smell the after shave lotion. The fictional town, Contention, Arizona, is too posh, especially the hotel which is the site of much of the plot.
But this is a character study, a tale of morality, not a realistic story of the old west. There are overtones of Rambo and High Noon, especially the latter. All this is fine, but it might have worked better, played against reality instead of the western background we've seen a hundred times.
I haven't seen the new version of this yet and may never see it. It's too bad Leone couldn't have had a go at this morality play.