A mysterious stranger with a harmonica joins forces with a notorious desperado to protect a beautiful widow from a ruthless assassin working for the railroad.A mysterious stranger with a harmonica joins forces with a notorious desperado to protect a beautiful widow from a ruthless assassin working for the railroad.A mysterious stranger with a harmonica joins forces with a notorious desperado to protect a beautiful widow from a ruthless assassin working for the railroad.
- Director
- Writers
- Sergio Donati(screenplay by)
- Sergio Leone(screenplay by)
- Dario Argento(from a story by)
- Stars
Top credits
- Director
- Writers
- Sergio Donati(screenplay by)
- Sergio Leone(screenplay by)
- Dario Argento(from a story by)
- Stars
- Awards
- 4 wins & 5 nominations
Videos1
Livio Andronico
- Bit partas Bit part
- (uncredited)
- Director
- Writers
- Sergio Donati(screenplay by)
- Sergio Leone(screenplay by) (from a story by)
- Dario Argento(from a story by)
- All cast & crew
- See more cast details at IMDbPro
Storyline
Did you know
- TriviaHenry Fonda originally turned down the role of Frank. Director Sergio Leone flew to the United States and met with Fonda, who asked why he was wanted for the film. Leone replied, "Picture this: the camera shows a gunman from the waist down pulling his gun and shooting a running child. The camera pans up to the gunman's face and...it's Henry Fonda" (until then, with one exception, Fonda had only been cast in "good guy" roles. Leone wanted the audience to be shocked).
- GoofsFrank goes to Morton's train and finds that dead bodies are scattered around. But the train's fireman appears not to be bothered. The engine's safety valve opens frequently, which means that the fireman dutifully keeps doing his job and keeps the boiler at maximum pressure. (The fireman and the driver never appear in the movie, but they must be there.)
- Crazy creditsThe opening credits appear over the three gunmen waiting at the train station.
The film title itself appears at the end of the film.
- Alternate versionsFrank's line upon giving Harmonica his namesake varies from version to version. The Italian translates to "play something for your brother," but the most common English version is "keep your loving brother happy," and the German translates to "play me the song of death." The German movie title was inspired by this line.
- ConnectionsEdited into The Clock (2010)
- SoundtracksDanny Boy
(1913) (uncredited)
Written by by Frederick Edward Weatherly
Hummed and sung a cappella a bit by Simonetta Santaniello
Top review
Without a doubt, one of the best Westerns of all time
I won't claim to have the ability to say anything new about this movie. It's been around for nearly fifty years, and is widely regarded as not just one the best Spaghetti Westerns of all time, but one of the best Westerns full stop. And it's not hard to see why: an incredible soundtrack, strong performances from the entire main cast, some surprisingly good humour and funny one-liners, a few tense sequences, a well-told story that doesn't rely on excessive dialogue or exposition, and consistently amazing cinematography and direction throughout. At least half the frames in this movie would probably make good paintings- no exaggeration.
It's probably the marriage of the great visuals and soundtrack that make Once Upon a Time in the West work as well as it does. There's a good number of dramatic camera movements and interesting reveals that are tied up perfectly with the music- almost like some kind of singing-free musical at some points.
Sergio Leone was one of the greatest directors of all time. It's a real shame that he apparently never got the kind of recognition he gets nowadays while he was still alive. Out of all his films, there's a strong argument to be made for this one being the closest to perfect. Honestly, there's not a lot that could be changed to make it better. My biggest direct gripe is the way the title pops up at the very end of the film, and rotates in a full circle before it disappears. It looks really cheesy, and comes close to killing the mood the otherwise extremely strong ending creates. While we're on complaints, another minor one would be that I want to say the film feels a little too long- maybe about 10 to 15 minutes. But at the same time, I wouldn't really know what to cut. Every scene is so well-constructed and orchestrated, and there's always something interesting to look at or listen to or think about, so I'm not really sure what should be cut. It's a pretty weak complaint, I know. Like I said, this thing's close to perfect.
The Good The Bad and The Ugly might be a tiny bit more entertaining, and Once Upon a Time in America might have a slightly better soundtrack and stronger emotional moments (for me, personally), but it's still really hard to find much to complain about here. Absolutely recommended to any Western fan, and it gets a little better every time I watch it (four for me now, and counting).
It's probably the marriage of the great visuals and soundtrack that make Once Upon a Time in the West work as well as it does. There's a good number of dramatic camera movements and interesting reveals that are tied up perfectly with the music- almost like some kind of singing-free musical at some points.
Sergio Leone was one of the greatest directors of all time. It's a real shame that he apparently never got the kind of recognition he gets nowadays while he was still alive. Out of all his films, there's a strong argument to be made for this one being the closest to perfect. Honestly, there's not a lot that could be changed to make it better. My biggest direct gripe is the way the title pops up at the very end of the film, and rotates in a full circle before it disappears. It looks really cheesy, and comes close to killing the mood the otherwise extremely strong ending creates. While we're on complaints, another minor one would be that I want to say the film feels a little too long- maybe about 10 to 15 minutes. But at the same time, I wouldn't really know what to cut. Every scene is so well-constructed and orchestrated, and there's always something interesting to look at or listen to or think about, so I'm not really sure what should be cut. It's a pretty weak complaint, I know. Like I said, this thing's close to perfect.
The Good The Bad and The Ugly might be a tiny bit more entertaining, and Once Upon a Time in America might have a slightly better soundtrack and stronger emotional moments (for me, personally), but it's still really hard to find much to complain about here. Absolutely recommended to any Western fan, and it gets a little better every time I watch it (four for me now, and counting).
helpful•305
- Jeremy_Urquhart
- Sep 30, 2017
Details
Box office
- Budget
- $5,000,000 (estimated)
- Gross US & Canada
- $5,321,508
- Gross worldwide
- $5,434,825
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