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'''C'era una volta il West''' (Italy [[:Category:1968|1968]] / Director: Sergio Leone)
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|'''Contents:'''
* [[/DVD|Available DVDs]]
* [[/OST|Soundtrack Information]]
* [[/Pictures|Pictures]]
* [[/Trailers&Clips|Trailers & Clips]]
* [[/Opinions|Opinions]]
* [[Once Upon a Time in the West review by Phil H|Film Review]]
* [[Spiel mir das Lied vom Tod Collector's Edition DVD Review|DVD Review (Deutsch)]]
* [http://www.spaghetti-western.net/forum/index.php/topic,352.0.html Forum topic]
|}
*'''Runtime:''' 164 min / 165 min (Paramount DVD) / 177 min (special long version, Italian DVD)
*'''Release Date:''' 21.12.68
* '''Filming Locations:''' [[:Category: Almería|Almería]], Guadix, [[:Category:USA|US, Monument Valley]]

== Also known as ==
Once Upon a Time in the West | Spiel mir das Lied vom Tod (Germany) | Il était une fois dans l'ouest (France) | Aconteceu no Oeste (Portugal) | Hasta que llegó su hora (Spain) | Harmonica - en hämnare (Sweden) | Pewnego razu na Dzikim Zachodzie (Poland) | Huuliharppukostaja (Finland) | Bir Zamanlar Batida (Turkey) | Era uma vez no Oeste (Brazil) | Western (Japan)

== Cast and crew ==
*'''Cast:''' Claudia Cardinale (Jill McBain), Charles Bronson (Harmonica), Henry Fonda (Frank), Jason Robards (Manuel 'Cheyenne' Gutierrez), Gabriele Ferzetti (Mr. Morton), Frank Wolff (McBain), Woody Strode (Stony), Jack Elam (Snaky), Lionel Stander (barman), Paolo Stoppa (Sam), Marco Zuanelli (Wobbles), Al Mulock (Knuckles), Keenan Wynn (Sheriff of Flagstone), Simonetta Santaniello (Maureen McBain), Enzo Santaniello (Timmy McBain), Luigi Ciavarro (deputy sheriff), John Frederick (Jim), Spartaco Conversi (Frank henchman), Aldo Berti (Frank henchman), Michael Harvey (Frank henchman), Antonio Molino Rojo (Frank's henchman), Benito Stefanelli (Frank's henchman), Frank Braña (Frank's henchman), Fabio Testi (Frank henchman), Claudio Scarchilli (Frank henchman), Aldo Sambrell (Cheyenne henchman), Salvo Basile (Cheyenne henchman), Bruno Corazzari (Cheyenne henchman), Claudio Mancini (Harmonica's brother), Luana Strode (squaw), Tullio Palmieri (carpenter), Renato Pinviroli (1st auction bidder), Ricardo Palacios (engineer), Robert Spafford (railroad worker), Bill Crawley (railroad worker), Francesca Leone (girl at Flagstone station), Raffaella Leone (girl at Flagstone station), Don Galloway (Frank's henchman in flashback scene), Livio Andronico, Paolo Figlia, Stefano Imparato, Frank Leslie, Luigi Magnani, Umberto Morsella, Enrico Morsella, Corrado San Martin, Giovanni Ivan Scratuglia, Dino Zamboni, Lorenzo Robledo (uncredited) 

*'''Story:''' Dario Argento, Bernardo Bertolucci, Sergio Leone
*'''Screenplay:''' Sergio Leone, Sergio Donati
*'''Cinematography:''' Tonino Delli Colli (Technicolor, Techniscope 2,35:1)
*'''Music:''' Ennio Morricone
*'''Producer:''' Fulvio Morsella

== Plot ==
Once upon a time three men are waiting at a railway station. Once upon a time a mysterious nameless harmonica player arrives who is relying on the past. Once upon a time an Irish man dreams of turning the desert into a paradise. Once upon a time a killer named Frank kills people to leave his past behind and to turn from a man into a business man. Once upon a time a whore from New Orleans named Jill has to realise that her dream of a family had been destroyed just before it could begin. Once upon a time a romantic bandit named Cheyenne helps to build a future which can't be his own. Once upon a time a railway tycoon dreams of building a railway from one ocean to another before multiple sclerosis will inevitably kill him. Once upon a time men kill and die for a future they don't understand and a woman inherits their broken dreams by turning a mother role into something bigger than she ever had imagined. Once upon a time, with the arrival of the railroad, the times are no longer what they were before.

==Comment==
Once upon a time Sergio Leone dreamt of a new form of western, and after having perfected this dream with The Good, the Bad and the Ugly, he even succeeded to bring with Once upon a Time in the West this dream further than anyone would have imagined. Into the dream of a dream.

For OUATITW Leone slowed down his style even more than he already had done before, to embrace with a widely sweeping gesture the founding mythos of John Ford westerns with the twilight ideas of a changing west of Sam Peckinpah, into a SW which transcended the genre into something completely different, and could at the same time be viewed as the sum of it. The elaborated narrative left many viewers behind and puzzled, even if the basic revenge story was eventually easy to understand when viewed from the end. Leone's imaginative use of majestic totals, extreme close ups, slow movements of camera and actors, amplified noises, endless seemingly pointless scenes, narrative ellipses and delays, iconographic faces, lovingly created ornate sets and costumes (the long dusters!), ritualistic duels (with the biggest action scenes not seen or only heard), and of course Ennio Morricones brilliant and beautiful score, all this and more is in OuTW blended together to a western so strange and daring and visually exceptional, that it was probably unthinkable 10 years earlier. 

No wonder Once upon a Time in the West is meanwhile for many one of the best films ever. 

by Stanton

== External Links ==
* [http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0064116/combined Internet Movie Database]
* [http://www.spielmirdasliedvomtod.com Official filmpage] (German)
* [http://http://sonofdjango.blogspot.com/2007/12/once-upon-time-in-west.html Review by Son of Django]
* [http://fistfulofpasta.com/index.php?go=reviews/onceuponss Review at Fistful of Pasta]
* [http://spaghettiwesterns.1g.fi/ouatitw/ouatitw.htm Review by Shobary]
* [http://www.schnittberichte.com/schnittbericht.php?ID=4208 Cuts comparison German Paramount DVD vs. Special Long Version at SB.com]

[[Category:1968]][[Category:Italy]][[Category:Sergio Leone]][[Category:Henry Fonda]][[Category:Ennio Morricone]][[Category:Claudia Cardinale]][[Category:Charles Bronson]][[Category:Jack Elam]][[Category:Al Mulock]][[Category:Woody Strode]][[Category:Frank Wolff]][[Category:Lionel Stander]][[Category:Aldo Sambrell]][[Category:Sergio Donati]][[Category:Fabio Testi]][[Category:Frank Brana]][[Category:Spartaco Conversi]]
[[Category:Dario Argento]]
[[Category:Tonino Delli Colli]]
[[Category:Aldo Berti]]
[[Category:Lorenzo Robledo]]
[[Category:Benito Stefanelli]]
[[Category:Giovanni Ivan Scratuglia]]
[[Category:Marco Zuanelli]]
[[Category:Paolo Figlia]] 
[[Category:Bruno Corazzari]]
[[Category:Carlo Simi]]
[[Category:Antonio Molino Rojo]]
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