Does the harmonica blow for you?
Nyah.
This is a movie about dreams.
It’s a movie about the dream of building a railroad so that a man who’s seen the Atlantic Ocean can see the Pacific Ocean.
It’s a movie about the dream of building and owning a railroad station house.
It’s a movie about the dream of marriage.
It’s a movie about the dream of killing a man.
It’s Once Upon A Time in the West (1968). I’m not a Western fan, but I’ve seen a few, and this is an epic. It’s about the intersection of many dreams and how that intersection affects their pursuers. It’s the quintessential good guy, Henry Fonda, shooting a little boy at point blank range, deliberately and with pleasure.
The first time you see it, maybe even the second and third times, it’s about trying to understand the actions. Why does Charles Bronson play a harmonica? What is Jason Robard’s Cheyenne doing, anyways? Is Fonda just a sadist?
After that, you watch this for the pleasure of Sergio Leone’s decisions. His leisurely examination of the faces of his characters, up close and personal, from the pitted faces of Bronson and Robard to the casual perfection of Claudia Cardinale. His use of sound, both in the haunting melodies and especially the attunement of his characters to the sonic profile of their surroundings – an entire family freezing when the locusts abruptly go silent signals this will be a movie as much about sound as it is about visuals.
And his script is in tune with the rest of movie’s components, doling out critical information in a most stingy fashion, even as it floods you with visceralities. All of the major characters, and many of the minor characters, are fully realized men & women who’ve seen life and don’t talk about it but in the most thoughtful of phrases. And Leone doesn’t hesitate to linger, even in the violent parts of the movie, over the details, letting you view the eyes of characters, whether they’re drinking a whiskey, or meeting their fate.
This is a long movie, with running time listed at around 2 and a half hours, depending on which version you’re watching.
And you won’t really mind.
Highly recommended.
