C'era una volta il West/Opinions

• The best movie ever made? The greatest epic of all times? The most beautiful western ever put to screen? Check, check check! Sergio Leone's magnum opos Once Upon a Time in the West is my absolutely most favorite movie and hands down among the top best movies every fucking made!! Hell yeah! The beauty of the cinematography, the excellent music by Ennio Morricone, the great cast (Claudia Cardinale. what a great ass!!  ;-) , and a story so unlike any western before yet so totally typical. It is so great so be able to see this film restored on DVD and just sit back and let the images and the music do its job on your heart. I don't know what else to say, it's just the best thing that ever happened to movies. That's why I won't give a rating, out of fairness to the other movies out there. --Sebastian 22:50, 11 August 2006 (CEST)

• Once Upon A Time In The West PAL Region 2 Paramount DVD - Regardless of genre the greatest motion picture ever made. I defy anyone who watches this movie to continue to think of film simply as a form of entertainment, it defines the medium as an art form. As Sergio Leone's incredibly crafted tale slowly unfolds, the different story lines of the main characters gradually intertwine, leading to the most shocking climax in cinema history. Among the revelations in the film are what in "Franks" past began his trail of relentless killing and just how important "Morton's" plans are for the birth of a new West. Follow "Cheyenne's" struggle to clear his name of the terrible slaughter of "Jill McBain's" husband and family, and piece together tantalising clues shown in flashback to "Harmonica's" ultimate purpose. Inspired casting, Henry Fonda as "Frank" the sadistic murderer, Gabriele Ferzetti as "Morton" the all powerful "Mr. Choo Choo". Jason Robards as the charismatic outlaw "Cheyenne", Claudia Cardinale as the not so defenceless widow "Jill" and the utterly mesmerising performance of Charles Bronson as "Harmonica" a man with "something inside, something to do with death!" Stunning cinematography, capturing the sprawling beauty of the West, punctuated with violent action scenes and super tight close ups, all conveying the sense of a time when everything was possible. It must be stated that Ennio Morricone's amazing score is 40% responsible for the films power and success. That's not to say any of the films other elements are in any way lacking, it's that the music is phenomenally good, at times spine-chillingly so. A timeless classic, as fresh today as when it was made and I still find it as enjoyable to watch now as I did the first time I saw it. The picture, sound quality and extras on this double disc dvd set are excellent and it would be a perfect addition to anyones collection.--The Halitosis Kid 10:28, 4 December 2006 (CET)

• 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

• Probably everything has been written about this film that can be, because it isn't just a spaghetti western, it is THE spaghetti western. It is a meta film, uberfilm and simply perfect. Here we have the western be all it can be, afterwards nothing can follow, at least not anything meaningful..... (Excerpt from Lars Johansens article in 70MM magazine Vol 1, page 44)