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Once Upon a Time in the West (1968)

Director: Sergio Leone

Time Out rating

Average user rating

10 reviews

Movie review

From Time Out London

The original Time Out review of Sergio Leone’s conceited and long-winded eulogy to the passing of America’s frontier days claimed that Peckinpah’s ‘Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid’ was its only rival when it came to the title of ‘best western ever’. How times have changed. ‘Once Upon a Time…’ now looks like an over-cooked mess of style, metaphor and reference, while ‘Pat…’ strides ahead, every bit the poetic modern masterpiece. Charles Bronson is the squinty cipher pitted against a countercast Henry Fonda in a tale of bloody revenge that takes numerous detours into areas of property law and corporate malaise, only to conclude with the displacement of ‘man’ (the humble cowpoke) by his distant, cold-hearted brethren, ‘the businessman’. In technical terms, scenes such as the operatic opening shoot-out are hard to fault,but this is a film that rewards the eyes and ears without properly considering the heart and head.

Author: David Jenkins 2009-07-21 12:34:35

Time Out London issue 2031, July 23-29, 2009

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User reviews of this film

ray welsh said...

Posted on Sep 28 2009 23:46 Of course film viewing is subjective but how to explain the fact that an out and out atrocity like the Transformers sequel scores @ the box office? I have to believe that the true subjectivity of film is found in those which have endured time. Films that move audiences and critics alike, find new audiences over time and spur heated and passionate debate, these are the films worth of finding viewers who have the ability to be subjective. Once Upon A Time...Is such a film. For anyone to dismiss the last 30 or so minutes of this film simply doesn't get it. The coming of a new world and the exit of one that existed only in the mind of a young Italian film lover is not only complex and poignant in theory but incredibly complex and beautiful in the telling and in the showing. Comparing the jokey, historically reprehensible, cheesy offerings of Hawks and to a lessor degree Ford (The Searchers, my God the stabs at humor and cheese are cringe inducing, 2 1/2 hours for a handful of good moments) to Leone's monuments to film is simply intellectually dishonest. As has been said by another reviewer who has earned his degree in subjectivity "If you don't like Leone, you don't like cinema". He couldn't be more right.

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Robert Menzies said...

Posted on Aug 19 2009 18:34 Just read what Tom G. had to say and it got me to thinking. Of course it's lunacy to rank Transformers alongside Once Upon a Time in the West. It seems to me, however, that using such a limited review system as five stars is, at best, a grossly inadequate way to rate films and, at worst, next to useless. At the very least, ten stars would allow for more accuracy but even that would still be inadequate. As a shorthand review system I guess it has its uses, but I respectfully suggest any star rating system should always be accompanied by a balanced and knowledgable review.

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Tom G said...

Posted on Aug 19 2009 14:11 This review is a disgrace. The original Time Out review got it spot on. For a film of this stature, and which is revered by so many, to be dismissed in such an offhand way is very disappointing. Mr Jenkins could, at the very least, have given a more balanced review instead of just focusing on the things he didn't like, as other posters have pointed out. It goes to show just how subjective film reviewing actually is.

Lovers of the film and fans of real cinema won't, of course, be influenced by this rubbish, but there could be quite a few casual fans out there who had never seen the film, but who had heard many great things about it, and who were considering going to see it at the BFI, but thanks to this review probably went to see GI Joe, Rise of the Cobra instead! Which Time Out, SENTATIONLY, gives the same amount of stars to!!!!! Whaaaaat!!!!! As previous posters have said, SHAME on you! For a magazine with such a huge circulation as yours, and which is so highly regarded, to release a review like this is nothing short of disgraceful.

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Robert Menzies said...

Posted on Aug 09 2009 20:33 Not many people would disagree with your list of classics, E A. Like you, I prefer The Outlaw Josey Wales to Unforgiven, but it is also a great Western. (Even if it's kind of sad to see childhood fantasies of the West dismantled so thoroughly.)
As for James Coburn, you are right: he's just a brilliant actor. Of course, he was also one of the Magnificent Seven, another undeniably wonderful Western.
It's just a shame that Westerns are such an unfashionable genre now. Let's hope Tarantino eventually makes that Western he keeps talking about...

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E A Dobson said...

Posted on Aug 09 2009 20:02 Although i stick to my original comments about this film,i love Peckinpah,The Wild Bunch & Ride The High Country in particular and The Outlaw Josey Wales,i`m so glad someone else thinks it`s better than Unforegiven! I`d also like to give honourable mention to the following classics,My Darling Clementine,Red River,The Searchers,Warlock & Pat Garrett & Billy The Kid(i know i covered Peckinpah but James Coburn is so good in this!).

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Robert Menzies said...

Posted on Aug 05 2009 21:21 I have to - slightly reluctantly - add my support to David Jenkins. While I adore Leone's Dollar trilogy, I have to confess I have never been a huge fan of Once Upon a Time in the West or in fact any of Leone's other work. Yes, the opening sequence is wonderful but the rest of the film never again attains such heights. Whenever Leone tried to tell a morally fairly neutral story (as he did in the first two Dollar films) it is great cinema; when he tried to be profound he was less effective - and that includes chunks of that other sacred cow, The Good, The Bad and The Ugly. The only criticism of the review is that Jenkins focused on the negatives when he could have been more balanced if he had identified some other positives.
By the way, I nominate The Outlaw Josey Wales as one of the great Westerns.

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JMHM said...

Posted on Aug 03 2009 16:25 So according to the ludicrous Time Out rating system this Leone masterpiece is on a par with Bruno, Harry Potter, Dawn of the Dinosaurs and The Transformers. Shame on you! The original Time Out review proclaimed - "This is cinema!" and yes eyes and ears are required but for this viewer at least it also engages the brain and drives straight to the heart. Jenkins' clumsy dismissal of the conclusion misses the point by a wide mark; it is more complex than he supposes. Clearly the fact that it was created by an Italian and alludes to opera is a problem for some of your readers. Well shame on them.

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Andres said...

Posted on Aug 01 2009 10:02 The only truly great Western that can stand alongside Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid is Peckinpah's other masterpiece, The Wild Bunch.

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Rohne said...

Posted on Jul 28 2009 18:24 It's about time someone pointed this out.
For all the technical and operetic baravado, Leone's westerns are ostensibly cowboy music videos made by an Italian.
Grand enough in their own right but nothing on Ford or Peckinpah.
Especially Pat Garret & Billy the Kid or his quieter Ride the High Country.
Well done Mr Jenkins indeed.
Leone has been a sacred cow for far too long.

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E A Dobson said...

Posted on Jul 28 2009 15:04 WELL DONE MR JENKINS! I now know never to read a review written by you ever again! I have been a huge admirer of the genre for decades and this is my favourite film by Leone,a true five star film if there ever was one!

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