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Once Upon a Time in the West (1968)

Director: Sergio Leone

Time Out rating

Average user rating

20 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

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

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User reviews of this film

Ghidera said...

Posted on Nov 06 2011 01:52 No surprise that a Time Out reviewer wants to make a name for himself. But then I felt the original earlier reviews a little over the top. Yes, this is cinema but it is not Leone's best film, just perhaps his greatest effort. Bronson is sadly not a Leone type, even though Leone wanted him for the earlier Dollars trilogy. Nevertheless there is so much to enjoy visually and the score is both statesmanlike and moving. Cardinale is wonderful as is Fonda and Robards. This is truly a great Western and below is another review only recently written in Time Outs 'Best Ever Western' list.
"The sweep of modernity through the Wild West has never been so pitiless, nor, in Leone’s vision, more terribly glorious". ALD
Not much together
ness within the ranks then?

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Michael Atkinson said...

Posted on Sep 21 2011 17:03 How wrong this Time Out review for Once Upon A Time In The West is. Whoever wrote the review at the top of this page clearly needs to strive for a better taste in westerns if they think this is overcooked. I believe this still is the best westen ever made and it stands alone as a masterpiece of sight and sound. Who cares about head and heart when the filming has been done with such love and clever skill. A superb masterpiece.

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Ali said...

Posted on Feb 26 2011 20:15 Legendary film. One of the best spaghetti-western ever made with "Django" and "The Great Silence"

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John said...

Posted on Feb 26 2011 19:52 It's very overrated fim.

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nat b said...

Posted on Sep 16 2010 03:42 Really, there should be 7-10 stars for rating movies (I'd rate "Once upon a Time in the West" as either 6/7 or 8/10) -- 5 stars simply don't allow enough for complexity.
I suppose that what really hooked me into this movie was the opening sequence while the opening credits were "rolling". One thing that did surprise me was the casting of Charles Bronson (seeing as he was simply outshone by both Henry Fonda and James Robards). I like the unfocused shots that are dispersed throughout the movie -- they become increasing focused (almost serving as an allegory, really) and culminate in a musical crescendo that is CLEARLY influenced by Janet Leigh's shower scene in "Psycho".
And -- dare I say it -- just as effective as well.
The motto of the movie as the camera backs away to display and expose the entire town might be: "Life goes on, and we are remarked upon little once we exit the stage." I'm surprised that this spaghetti western is as good as it is.

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Watchtower said...

Posted on Sep 13 2010 01:00 This film has haunted me from my youth, 'Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid'...not so much.

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Ray said...

Posted on Jun 04 2010 16:03 George:
"Fanboy" much like "troll" is one of those overused cliched terms used by those coffee house butt puppets who used to be called "beatniks" and who today prosper off their investments in the likes of BP. For the most part, they never had an ounce of real talent or the ability to know the difference between art & cheese.
Art endures, cheese molds and becomes stinky.
I hardly think a film "pretending" to be great had/has the ability to transcend its own tortured history, influence a full generation of film lovers and makers and grow in stature in each of its 40 years of cinematic life. Like the human beings who give them life, there is no perfect movie but in the case of this Masterpiece what it gets right is perfect and in my opinion squarely places it in the best ever Pantheon.
As for "impressionable kinds of intellectuals", I was introduced to a butchered pan & scan atrocity on network t.v. when I was 11. Yes, Once Upon A Time.....This monumental film even turned boys into film lovers.

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Michael said...

Posted on Jun 04 2010 07:25 Here we go - the irate incredulity of fanboys who can't imagine that someone sees one of their favorite films differently than they do. I happen to agree with this review. I think that Once Upon a Time is a good film that is good at making you think it is a great one....the kind that particularly impressionable kinds of intellectuals hasten to praise on the account of its style and the big personalities onscreen. But ingredients aren't the same as a whole, and more critics than Mr. Jenkins have hinted at this for Once Upon a Time. Concerning the star system, it IS an imperfect, expedient way to grade films. I think it is best used when judging what a film does in relation to what it could or should have done according to the reviewer. Cut Mr. Jenkins some slack.

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Jill said...

Posted on Mar 06 2010 15:58 Dude, you FAIL. Both movies are awesome, but calling OUATITW what you called it questions your sanity.

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Tom Devlin said...

Posted on Nov 18 2009 03:51 This is a wonderful film.
I'd rank it up there with the best. Not the best though.
The best is "The Wild Bunch". For me, not only the greatest western ever made, but the greatest movie ever made.
Just my 2 cents.

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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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