10 / 10
Once Upon a Time in the West is the Sergio Leone-directed Western that closed his Dollars trilogy era and opened his epic-Americana phase. Leone directed and co-wrote with Sergio Donati. The story was developed by Leone, Dario Argento, and Bernardo Bertolucci. Henry Fonda plays Frank, a hired killer working for the railroad. Charles Bronson plays Harmonica, the mysterious gunfighter whose presence drives the plot. Claudia Cardinale plays Jill McBain, the widow of a slain rancher whose land sits on the future site of a railroad water stop. Jason Robards plays Cheyenne, a bandit who arrives at the McBain ranch under suspicion of the killing Frank committed. Gabriele Ferzetti plays Mr. Morton, the consumptive railroad baron whose track is racing west. The plot follows the four characters’ converging interests at the McBain ranch and the eventual confrontation between Harmonica and Frank.
The film made approximately twenty-six million dollars worldwide in initial 1968 release. The American commercial performance was poor. Paramount cut twenty minutes from the U.S. release. The European reception was strong. Subsequent decades reframed the film as Leone’s masterpiece and as one of the major Westerns ever made. The full 175-minute director’s cut has been the standard version since the 1980s. The film is now consistently cited among the great films of any genre.
The Opening Sequence
The film’s opening sequence is one of the most influential cold opens in cinema history. Three gunmen arrive at a desolate train station to wait for the next train. The sequence runs approximately ten minutes with almost no dialogue. The men kill flies, drink water from a barrel that drips on one of them, and rattle their pistols against a windmill. A train arrives. The expected target steps off carrying a harmonica. The four men shoot. Three die. Harmonica remains standing.
The sequence is the film’s argument for what kind of Western it intends to be. Leone refuses the conventional Western pacing entirely. The opening establishes that the film will move at its own speed. The audience either accepts the rhythm or rejects the film. Most Westerns of the 1960s would have used those ten minutes to introduce three characters with dialogue, motivation, and exposition. Leone uses them to establish atmosphere, anticipation, and the specific cinematic register the rest of the film will operate in. The opening is a thesis statement delivered through pure formal commitment.
For Writers
An opening sequence can establish a film’s rhythm so completely that the rest of the work has to follow. Once Upon a Time in the West’s opening teaches the audience how to watch the film. The lesson is that early pages establish reader expectations about pacing. Whatever speed the first chapter sets becomes the speed the reader expects the book to continue at. Pick that speed deliberately. Slow openings demand patient readers. The patience is something you have to earn in the opening itself.
The Fonda Casting
Henry Fonda’s casting as Frank is one of the most-cited inversions in American cinema. Fonda had spent forty years building a screen persona as the straight-arrow American everyman. The Grapes of Wrath (1940), Young Mr. Lincoln (1939), Twelve Angry Men (1957). Leone cast him specifically because of this history. The first time Frank’s face appears on screen, the audience expects another decent man. The face belongs to a killer who has just shot a small child at point-blank range. The casting inverts the entire American Western tradition.
Fonda’s performance commits to the inversion. His Frank is calm, professional, and unhurried about killing. The character’s specific menace comes from how comfortable he is. The audience reads this directly through Fonda’s body language, which is the body language they have learned to trust over four decades of his career. The technique demonstrates how casting can be its own form of storytelling. Leone wrote the role and then made it carry the additional weight of forty years of audience expectations being deliberately betrayed.
For Writers
Casting against type works when the type itself becomes part of the character’s meaning. Henry Fonda as a killer is more disturbing than an unknown actor as a killer because Fonda’s career history is part of what the audience sees. The lesson applies to writers: established readers bring expectations to your work. If you have built a reputation in one register, working against that register produces specific effects. Use the expectations as material. The reader’s surprise is part of the experience.
The Music
Ennio Morricone composed the score before production began. Leone played the music on set during filming so the actors could time their performances to the cues. The technique is unusual and the results are visible throughout. Each major character has their own theme. Harmonica’s theme is the harmonica itself. Frank’s theme is dissonant electric guitar. Jill’s theme is a soaring soprano voice over orchestra. Cheyenne’s theme is a rolling banjo and harmonica combination. The themes interweave through the film as the characters’ arcs converge.
The “Man with a Harmonica” theme is among the most-quoted pieces of film music in the medium’s history. The cue plays whenever Harmonica encounters Frank, building toward the final flashback that reveals their shared history. The audience does not learn what the harmonica means until the closing duel. The music has been preparing the revelation for three hours. The technique demonstrates how film scoring can carry information that dialogue and image cannot communicate by themselves. The music is doing structural work the rest of the film depends on.
For Writers
A motif that recurs without explanation builds reader investment in the eventual explanation. Harmonica’s theme appears throughout the film. The audience does not know what it means until the climax. The waiting is part of the experience. The lesson is that recurring elements (objects, phrases, locations) in fiction create anticipation when their meaning is withheld. Place the motif early. Let it return. Reveal the meaning at the climax. The reader will have been preparing for the reveal across the entire work.
Craft Note
The closing duel between Harmonica and Frank is the film’s most economical structural payoff. The two men face each other in a circular yard. The camera moves through specific compositional positions: extreme close-ups on eyes, wide shots establishing distance, the slow pivoting movement that has been Leone’s signature since A Fistful of Dollars. Morricone’s “Man with a Harmonica” theme plays. Mid-duel, the camera cuts to a flashback that finally reveals what Frank did to Harmonica’s brother decades earlier. The harmonica we have been hearing is the one Frank shoved in young Harmonica’s mouth while his brother died slowly. The duel ends. The revelation makes Harmonica’s three-hour pursuit comprehensible. The closing sequence demonstrates how Leone’s specific stylistic vocabulary (extreme close-ups, sustained takes, music carrying narrative weight) can produce emotional payoffs no other Western director achieved at this scale.
The Verdict
10/10. Sergio Leone’s masterpiece and one of the major Westerns ever made. The opening sequence, the Henry Fonda casting inversion, Ennio Morricone’s score, and the closing duel are all permanent contributions to cinema. Watch the 175-minute director’s cut. The 1968 American theatrical cut is missing twenty minutes of essential material. Watch Once Upon a Time in America (1984) for Leone’s New York-set follow-up. Watch the Dollars trilogy for the rest of his Western work.
FAQ
Should I watch this before the Dollars trilogy?
After. The Dollars trilogy (Fistful of Dollars 1964, For a Few Dollars More 1965, The Good the Bad and the Ugly 1966) prepares you for Leone’s specific style. Once Upon a Time in the West is the culmination.
Why was Henry Fonda cast against type?
Leone wanted the audience’s forty years of accumulated trust in Fonda’s screen persona to be deliberately violated. The casting is the most aggressive inversion of Western tradition in American cinema.
How important is the music?
Central. Morricone composed the score before production. Leone played the music on set during filming. The score and the visuals are structurally inseparable.
Why did it underperform in America?
Paramount cut twenty minutes from the U.S. theatrical release. The pacing demanded patience the 1968 American audience was not prepared to provide. The European reception was significantly stronger.
Who is Claudia Cardinale?
Italian actress. The Leopard (1963), 8½ (1963). Her Jill McBain is the rare Leone female role with real screen weight.
Is this connected to Once Upon a Time in America?
Both are Leone’s “Once Upon a Time” films but they share no plot. The 1984 New York-set film completes Leone’s Americana phase.
Should I watch this?
Yes. Once Upon a Time in the West is required viewing for the Western genre and for the Sergio Leone filmography.