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Stars:
Claudia Cardinale, Henry Fonda, Jason Robards, Charles Bronson, Gabriele
Ferzetti, Woody Strode, Jack Elam, Lionel Stander, Paolo Stoppa, Frank Wolfe,
and Keenan Wynn
Director:
Sergio Leone
Feature
length: 165 minutes
Extras:
Commentary Track, Documentaries, Featurette, Galleries, Cast Profiles,
Theatrical Trailer
Languages:
English Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Sound and English and French Language
Monaural Sound
Subtitles:
English Captions and Closed Captions and French Language Subtitles (For Select
Extra Value Features Only.)
Packaging:
Two-Disc Alpha Keep Case
Chapter
Stops: 33
Sound:
Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Sound and Monaural Sound
Year
of Theatrical Release: 1969/DVD Release: 2003
Theatrical
Distributor: Paramount Pictures
Home
Video Distributor: Paramount Home Entertainment
MPAA
Rating: PG-13
Reviewer:
Mark A. Rivera
I
wasn’t really introduced to the westerns directed by Sergio Leone until I was
an undergraduate in film school. Back then I used to work nights and my good
friend and I would get together late on a Friday night and we would scour the
video stores for something interesting. When neither of us could find anything,
one of us would bring a tape as a backup. It was on one of these Fridays I
remember first seeing “For A Few Dollars More” and then “The Good, The Bad
And The Ugly” and I was surprised at just how great these films were because
when I was growing up I had no interest in westerns. I was raised on “Star
Wars,” “Star Trek,” and a whole bunch of 1960s, 70s, and 80s sci-fi so I
was not enthusiastic about watching these films because I expected them to be
boring. However my friend has a good eye for movies so I trusted him enough to
hang out until the wee hours of the morning to watch the movies and boy was I
glad I stayed.
Squeaky-clean
morality tales corrupted my images of the western genre that my friend and I
regarded as bullshit, but the Leone western was totally different. Everything
was grungy and the people had a real character about them. They all had an angle
going down to the Mexican boy who basically tells “The Man With No Name”
that he should stay at this hotel because the owner’s wife was pretty loose. I
was also struck by the great mythology Leone created within the films where he
basically showed the viewers an image of the west that was actually just as
based in fantasy as the Hollywood ones my friend and I regarded as bullshit and
still it suspended our disbelief because it was dark, grungy, episodic,
humorous, and wonderfully stylized. If I were to liken the look of Leone’s
“Man With No Name Trilogy” with another genre I’d compare it to the rather
clean if not sterile look of “2001: A Space Odyssey” vs. the very dark and
dreary refinery rooms aboard the Nostromo in “Alien.” Scott’s
vision of space travel is not this pretty high tech extravaganza of other sci-fi
films and TV shows and it has had as much of an impact on sci-fi as I think
Leone’s “Man With No Name Trilogy” and “Once Upon A Time In The West”
had on westerns since. In fact Leone even effected the sci-fi genre with films
like the “Mad Max” trilogy, in particular “The Road Warrior” and “Mad
Max: Beyond Thunderdome,” basically following the same sort of archetype Leone
used in his films. Sci-fi in particular owes a lot to the western and can be
argued as being the successor of the western in terms of creating the new
American mythology for the post-modern generations. The original “Star Wars”
in many ways owes a lot to the western genre as much as it borrows from many
places. I could go on and on with genre comparisons, but this is still a DVD
review and not an essay plus I think most people are aware of this sort of thing
already. In the end I think it simply comes down to archetypes and how well one
presents them in a pseudo original way.
Now
after watching the Eastwood Leone westerns a few times over on my own, my friend
then turned me on to “Once Upon A Time In The West” and I was completely
taken in by the film’s sharp dialogue exchanges, the trademark Leone
widescreen close-ups and quick cuts accentuated by Ennio Morricone’s score and
the beautiful widescreen compositions that only widescreen formats like
laserdisc and now DVD enable me to enjoy. I have to say that I am still torn by
which Leone western I like better. You could ask me one day and I’ll tell you
“Once Upon A Time In The West” and then come to me an hour later and I might
say “The Good, The Bad And The Ugly.” You can ask me to repeat myself a few
seconds after that and odds are I’ll then say, “I don’t know.” Both are
just so dear to my heart that I honestly can’t tell which film I like better.
In
graduate school, “Once Upon A Time In The West” inspired my thesis and I
remember watching Paramount’s letterboxed laserdisc release of the film in the
mid 1990s over and over again to a point where I transcribed all the dialogue
and wrote down the action in my own words and found to my surprise that the film
could be described or re-dramatized in approximately 75 pages, which meant that
at least an hour of the film is presented purely through the visual action, use
of sound, and music to accentuate the lead characters and situations. On the DVD
Director Alex Cox says that there are only 15 pages worth of dialogue in the
entire film. I was shocked considering my own deconstruction of the film turned
up with 75 pages, but I suppose if you remove all description of character,
setting, and action and just simply place the dialogue on paper with nothing
else then he may be right. One thing I know for sure is as much as I thought I
knew about “Once Upon A Time In The West” from my own studies while earning
my Masters degree, I feel like I gained a whole bunch of new knowledge and
understanding from Paramount’s new two-disc set release.
The
feature length audio commentary on the first disc is very screen specific and in
many ways academic with Sir Christopher Frayling (author of Leone’s biography)
and Dr. Sheldon Hall pointing out how the film is in many ways is a western
about westerns with lots of cues to Leone’s own favorite westerns sprinkled
throughout while at the same time emphasizing the idea of the film being about
the death of one era and the beginning of another in American culture.
Filmmakers John Carpenter, John Milius, and Alex Cox contribute comments on the
commentary as well as select cast and crewmembers. I loved Milius’ anecdote
regarding a woman critic who panned the film. He says he told her “When
you’re an old woman, young women will still be whispering Leone’s name in
your ears.” It sounds a bit crazy, but it is pure John Milius. Whenever my
friend and I go see a movie he has contributed to in some form, like the
screenplay, we can always spot the Milius moments because he has this deep sense
of the primal nature of humanity that he articulates in such a way that it is as
recognizable and unique as a person’s fingerprints. In fact I’d say more so.
The casting served the film well with Henry Fonda turning in one of the best big
screen villains ever created as well as one of his best performances while Jason
Robards brings a certain amount of humor that softens his gruff appearance and
Bronson, who is essentially playing another man with no name, is just right
since his character speaks little, but his actions say volumes. The lovely
Claudia Cardinale anchors the film beautifully as the central character from
which all of the other character arcs and side stories revolve around.
It
has been a while since I have seen “Once Upon A Time In The West.” In fact I
was surprised at how many scenes I had forgotten as well as how many scenes
bought me back to my grad school days. The best part about this new two-disc
release is in my opinion the picture and sound transfer. I don’t remember the
laserdisc ever looking this good. Pristine might be too strong of a word to
describe how this film looks, but even if it is not, it comes pretty damn close
be being pristine. The textures and colors are beautifully captured making what
I always thought of as being a rather monotone film from the days I had the
laserdisc seem as if I were watching the film in black and white back then when
I look at and compare it to Paramount Home Entertainment’s DVD release, which
presents “Once Upon A Time In The West” in an anamorphic widescreen (2.35:1)
aspect ratio preserving the manner in which the film was exhibited theatrically
as close as possible for home video users. This is the uncut European version of
the film, which clocks in at 165 minutes. The English Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround
Soundtrack is very good considering the age of the movie and there is a restored
English Monaural Soundtrack as well as a French Language Monaural Soundtrack
included too. The 5.1 Surround Soundtrack has an enveloping quality that mixes
the sound effects and score very well to create a great atmospheric experience.
English Captions and Closed Captions for the hearing impaired as well as French
Language Subtitles for the extra value features only are also encoded as
options.
The
balance of the extra value features are on the second DVD with a three part
documentary that features interview clips with Claudia Cardinale, Gabriele
Ferzetti, Bernardo Bertolucci, Cinematographer Tonino Delli Colli, as well as
contributions from Filmmakers John Carpenter, John Milius, and Alex Cox as well
as Sir Christopher Frayling and Dr. Sheldon Hall. There are even vintage clips
of Sergio Leone and Henry Fonda discussing the film and in Fonda’s case, the
character he played. The documentary parts are divided into “An Opera With
Violence” (28:48), “The Wages Of Sin” (19:36), and “Something To Do With
Death” (18:16). I love the titles to these documentary portions and in
particular I found the first part “An Opera With Violence” to be the most
interesting because in many ways I never considered the fact that like Science
Fiction where you have various subgenres that include the “Space Opera” like
“Star Wars” or the original “Battlestar Galactica,” the western has
it’s own subgenres too and I suppose the word “Opera” in this context is a
pretty good way of describing “Once Upon A Time In The West.” There’s a
short companion featurette entitled “Railroad: Revolutionizing The West”
(6:22) that is also quite interesting as it gives some brief historical
counterbalance to the film’s story.
A
“Then” and “Now” motion gallery of location photos (4:28) as well as a
motion gallery of black and white production photos (5:17) are included along
with select cast profiles and the theatrical trailer (2:52).
The
interactive menus are well rendered and easy to navigate. “Once Upon A Time In
The West: Special Collector’s Edition” is a wonderful two-disc set that I
cannot recommend highly enough and it is available on DVD-Video now at retailers
on and offline from Paramount Home Entertainment.
©
Copyright 2003 By Mark A. Rivera
All Rights Reserved.
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