Once Upon a Time in the West

Absolutely awesome in all respects. The acting, the screenplay, the direction, the cinematography. Everything I can think of is excellent. The film doesn’t have any weaknesses. Even if I did find one, it wouldn't matter. The score would make me forget it immediately. That's what happens when true masters work together. There aren’t enough stars for me to rate this. (06/30/2016)

Someone might mind that the genius music loops throughout the movie until you’re blue in the face. And someone might mind that it’s not very comprehensive at times and it’s very hard to watch out for details for those nearly three hours. But I don’t mind, because I’d rather get a temporary paralysis of the eyelid if that meant that I can watch every single second of a movie as genius as this western. (07/01/2014)

Once upon a time there were two Italians who already knew each other well and whose collaboration was apparently a fateful affair. One of them had no problem writing six hundred pages with detailed descriptions of individual scenes and even the actors' movements, so that the visual and narrative aspects of his upcoming project would not contain a single flaw. The other, for his part, reached to the bottom of his musical talent and wrung from it a repertoire of the most breathtaking melodies that not only chill throughout the film, but above all elevate the story of a classic western with taciturn characters into the realm of the most admired and unsurpassed cinematic art. Then there was one beautiful Italian woman, who only had to stand still in front of the camera to the accompaniment of majestic music, to provide an unprecedented, almost soulful experience. And then there were three very charismatic Americans, whose interactions and intrigues seem to get more subtle and spectacular with each viewing, making any other western become mediocre in comparison. Well, this wild bunch is behind the creation of a groundbreaking film that not only changed the look of modern westerns, relegated the old ones to a worn-out commodity and set an unbeatable bar for upcoming ones, but most importantly, it prepared for me such an exotic and untold delicacy that after each new bite I get even hungrier and ask myself if it is even possible to digest and absorb all these different tastes in one sitting. But I won't know unless I taste it again and again... 100% (07/05/2014)

The music improves the image. To be honest, at the beginning, when a dirty, hirsute bloke is shown swatting a fly for three minutes, I thought that in the next 160 minutes I would die out of boredom. Fortunately, that wasn’t the case, and in the end this film entertained me a lot more than The Godfather, for instance. Mostly thanks to the music, the direction and the performances, because the contents don’t stand out. I can’t get rid of the feeling that I will never be a fan of western as a genre. (01/02/2009)

It is simply impossible to pick out one particular thing from this film that deserves to be singled out, because it has to be seen in its entirety, and also several times, in order to make one believe that even a western can have the dimensions of a Shakespearean drama! (That's my review)__P.S. from May 14, 2013 - I finally saw Once Upon a Time in the West in the movie theater... And again, I have nothing to add. Perhaps only that Cheyenne is probably the biggest all-star of all the spaghetti western characters. (09/18/2007)