Once Upon a Time in the West

Henry Fonda wanted to hide his baby blues with dark contacts.  He was asked by director Sergio Leone to play a ruthless killer in his new movie, 1968's ONCE UPON A TIME IN THE WEST.  Fonda's choice was dismissed by the director; part of the reason he hired Hollywood's eternal good guy was to showcase those patented irises, perhaps to create a certain incongruity that would make him even more disturbing.  It was the right decision, and Fonda's chilling performance as Frank is but one reason the movie is what I consider a stunning work of art.  Assured, patient, meditative.  One of the finest Westerns of any era.

There's a story of vengeance.  Slow burning retribution.  In the early scenes, an unnamed gunslinger known only as "Harmonica" (he frequently plays one) dispatches a trio of killers hired by Frank.  The opening fifteen or minutes or so should give you a good idea of Leone's celebrated craft.  The killers, one of whom is played by Western veteran Jack Elam, sit in a trains station.  Waiting.  Shooing flies and pelted with water droplets.  The direction and sound design of this sequence alone should be carefully studied.  It sets the stage for the entire picture, one that unfolds deliberately over its two fours and forty five minutes.

Harmonica (Charles Bronson) will figure largely in the other, rather complex story of land grabbing and greed.  Jill (Claudia Cardinale), a retired prostitute who's arrived from New Orleans to live with McBain (Frank Wolff), finds her new husband and stepchildren dead.  All from the pistol of Frank, who was hired by a railroad baron named Morton (Gabriele Ferzetti) to get the land McBain owns, which includes necessary passage to the area's only water source.  Stumbling into this scene is Cheyenne (Jason Robards), a bandit upon whom Frank frames the murders.

Bernardo Bertolucci and Dario Argento contributed to the screenplay along with Leone and others.  It's a lot of the usual business, but so perfectly rendered. As is Ennio Morricone's scoring. Leone conducts the stew like a maestro, allowing scenes to stretch to the point of discomfort, never looking for a quick payoff or easy money shot.  Once upon a time, film goers had longer attention spans, even in the age of Godard and his jump cuts.

I might even say the actors all deliver some of their best work in ONCE UPON A TIME IN THE WEST.  Big statement, for Fonda especially.  Watching Bronson's work here makes one almost forget the crap movies he made in the 1980s. And Robards is quite underrated as the sardonic outlaw.