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Film · 1968 · Spaghetti western
Once Upon a Time in the West
Directed by Sergio Leone
1968
Italy
★ 9.0 editorial score
The western as ritual: Leone holds on faces until the tension turns physical, gives every character a Morricone theme, and makes three hours feel like a ceremony.
“The film, about four lives headed on a collision course in a grimy, ramshackle town of the Western plains, is set against the backdrop of the encroaching railroad, which promises to bring civilization to this unruly, harsh country. And with progress, the coal-devouring locomotives also bring death—death for the American West's unspoiled beauty, death for an uncomplicated rugged individualism, and death to the cowboy.”
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