Happy new year! In keeping with my young tradition of starting a year with a conflicted man in a desert (and starting the year on a sick day, feeling miserable), let’s do this!…
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Devious henchman Frank is sent by a railroad tycoon to pressure the McBain family off of their land so that the railroad may pass through unobstructed; Frank’s approach was to kill the whole family. The plan seemed to work until Jill, an unknown prostitute-turned-homesteader-turned-widow, appears and claims the land. Meanwhile, an unnamed, harmonica-playing figure enters town to settle a past score with Frank. ‘Harmonica’ teams up with Cheyenne, a cunning bandit, to preserve Jill’s land-rights and defeat the railroad tycoon. This leaves Frank to face the music (in a literal, harmonica sort of way).
Like last year’s screening of a Sergio Leone flick (“The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly”), I found myself engrossed in the tension and drama of this film. I also feel like “Once Upon a Time…” is a considerable refinement of Leone’s craft with beautifully fluid cinematography and less jarring Italian-dubbing. My one exception is that Jahan the film editor (spoiler alert, I'm not a film editor) would like to shave a few minutes off the top of this one. But that just gave me more of Morricone’s music, which is just awesome, especially where the ‘Harmonica’s’ harmonica motif blended in with the score.
The film had excellent character work. It reminded me of Pirates of the Caribbean 1 (a compliment in my book), with the three main males and main female all being like-able and complex in their own way. I think the apex of this is with Frank, played with icy practicality by Henry Fonda. I’m probably misstating the comparison, but after career of playing humble, happy heroes, for Fonda to play a villain was as much a heel turn as Heath Ledger’s Joker was today. His typical earnest delivery seeped through and you couldn’t help but stay captivated and conflicted by a character who amounted to a child killer.
Long story short, I really liked this film. It didn’t move along like “The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly” did and probably didn’t feel as fun for that reason, but I’m probably inclined to say that “Once Upon a Time in the West” is the better film. Way up there, as far as Westerns go.