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From: leeper@ahuta.UUCP (leeper)
Newsgroups: net.movies
Subject: ONCE UPON A TIME IN THE WEST
Message-ID: <437@ahuta.UUCP>
Date: Sat, 9-Feb-85 18:00:19 EST
Article-I.D.: ahuta.437
Posted: Sat Feb  9 18:00:19 1985
Date-Received: Mon, 11-Feb-85 05:50:54 EST
Organization: AT&T Information Systems Labs, Holmdel NJ
Lines: 37


                        ONCE UPON A TIME IN THE WEST
                      A film review by Mark R. Leeper

     THE MAN WHO SHOT LIBERTY VALANCE, THE WILD BUNCH, THE PROFESSIONALS,
THE MAGNIFICENT SEVEN, LONELY ARE THE BRAVE--what do these films have in
common?  They all lament the passing of "the Old West" and its replacement
by modern times.  Sergio Leone's addition to this group is his ONCE UPON A
TIME IN THE WEST.  This is a long film, particularly in its full 165-minute
version.  Frank Capra used to give his films pace and excitement by
rehearsing his actors, then telling them that they had to go through a scene
twice as fast.  Leone does just the opposite.  This film is full of long
scenes where short ones would have advanced the plot as much.  Leone uses
the slow pacing to give the film texture: to show scenery, to build mood, to
zero in on facial expressions, and to give the feeling that the West was a
place of boredom punctuated by moments of terror.

     Charles Bronson is a reasonable stand-in in a part that was likely
written with Clint Eastwood in mind.  After all, this was Leone's follow-up
to his "Man with No Name" series.  He plays his role enigmatically with
little more expression than a piece of wood.  In a Leone western, as often
as not, the hero is more image than character.  Henry Fonda, perhaps tired
of all the nice guy parts he has played over the years, plays a vicious and
ambitious gunman.  In a Leone western one expects to see Italians in all the
bit parts, including in this film the part of a particularly ludicrous
Irishman.  This film even has Claudia Cardinal as a femme fatale from New
Orleans.  Jason Robards rounds out the list of lead actors as a mean hombre
with a likable side.

     ONCE UPON A TIME IN THE WEST has a good reputation for its mood,
created in large part by Ennio Morricone's score, but its pacing leaves it
time for little more plot than a cheap Saturday matinee western used to
have.  Still, it is above average for this sort of thing.  Give it a +1 on a
-4 to +4 scale.

					Mark R. Leeper
					...ihnp4!ahuta!leeper