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| Charles
Bronson, Henry Fonda, Claudia Cardinale, Jason Robards,
Gabriele Ferzetti |
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Anamorphic
widescreen |
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Dolby Digital
5.1 |
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DTS |
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Trailer(s) |
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Featurette(s) |
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Documentary |
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Audio commentary
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Deleted scenes
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Concept art
/ storyboards |
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Multi-angle
feature |
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Jill McBain (Claudia Cardinale):
What's he waiting for out there? What's he doing?
Cheyenne (Jason Robards): He's whittlin' on a piece of wood. I've
got a feeling when he stops whittlin'...Somethin's gonna happen.
An enigmatic harmonica player shows
up in a booming frontier town after the massacre of a family of
settlers.
 Having
single-handedly revitalized the Western and unwittingly created
the Spaghetti Western subgenre, director Sergio Leone had exhausted
the mix of cartoonish violence and comic exploits of a stoical
hero without a name or a past. for his next project, he was determined
to do something other than a Western: he was in fact ready to start
making his later epic Once Upon a Time in America at this
time, but was pressured by his American distributors to make another
Western first. But rather than returning to the light-footed episodic
comedy of the masterful, internationally successful The Good,
The Bad and the Ugly, Leone took it upon himself to create
the Western to end all Westerns: his ultimate homage to the genre
he loved, reinvented and ultimately abandoned.
Rather than forsaking his famous comic book stylizations, moving
back and forth between extreme close-ups and glorious widescreen
vistas, Leone takes his trademark visual style to its most extreme
level here, building his sequences slowly and stretching them out
for as long as possible to increase tension. The immaculate framing
together with the powerful use of Ennio Morricone's powerful score
makes the film easily Leone's most operatic effort, with characters
drawn larger-than-life, full of references to classic Westerns
and archetypes.
 The
film revels in its own artificiality, indulging in its own over-the-top
quality while drawing the viewer irresistibly into its complex
but somehow always familiar narrative. Even subplots that appear
to make little sense at first are never less than fun to watch
thanks to the assurance with which Leone directs his action, and
the deliberate performances from the perfectly cast stars: Cardinale
shines even without the benefit of her own voice on the soundtrack,
Bronson defines his own screen persona for the length of his career,
Robards an irresistibly playful rogue, and Fonda playing one of
the most memorable roles of his career in one of the cleverest
instances of casting against type in film history. |
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This long-awaited title is finally
to be released as a two-disc collector's set by Paramount,
first in early October 2003 for Region 2, and then on November
18, 2003 for Region 1. The only notable difference between
the two versions is the absence of the original mono soundtrack
on the Region 2 release, which contains only the Dolby Digital
5.1 remix. The Region 2 release served as the basis for this
review.
 The anamorphic widescreen
image is framed at an aspect ratio of approx. 2.35:1. For
this impateiently awaited DVD release, Paramount has clearly
taken every effort to restore Leone's masterpiece, and the
result is nothing short of breathtaking. The Techniscope
process that was used for this film is notorious for its
faded colors and lack of detail in blurred, aging prints.
But this new transfer not only boasts rich, vibrant colors,
terrific sharpness and impressive detail, it is also absolutely
spotless, without a single spot, scratch or blip in the
image throughout its extended running time. Astonishingly,
film grain is hardly ever visible at all, and blacks are
deep, with excellent contrast. The only minor flaw is the
occasional
use of edge enhancement, most
likely
intended to boost clarity even further, which make the rocks
in Monument Valley stand out against the sky a little too
harshly. But in a presentation as rich and pristine as this
one, that's barely cause to take issue with the transfer
as a whole.
The Dolby
Digital 5.1 sound mix is also highly impressive, with
a strong focus on the center channel, with well-judged separation
of the famous score and occasional sound effects in the
left and right speakers, with rear channels employed almost
exclusively for ambient sounds and some extra dimensionality
to the music. Fidelity is surprisingly good, and though
the unnatural sound of the post-synched dialogues takes
some getting used to, fidelity is far better than expected
both for the music and the dialogues, both of which sound
very clean, without any hiss and only very little distortion.
Following hot on the heels
of the equally long-awaited DVD release of Leone's final
masterpiece Once
Upon a Time in America, this other long-running MIA
title is served quite a bit better than the director's Mafia
epic, which included only a short documentary excerpt and
a somewhat mediocre commentary track as its supplements.
And although this handsomely packaged collector's set doesn't
include the rumored deleted scenes, there is enough newly
produced material here to satisfy even the most avid fans.
The main supplement is found on the second disc: a new documentary,
divided into three segments (without a 'play all' option),
but clearly produced as a single feature. With a combined
running time of nearly 70 minutes, the documentary consists
mostly of solid new interview footage with Leone biographer
Christopher Frayling, actress Claudia Cardinale, cinematographer
Tonino delli Colli, film directors Alex Cox, John Milius,
Bernardo Bertolucci and
John Carpenter, and some archival interviews with Henry Fonda
and Leone himself. Latching on to Leone's leisurely editing
style, the documentary gives its interviewees plenty of time
to divulge their recollections, which have been grouped fairly
roughly into tales about Leone's early career, the film's
genesis, the production history, its use of Ennio Morricone's
music, and the film's reception. Highlights here include
Bertolucci's recollections about first meeting Leone, some
juicy anecdotes from the well-informed Frayling, and the
lovely Claudia Cardinale's reaction to Leone's first suggestion
that she should be introduced in the film without any underwear. Remarkably,
the shots from the film that were used in this documentary
are of far poorer quality than the film as it appears on
the DVD.
 The second major supplement to the film is the audio
commentary provided by most of the same participants
who appear in the documentary. The speakers were recorded
separately and are introduced individually by track host
and DVD producer Lancelot Narayan. The track starts off with
an extended stretch spoken by Christopher Frayling, which
suffers from a great deal of overlap with the documentary.
But after the extended opening sequence, his commentary picks
up more speed, and once other speakers are introduced for
particular segments, the track is varied and engaging throughout,
while remaining scene-specific for most speakers. Film historians
Frayling and Dr. Sheldon Hall are the longest talkers, delving
into some of the longer sequences with solid insight and
a good amount of background information. Carpenter and Milius
are the most animated speakers, while Bertolucci chimes in
about his fondness for the genre and Leone's contribution
to it.
 The other extras on disc two are nicely produced, but fairly
minor additions. There's an amusing collection of still photographs
showing the many locations where the film was shot as they
look today, shown together with stills from the film itself.
More substantial is the production stills gallery,
also presented as an animated series of stills accompanied
by longer cues from the score. This six-minute gallery includes
seven stills from a scene that was shot, but deleted before
the film's release (of which we may assume that no actual
footage now survives). There are also some nice images of
Leone working with his cast on the set, besides the usual
set of black-and-white promotional stills. There's a rather
puzzling featurette that consists of mock
stock footage and stills from the film, interview footage
with Alex Cox and other contributors to the longer documentary,
and a lengthy voice-over, all of which deals with the incluence
of the railway on the old West. Probably intended to provide
some additional historical context, this all-too-brief item
misses the mark and lacks a clear purpose among the other
extras. Brief biographies of the five main
cast members are presented in short successions of text screens
with still portraits, cleverly accompanied by the appropriate
musical motifs from the film. The theatrical trailer presented
in anamorphic widescreen (as are all the extras on this release),
rounds out these outstanding extras. Elaborate,
highly detailed animated menu screens include footage from the
film, character portraits and relevant score cues.
Dan
Hassler-Forest
Reviewed:
September 17, 2003
Click
here for IMDB info on Once
Upon a Time in the West.
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