Sonoma Film Institute: Once Upon a Time in The West

Open to the Public
Date
Mar 8, 2024 , 7:00pm - 9:45pm
Location
Darwin Hall, Room 102
Sponsor
Sonoma Film Institute
Admission Fees
FREE / $5 Donation suggested
Contact Email
Contact Phone
707-664-2606

Sergio Leone assembled a memorable international cast for his jaw dropping Western. Beginning with a bravura, drawn-out prologue in which gunmen await the arrival of the noon train, ONCE UPON A TIME IN THE WEST is a story of the ruthless advance of the railroad and of the dangerous men, including the mysterious Harmonica (Charles Bronson), caught up in the struggle for power. Slow, tense showdown sequences are made electrifying by Leone’s distended widescreen compositions and Ennio Morricone’s score, which favors each of the protagonists with their own motif. An unforgettably evil Henry Fonda plays against type as the rail company’s sadistic gun-for-hire. “It may not be the definitive western, but it might just be the most western: part parody, part eulogy, part apotheosis, Once Upon a Time in the West is every narrative and formal cliché, every grandiose gesture, every ambiguous, every subversive, every troubling commentary on American history that its parent genre deals in condensed into a sumptuously operatic melodrama that stands tall as one of the most purely cinematic spectacles ever put to film.” – Alan Mattli The cast includes Jason Robards and Claudia Cardinale. (1968, 165 min.)

Henry Fonda in Western attire with a concerned look on his face
Forward to Friends
Date
March 8, 2024
Add to Calendar