Posted on by 1000filmsblog

#364 Once Upon a Time in the West

Watched: August 14 2023

Director: Sergio Leone

Starring: Claudia Cardinale, Henry Fonda, Charles Bronson, Jason Robards, Harmonica’s harmonica

Year: 1968

Runtime: 2h 45min

Mrs McBain (the recently departed Claudia Cardinale) arrives in Utah to find her brand spanking new husband and stepchildren dead. The main suspect: notorious local bandit Cheyenne (Robards). But is he being framed? Other dodgy characters in this classic western include drama queen Harmonica (Bronson) and gun-for-hire Frank (Fonda).

Claudia Cardinale in all her glory. We seem to remember enjoying her character immensely!

So, full disclosure: we watched this over two years ago, but then never got around to actually writing the blog while it was still fresh in our minds. And now, due to everything leading to us taking a hiatus from the list in the first place, we have a little bit of amnesia. We did, however, take notes while watching it! Thus, we present to you: Our Impressions Of And Thoughts On The Film Based On Cryptic Notes Written Two Years Ago (or OIOATOTFBOCNWTYA for short):

Pictured: characters from the film. About 99% sure that’s Henry Fonda up front. And they definitely look like the bad guys, so that tracks. Probably about to do some serious mischief.
  • Very good at creating tension! (we’re pretty sure we’re talking about Leone here)
  • Love when people make their own soundtrack! (referring to Harmonica, probably?)
  • #Harmonica4Lyfe! Such a drama queen. Love!
  • Absolutely love the “vastness” of the production – epic scale. Good world building.
  • He (probably Leone again) just loooooooves people staring at each other.
  • Beautiful, epic, suspenseful and possibly a tiiiiiny bit too long… But hey – if you wanna be dramatic about it and make an absolute epic, you go girl! (We guess we’re referring to Leone here as well…)
Harmonica doing god’s work providing (more or less) appropriate ambient sound to a dramatic scene. Again, we suspect that’s what’s going on based on vague, watercolour memories.
  • With the notable exception of the Lord of the Rings-movies, very few films need to clock in at almost three hours…But this stays interesting and engaging throughout, so it kind of pulls it off.
  • So. Much. Staring.
  • Ok, even on Blu-Ray, film is definitely different from digital. The texture of this! Hard to describe… It feels substantial and kind of gritty.
  • Was this movie sponsored by the oil industry? The car industry? Never seen so much vilifying of railways.
  • Sometimes it’s best to just stay a single, rich widow.
“I know you’re developing some Stockholm syndrome feelings for me, but I’m saving all my sexual tension for my new best bud Cheyenne. Besides, Clark Olofsson won’t be born for half a century yet, so I don’t even know what Stockholm syndrome is.”

What we learned: Never trust Big Railway™

MVP: Ennio Morricone, Cheyenne and Harmonica’s harmonica.

Next time: Planet of the Apes (1968)

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Bonus post: Baby Driver

Watched: July 15, August 4 (and several other times in the forseeable future) 2017

Director: Edgar Wright

Starring: Ansel Elgort, Lily James, Kevin Spacey, Jon Hamm, Eiza González, Jamie Foxx, CJ Jones, Jon Bernthal

Year: 2017

Runtime: 1h 52min

Baby-Driver

Source

In honour of Baby Driver‘s Norwegian première, we decided to skip the list for a day and bring you Edgar Wright’s latest masterpiece instead. As you’ve probably gathered, we are avid fans of Mr Wright’s work and so threw a bit of a temper tantrum when the Norwegian release date was not pushed forward along with the rest of the world. Luckily for Sister the Oldest, she was already going to London in July so managed to catch it there a few weeks ago, but now the Norwegian realease is finally upon us and we have gathered a crew to go see it (again) tonight. Yay!

Baby-Driver2
We got our iPods loaded and ready to go! True fact: we’ve never stopped using them.

Source

As this is a new film, we won’t spoil the plot (the less you know going in, the better), but in short, Baby (Elgort) is a getaway driver who uses music to get in the right frame of mind to drive, and to drown out his chronic tinnitus. It’s an incredible action film which uses music as well as any musical we’ve ever seen. As Guillermo del Toro tweeted: “This is An American In Paris on wheels and crack smoke” – a very apt description indeed.

This is more of a pure action film which has (somewhat) less comedy than the Cornetto Trilogy, but the film references which Wright does so well are definitely there along with his signature style, and it’s thrilling, exciting, original and fun. Definitely the must-see film of the summer. And we’re not at all biased. At all.

Go! See it! It’s an amazing cinematic experience, and we can’t wait for tonight!

While you wait, you can see the trailers here and here, and the first six minutes here. Now, if that doesn’t make you want to drive (somewhat recklessly) to your nearest cinema, we really can’t help you.

What we learned: All you need is one killer track.

Next time: Rear Window (1954)