After three brushes of "Once Upon a Time in the West", I am pretty sure that this film is the "terminator" of Westerns. In a sense, it is also the "terminator" of the entire western film history.
Why do you say that? Because "Once Upon a Time in the West" can be said to be a masterpiece of traditional Westerns (American Westerns), and at the same time, it is the pinnacle of counter-type creation (Italian Westerns) of traditional Westerns (American Westerns). The history of the entire Western movie can be divided into the history of American Westerns and the history of Italian Westerns, and "Once Upon a Time" not only packs and presents the classic elements of American Westerns, but also the narrative and fun of Italian Westerns in the film. It has been almost perfectly inherited-and the concept of Italian westerns, and even half of the entire Italian westerns, was created by Leoné himself.
In my opinion, the presentation of American Westerns in "Reminiscence of the West" is its A side, while the presentation of Italian Westerns in "Reminiscence of the West" is its B side. So, let's take a look at side A of "Once Upon a Time in the West" first.
Let's start with the origin of Leone's creation of this film. After filming "The Good, the Bad and the Ugly" (1966), Lionel no longer wanted to make western films. At that time, he had already started preparing for the last directorial work of his life, "Once Upon a Time in America." Became his last work). However, when he went to look for investment, because his previous "The Red Dead Trilogy" was so successful, that the film dealers said, I hope you will make another Western film for us, after finishing the filming. After the Westerns, we will invest in "Once Upon a Time in America." Leon has no choice. If he doesn't make this Western movie, he may really not be able to get the investment of "Once Upon a Time in America", so he can only reluctantly do this thing he didn't want to do. But the reason why Leon is a great director is that he did not perfuse this "difficult job". He does nothing, and makes a "last western" if he wants to make it. This western film will end. The history of the entire western film, at the same time, is also the beginning of his next series "The Trilogy of the Past".
Lionel once "interpreted" "Once Upon a Time in the West" in this way: "For this'Dance of Death', I hope to install all the most typical characters in American Western films into my movie-these characters are all borrowed ! New Orleans’ famous prostitutes, romantic robbers, professional executioners who are both merchants and killers, but he hopes to prosper in the new business world; there are also merchants who fantasize about becoming gunmen, lonely avengers, I want to use these five The most typical characters in American Westerns pay tribute to Westerns, and at the same time, they also want to show the sudden change that American society experienced during that period. Therefore, this story is about the birth of a new era and the demise of the old era. These typical characters have not yet been. Before they appeared on the screen, they knew that they were facing death in every sense, not only physical death, but also spiritual death—they were the victims of the new era that was rolling in."
Unlike "The Red Dead Trilogy", which separates itself from American Westerns, we have seen many classic elements of American Westerns in "Once Upon a Time in the West". The five main characters in the film can all be found in American Westerns as their "prototypes", such as "Professional Executioner" Frank, who has the same name as the villain Frank Miller in "High Noon" (1952), and they are also The biggest villain of their respective films. As Leone said, "These characters are borrowed!"
When conceiving the story, Leonne, Dario Aquido, and Bernardo Bertolucci watched a large number of classic Western films at Leon’s home. They drew inspiration from these films, setting up characters, Architecture story. According to "research", "The Desert Stranger" (1954, directed by Nicholas Ray), "The Searcher" (1956, directed by John Ford), "Two Tigers Slaying the Dragon" (1962, directed by John Ford), "Lian Tai" The Railway" (1939, directed by Cecil B. Demir), "The Wilderness" (1953, directed by George Stevens), "The Heroic Seven Dragons" (1960, John Sturges), etc. The films are all "reference works" of "Once Upon a Time in the West".
The reason why Italian Westerns "renovated" Westerns is largely because they "overhead" the American West in the general sense. The story of "Red Dead Redemption" (1964) comes from Kurosawa Akira's samurai film "Intentional Stick" (1961). Leoni puts the background of the story in the western part of the United States, but the story and characters of the film are related to the "Western World". In fact, it doesn't matter much—Leone just "borrowed" the American West to the film, and at the same time labelled the film as a western film. It is precisely because of this that "Red Dead Redemption" has become a beginning of the narrative of Italian Western films. By the time "The Fistful of Twilight" (1965), Leonne had more resources. He could shoot the film longer and slow down the narrative rhythm, which initially formed his operatic narrative style. . "The Fistful of Twilight" still has nothing to do with the "Western History" and "Western Spirit" of the United States. It is still a relatively "overhead" time-space Western movie. In "The Good, the Good and the Bad," Leonie joined the grand American historical background of the Civil War-he finally got access to the land of the western United States. However, the Civil War is not the most important point in the entire history of western development. Therefore, "The Good, the Bad and the Ugly" still has not really integrated into the "Western World" and "Western Spirit" of the United States.
"Once Upon a Time in the West" is a multi-faceted "return" to American Western films. In addition to the character setting and plot reference, we saw the train rolling in with the sound of the steam engine, saw the typical western town, saw the desert farm waiting to be reclaimed, etc., these scenes unfolded the magnificent history of western development Picture scroll. The film not only walked into the historical process of the western development, but also walked into the western spirit of the United States-the spirit of enthusiasm, fearlessness, hard work, and courage to take risks.
Wherever the train went, it brought industrial civilization and at the same time the greed of capitalism. The slaughter of the McBain family was precisely the intersection between civilization, adventurous spirit and greed. This meeting point is of course an inevitable by-product of the "Western Spirit."
John Ford is one of the most important directors in the history of western films, and he is also a director whom Leonie respects very much. Lionel once said that the reason why he would go to make Westerns was, in a sense, that John Ford led him to make Westerns (to the effect). The best way for a director to pay tribute to a Western movie is to pay tribute to John Ford. In addition to referring to John Ford's classics, Leonney's most important tribute to John Ford is undoubtedly choosing John Ford's favorite location-Monument Valley-as the most important location for the film. In addition, John Ford's shadow can also be vaguely seen in the carriage scenes and duel scenes in the film. It was through a tribute to John Ford that Leone took "Once Upon a Time in the West" into the core of American Western films.
"Once Upon a Time in the West" is also a film closer to the history of the West in details. As Chinese, it is hard not to notice the Chinese in the film. Men repairing railways, women washing clothes, cooking, etc., these Chinese workers who were "sold piglets" to the United States should be an indispensable existence in the history of western development, and we rarely see them in American Western films. For the first time Leonie gave them an "identity" so distinctly? It can be seen that in order to shoot this masterpiece of the American Western film, Leonne spent a lot of time studying the history of the western United States. In fact, Leonne, as a perfectionist in artistic creation, has been involved in the film industry. Everyone knows it.
In 1962, three American directors headed by John Ford co-directed a western epic film called "Western Development History", which vigorously promoted one of the pillars of the American spirit-the "Western Spirit." The film uses a family as a clue to more completely show the historical process of the western development of the United States. The film has all the elements of Western films: Indians, carriages, farms, cowboys, railroads, sheriffs, lawbreakers, gunfights... it can be described as a master of Western films. It's a pity that the film's story patchwork is more obvious, and the style is not uniform (directed by the three directors); the scene is grand and majestic, but the details are slightly plain. "Once Upon a Time in the West" is not as comprehensive as "History of Western Development", so American, but "Western History", "Western World", and "Western Spirit" are the three major pieces of "Once Upon a Time in the West". History".
After "Reminiscence of the West", there are of course westerns, but there will be no more Westerns like "Reminiscence of the West". It is a watershed in the history of western film and the "terminator" of a genre. If you only plan to watch one western movie in your life, then watch "Once Upon a Time in the West" is right.
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