Once Upon a Time in the West

Considered by some to be Sergio Leone's greatest Western, this huge saga opens with an incredibly drawn-out credit sequence, in which the camera shifts back and forth between bad guy Henry Fonda's three hired killers who are all waiting for Charles Bronson to arrive on a train: one has water dripping on his bald head, another is busy shooing a pesky fly, and the third is cracking his knuckles (all in all, the sequence lasts a full 12 minutes). When Bronson arrives, he quickly assesses the situation and blows the three amateurs to kingdom come, after which he and Fonda become the main contenders in a battle between farm owner Claudia Cardinale and a railroad executive. In the final third of this long, but consistently engrossing narrative, Fonda decides to muscle in on the railroad business for himself--and learns that, in the “new” West, money talks a lot louder than guns and a tough reputation. Arriving on DVD in a handsome double-disc set (a steal at $19.99), Leone's 1968 classic looks and sounds fabulous with its gorgeous widescreen transfer and full-bodied Dolby Digital 5.1 soundtrack (nicely showcasing Ennio Morricone's splendid score). DVD extras include an enlightening commentary track by film historian Sir Christopher Frayling (with additional comments by, among others, directors John Carpenter, John Milius, and Alex Cox), three retrospective documentaries (totaling 69 minutes), the seven-minute feature “Railroad: Revolutionizing the West,” and photo galleries. Highly recommended. (R. Pitman)[Blu-ray Review—June 7, 2011—Paramount, 165 min., PG-13, $24.99—Making its first appearance on Blu-ray, 1968's Once Upon a Time in the West sports a fine transfer with DTS-HD 5.1 sound. Blu-ray extras include the unrated minute-longer restored version of the film, audio commentary (with filmmakers John Carpenter, John Milius, and Alex Cox; film historians Sir Christopher Frayling and Dr. Sheldon Hall; and cast and crew including costar Claudia Cardinale), the retrospective featurettes “An Opera of Violence” (29 min.), “The Wages of Sin” (20 min.), and “Something to Do with Death” (18 min.), a “Railroad: Revolutionizing the West” segment (7 min.), “Locations Then & Now” (5 min.), a photo montage, and trailers. Bottom line: an excellent Blu-ray debut for this classic Leone western.]