One of the many joys of Leone’s 1968 classic is the casting of Henry Fonda as the blue eyed killer Frank, as his menace is even more unsettling given the actor’s previous, more morally upstanding, roles.
If you add the harmonica playing Charles Bronson; a superb score by Ennio Morricone; a pouting, hard working-widow with attitude; supporting gun-toters with the fatalism of a football deprived Mark Lawrenson, and shoot it all with a hint of political context, you have the perfect post “head ‘em off at the pass” western. It even has some amusing lip synch failures, made even more enjoyable by the minimalist dialogue.
It is slow but you will know whether you can handle the languid pace after the bravura opening. Stay with it and you will discover a picture with depth, character and a solid sense of structure, enhanced by its pacing. Like the best cinema, it leaves the viewer enriched with an indelible sense of time and place.
If you add the harmonica playing Charles Bronson; a superb score by Ennio Morricone; a pouting, hard working-widow with attitude; supporting gun-toters with the fatalism of a football deprived Mark Lawrenson, and shoot it all with a hint of political context, you have the perfect post “head ‘em off at the pass” western. It even has some amusing lip synch failures, made even more enjoyable by the minimalist dialogue.
It is slow but you will know whether you can handle the languid pace after the bravura opening. Stay with it and you will discover a picture with depth, character and a solid sense of structure, enhanced by its pacing. Like the best cinema, it leaves the viewer enriched with an indelible sense of time and place.
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