Top 250 Challenge: 152

C'era una volta il West (1968)
Number 26 on IMDb's Top 250

A mysterious stranger with a harmonica joins forces with a notorious desperado to protect a beautiful widow from a ruthless assassin working for the railroad in this long frontier epic. Mysterious pasts and the strength of loyalties is explored amid lightning fast gun battles and stylish vistas. Hilarity ensues.

Trivia: Segio Leone made this movie as a tribute westerns and included scenes from other westerns including High Noon, 3:10 to Yuma, Shane, The Searchers, The Magnificent Seven, The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance, and a Duel In The Sun, among others.

Wow, I mean wow! Buzz Aldrin could have been talking about this movie instead of the Moon when he said "Magnificent desolation." The look of this movie was so rich, yet so desolate. Most people consider this Leone's best movie. It has also been called the greatest western ever ever made, and it is a doozy. Just consider this. Charles Bronson is Harmonica, a quiet man on a mission of revenge. Jason Robards is Cheyenne, wrongfully accused of killing one man and three children. And to top it off, the bad guy is none other then Henry Fonda...Yep, Henry Fonda, and he nails it. Shot in full on Leone style, sweeping vistas followed with full face shots taking up the whole screen, long periods of time with people looking around or at each other without saying anything [the movie was 2 hours and 45 minutes long and has enough dialog for about half a West Wing episode] this movie blew me away. Very very good movie.