Sergio Leone’s 1968 spaghetti western might be set in the 19th century, but it captured the violence of the ’60s, yet the grandly cinematic film that still somehow embraces humanity.

| Jun 8, 2024

The epic spaghetti Western features an excellent score from Ennio Morricone, sweeping cinematography, and a gritty cast with rugged features that are great for Leone’s close-up and long takes.

| Original Score: 4.5/5 | May 21, 2024

Leone’s gloriously inflated epic isn’t just any old Western. It’s all of them.

| May 26, 2023

It is rare to find a Western that is so immersive, even when the characters aren’t as complex as they could be.

| Feb 2, 2023

Self-aware in every respect, from his dynamic framing to the prolonged showdowns, Leone's meticulous style may distance some viewers from making an emotional connection to his work, but striking dramatic chords is hardly his principal intention.

| Original Score: 4/4 | Mar 20, 2022

The costumes were great as well. Jill McBain stands out from the crowd as a "city" girl when she first arrives - many of her dresses are elegant and beautiful - whereas someone like Cheyenne is always dusty and looks dirty and hot.

| Mar 26, 2021

Although the cast is impressive, with a significant part for a leading lady (something absent from Leone's other ventures), it's the primary antagonist who is most amusing.

| Original Score: 8/10 | Aug 27, 2020

I wish my words could convey just how wonderful this film is. But they can't. Sergio Leone was a poet with a camera.

| Apr 2, 2020

Leone's newest effort, Once Upon a Time in the West, with a major cast and a lot of big studio money behind it, proves that he is simply a serious bore.

| Mar 24, 2020

If there had to be a final Western, Once Upon a Time in the West would be it.

| Mar 24, 2020

Moments of intense realism flow into passages of operatic extravagance; lowbrow burlesque exists side by side with the expression of the most refined shades of feeling.

| Mar 24, 2020

An operatic masterpiece.

| Original Score: 5/5 | Mar 24, 2020

...an exaggerated, fairy-tale variation on the Western, big bad wolf and all.

| Original Score: 3.5/4 | Jun 25, 2018

Leone's violent epic Western is an essential masterpiece.

| Original Score: 5/5 | Oct 3, 2017

[Sergio] Leone creates a horseback epic of bad guys with a heart of gold and an iron engine that reshapes the landscape as its tracks are laid through the wilderness.

| Oct 6, 2016

Once Upon a Time in the West is the mythic Western; an ode to the end of its era.

| Original Score: A | Aug 7, 2014

Gunslingers, one-road towns, horse and buggies... Once Upon a Time in the West has them all, and spread across a sprawling near three hour running time that is as punishing on the ol' rickety knees as it is rewarding to the eyes.

| Sep 8, 2013

There is something touching and maniacal about the two-and-three-quarter- hour result.

| Jun 18, 2013

Leone shows his skills with superb mastery over the medium.

| Original Score: A- | Aug 22, 2012

Sergio Leone's Western is his undisputed masterpiece, a lush, sensuous, elegiac operatic film made on epic yet intimate scale.

| Original Score: A | Jan 30, 2012