Jack Elam and the Fly in 'Once Upon a Time in the West'
pov.imv.au.dk
pov.imv.au.dk
And the excellent scene that follows (after the train stops without any passengers departing, or so the gang thinks):
I don't remember where I read the story, but it might have been in the DVD extras. Henry Fonda grew a goatee and dyed his hair black before he flew to Spain for the start of filming. When he got there and Leone saw him he screamed "nooooo" because he hired Fonda to be the baby-faced assassin.
Also, aside from the visuals, the music in this film is probably the best match between music and video ever. Ennio Morricone's soundtrack is pure genius.
I presume you're talking about the mood of the music matching with the video, but they match in another way as well. Undoubtedly you already know this, but I wanted to add for people who don't: the music was composed first, and was played during filming, allowing the actors to synchronize their movements with the music.
The bit about Henry Fonda changing his appearance and Sergio Leone not agreeing with that: I think you're right it's on the DVD. There's a separate soundtrack with comments from various people while the movie is playing, and I /think/ it's in there somewhere, but I'm not 100% sure. They also talk about how Henry Fonda was very famous at the time, famous for playing the good guy. Seeing him playing the bad guys had quite a shocking effect on audiences, which was Leone's intention. A bit like Tom Hanks suddenly playing a vicious assassin (more relatable for people my age).
FWIW, Tom Hanks was in Cloud Atlas, where he played at least one evil character (though it was Hugh Grant I remember as more vicious, which was also out of type for him, at least at the time).
You’re really going to point a loaded gun at yourself, including looking down the barrel (and potentially shoot your self in the face), to appreciate the fly you just caught? The fly you still haven’t killed? Which can now escape while you appreciate it?
And which, it turns out, ends up escaping when the gunman gets distracted. And which you could have killed at any point along the way in about 10 easier ways if you didn’t want to try to be fancy?
Well, it turns out that does indeed fit their character haha. And is good foreshadowing for most of the ‘bad guys’ in the movie, and to some extent the ending.
A really amazing classic, if you’re not stuck in ‘TikTok attention span’ mode anyway.
Also, a really funny parody of the spaghetti western (which includes some of the same folks - ‘Support your local sheriff’).
"Why, if I'd pulled that trigger while your finger was in the barrel, that gun woulda blowed up in ma face!
Wouldn't have done my finger a helluva lot of good either."
I loved this movie when I was a kid.
Middling filmmakers and authors make a work about a specific genre.
It's also a treat to watch Kurosawa's Seven Samurai, Yojimbo, and Sanjuro; then Leone's Dollars Trilogy; then Dirty Harry; then Woo. "The mysterious stranger" throughout the ages, indeed.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sad_Hill_Cemetery
It's also a very beatuful area for hiking around there.
Love this movie and the scene but definitely don't relate much to more involved interpretations. That said, I'm the first to admit I'm no sophisticate and am interested in other takes.
I'd recommend watching the disc in SDR mode. It looked great that way.
> The biggest reason for sticking with your purchase is probably the application of WCG and Dolby Vision HDR, with the image now a lush — but faithful — palette that enjoys those sun-burnt skin tones (a few pink lips look kinda odd on occasion, but for the most part it's well handled) dominating wood browns, dirty desert backgrounds and often stunning blue skies. Black levels are rich and deep, but don't swallow up all the shadow detail, and the film — in comparison to the old blu-ray — looks a whole lot more "4K" given what we've come to expect from the benefits of WCG and HDR, to the point where it'll likely end up being the default playback for those pot committed on this release.
I want to see movies this great again - you can, but only with streaming. No CGI here but maybe a little syrup on Jack Elam's face ;-)
There's the first 3 movies, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dollars_Trilogy (A Fistful of Dollars (1964), For a Few Dollars More (1965), The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (1966)).
This movie was in the second trilogy, "once upon a time", Once Upon a Time in the west, Duck you Sucker, and Once Upon a Time in America. And from wikipedia there's a much better and longer original European cut that is 3 hours 49 mins instead of the 2 hours 19 minute cut. I can't figure out how to stream that.