Once Upon a Time in the West
Once Upon a Time in the West (Italian: C'era una volta il West, "Once upon a time (there was) the West") is a 1968 epic spaghetti Western film directed by Sergio Leone, who co-wrote it with Sergio Donati based on a story by Dario Argento, Bernardo Bertolucci and Leone. It stars Henry Fonda, cast against type as the villain, Charles Bronson as his nemesis, Jason Robards as a bandit and Claudia Cardinale as a newly widowed homesteader. The widescreen cinematography was by Tonino Delli Colli and the acclaimed film score was by Ennio Morricone.
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| Produced by | Fulvio Morsella
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| Running time | 166 minutes
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| Language | Italian
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| Budget | $5 million
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| Box office | $5,321,508 (US)
14,873,804 admissions (France) 13,000,000 admissions (Germany) |
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- Al Mulock, who played one of the three gunmen in the opening sequence, committed suicide by jumping from his hotel window in full costume after a day's shooting. Production manager Claudio Mancini and screenwriter Mickey Knox, who were sitting in a room in the hotel, witnessed Mulock's body pass by their window. Knox recalled in an interview that while Mancini put Mulock in his car to drive him to the hospital, director Sergio Leone said to Mancini, "Get the costume! We need the costume!" Mulock, who had appeared as the one-armed bounty hunter in Leone's "The Good, The Bad & The Ugly", was wearing the costume he wore in the movie when he made his fatal leap.
- Body count: 29.......
- Henry Fonda originally turned down a role in the picture. Director Sergio Leone flew to the United States and met with Fonda, who asked why he was wanted for the movie. Sergio replied, "Picture this: the camera shows a gunman from the waist down pulling his gun and shooting a running child. The camera pans up to the gunman's face and... it's Henry Fonda." (Until then, and with one exception, Fonda had only been cast in "good guy" roles. Leone wanted the audience to be shocked.)
- After completing the Dollars trilogy (Per un pugno di dollari, Per qualche dollaro in più, and Il buono, il brutto, il cattivo.), Sergio Leone didn't want to do another western and began working on Once Upon a Time in America. However, after the huge success of the Dollars Trilogy in the States in 1967 Leone wanted to produce films in the United States and he began selling the idea for Once Upon a Time in America, but studios wouldn't let him do it until he made another Western for them. After thinking about it, Leone concluded that he should do another trilogy which begins with C'era una volta il West, develops into Giù la testa, and ends with Once Upon a Time in America (1984). "Three historical periods which toughened America."
- The Flagstone set reportedly cost as much as the entire budget for Leone's Per un pugno di dollari.
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