Where to watch Once Upon a Time in the West (1968)
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As railroad construction pushes across the Arizona desert, a newly arrived widow finds herself tied to a valuable patch of land and surrounded by danger. A mysterious harmonica-playing gunslinger and a notorious outlaw become involved as powerful interests and ruthless men compete for control of the frontier.
Cast: Claudia Cardinale, Henry Fonda, Jason Robards, Charles Bronson, Gabriele Ferzetti, Paolo Stoppa, Woody Strode, Jack Elam, Keenan Wynn, Frank Wolff, Lionel Stander, Frank Braña
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Trivia & production notes
- Sergio Leone initially intended to retire from Westerns after The Good, the Bad and the Ugly, but accepted this project only when Paramount offered him a generous budget and access to Henry Fonda, his favorite actor.
- Leone commissioned Bernardo Bertolucci and Dario Argento to help develop the film's treatment, and the three spent months at Leone's house watching and analyzing classic Westerns like High Noon and The Searchers to construct a story made entirely of references to American Westerns.
- Henry Fonda initially refused Leone's offer until Leone traveled to New York and pitched him the iconic imagery of his character shooting a child before revealing himself as the villain.
- Leone arranged a special screening of the Dollars Trilogy for Fonda, who had never seen any of Leone's previous work, and Fonda later consulted with Eli Wallach about accepting the role.
- Henry Fonda arrived on set wearing brown contact lenses and a handlebar mustache to make himself look more villainous, but Leone immediately told him to remove them, insisting he did not want the character to resemble a cliche bad guy.
- Leone cast Claudia Cardinale partly because her Italian nationality qualified the production for a tax break.
- Leone wanted Clint Eastwood, Lee Van Cleef, and Eli Wallach to play three gunmen killed in the film as a symbolic farewell to the Dollars Trilogy, but only Wallach was willing; Van Cleef was unavailable and Eastwood declined.
- Interior scenes were shot at Cinecittà studios in Rome, while exterior sequences were filmed across Spain and Utah, including locations in Granada and the Tabernas Desert where the Sweetwater Ranch set was built at what is now called Western Leone.
- The English-language dialogue was translated by Mickey Knox, and while American cast members like Fonda and Bronson provided their own voices, Claudia Cardinale was dubbed by actress Joyce Gordon.
- Composer Ennio Morricone wrote the film's score under Leone's direction before filming began.
Adapted from the Wikipedia article Once Upon a Time in the West, available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Rewritten for StreamShack; errors are ours — tell us about them.
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