Continuing our Sergio Leone screening series at the Flanaplex (curated and presented by Rahul Kohli), we have reached ONCE UPON A TIME IN THE WEST.

I love this movie - it's a riveting and beautifully composed epic, entangling its four central characters in various collision courses set against the vanishing frontier as a railroad - and the future it represents - pierce the American West with inevitability.

Cast is wonderful. Charles Bronson turns stoic stillness into a captivating art, Jason Robards is a scoundrel with titanic charm. I personally gravitate the most toward Claudia Cardinale and Henry Fonda's work in the film, with the former radiating grace and strength, and the latter making for one of cinema's most fully-formed villains.…

"There were no dollars in them days."

All of Sergio Leone's westerns have been about the arrival of capitalism (both to the historical American West and to then-contemporary 1960's Italy), but Once Upon a Time in the West takes a slightly more specific perspective. Instead of looking at the (monetary) value of life, it uses the symbol of the cowboy to chart how the arrival of capital and industry parallels the decline of traditional male heroism. Industrialization causes heroic masculinity to defensively over-inflate and begin to collapse in on itself. The film takes this macho war hero whose glory days are behind him and shows how society is moving forward without him. Removed from the spotlight, this symbolic centerpiece is…

Although Sergio Leone never really made anything better or more entertaining than The Good, the Bad & the Ugly in my opinion, he did come incredibly close to repeating that cinematic feat with this spaghetti western epic. A jaw-dropping work of blazing originality that features precision craftsmanship in all aspects of filmmaking, Once Upon a Time in the West is a western that fuses breathtaking art into the legacy of the Old Wild West unlike any example before or since.

The story revolves around a small chunk of land which is the region's only water source. The family that owns the land is slaughtered by Frank & his gang, after which the ownership transfers to Jill, the widow of the murdered family.…

Once upon a time in the West there was a frontier built on capitalism and individual struggle. That world has gone. The era of corporatism arrived and the world grew. Once Upon a Time in the West is about the arrival of civilisation. Henry Fonda's terrifying villain Frank is torn between his wild ways and his desire to become a businessman. Frank is unabashedly individualistic, but he is prophesised to become a partner or leader. The changing face of capital moved from the individual to the corporation. Money is the ultimate weapon, never a gun. Compared to previous Leone movies, this is a film of negotiations more than shootouts. Its chief conflict is civilisation fighting against the frontier. Latter day…