You’d think that a 12 minute opening with little to no dialogue would fail to hook an audience, but Leone creates an atmosphere dripping with intensity, ambience and character! One of the greatest films of all time has one of the greatest openings of all time too!
@ Trains stopped in the middle of nowhere when they needed water. Or when the village was a mile or so from the train station. And if you pay attention to the plot you understand why the "farm" was a mansion.
Honestly, if any complaint was to directed at Leone, it would only be that he didn’t give us enough films! He understood, casting, screenplay, scenery, cinematography, and of course music! Oh what music! If any living composer deserves to be counted among the greats of previous centuries, it would be Leone’s friend and collaborator Enio Morricone! The music he wrote for these films is unparalleled!
Sergio was great for choosing faces and editing on the 'cut' ie on movement which makes the transitions so fluid and precise. I totally agree with everything you said. I would have loved to see the war film that he was in the process of acquiring finance for. The opening scene was a close up of hands playing the piano then tracking back to outside a window with soldiers, tanks, people fleeing a city in World War 2....all in one take....:) We have to satisfy ourselves with the war scenes in The Good, The Bad and the Ugly which were epically filmed :)
@@hennagaijin100 yeah, I’m aware. I’m referring to the decade hiatus between movies. It wasn’t meant as a critique, but a mere observation. Most directors who find the kind of success he did would’ve just gone after many projects in that time, but he didn’t. Again, not criticizing, just pointing it out. I would’ve loved to have seen what he would do in the eighties.
Fun fact: Ennio Morricone wrote the “Once Upon a Time in the West” music before filming actually took place, and Sergio Leone filmed everything to match the music. Fucking brilliant.
To dedicate so much screen time to these three characters in the opening scene of the movie, to paint their patience and determination without a single word of dialogue. Every normal person who watches the movie forna first time would guess these would be the main characters of the story but no... in the next scene they are killed by the hero ofnthe story and never return to the screen. Its absolutely amazing directing. Sergio Leone is blowing my mind with this one. Every second of this scene is cinematographic masterpeice.
I think those are rail tie sleepers for building and maintaining the tracks, like the railroad just decided to use them as a platform while being stored.
It was a platform for loading and unloading hundreds of cattle. Leone wouldn't have wanted it to look perfect. He likes things to look used. It's a signature of his westerns.
Woody Strode makes a Mare's Leg almost look like a toy. Such an under appreciated actor. He got more mileage out of a single look than most actors with 1000 pages of dialogue.
The one continuous shot when Claudia Cardinale leaves the train walks into the station and walks into town with the camera rising above the roof of the station to reveal the town is amazing.
Did you know the actor who played knuckles at the beginning with the long blonde hair committed suicide before the scenes right before the shootout and they had to use a stand in for him? That's why they didn't show a close up of his face during the shy one horse scene....
@@swann433 He jumped out of the hotel window with his movie clothes on. And according to a rumour Sergio Leone commented..."get me the coat...we need the coat..."
Few times in the History of cinema you can see this kind of dedication from a filmmaker to the composition of the characters, the time, the sounds, the scenario, the atmosphere. After this minutes we have been already dragged into the dirtiest but most evocative West you can imagine...
Don't know how many times I have watched this excellent movie, always discover new details. On 6:51, at the end of the credits, the line "DIRECTED BY SERGIO LEONE", drops like a barrier in front of the stopping train.
It's brilliant. In highschool we had a short Film Festival and in my group's 10 minutes film we had a 5 minutes intro ending with a car coming to a stop and the last opening credit dropping down like that. Then we had a 2 minutes fight like 60's Batman and 3 minutes blank screen. We didn't win. =)
I saw this movie for the first time a week ago at a special showing at an old movie theatre. I am still processing it but I think it is the best movie I've ever seen, incredible!
Imagine you saw it first in 1968 - as i did - when Henry Fonda was Mr Squeeky-Clean Good Guy Hero. And then the camera cuts from that little boy standing among the bodies of his family...
Fonda was such a perfect choice. Like you I saw this in '68 and that pan to Henry's face... what a shock, fantastic, fantastic, fantastic. the closeups 10 feet tall of those eyes of Bronson... changed my view of film ever after.
well, there is a few equally good... by the same director... :-) Try "Once upon a time in America"... you won't regret! I can only bow down and say: "thank you, Mr Krzysztof Grzegdala for showing me these movies", nearly 40 yrs ago.
Rumor has it that the studios of the time would not finance Leone's film if Jack Elam was not in it. They wanted a really big name from western movies, and they put enormous pressure for Jack to be there. Sergio Leone finally caved in, up to a point. He told the studios "You want him in? He's in..." He just never told them for how long! 😆😂
Such masterful contrast, from the sound of a drop of water to the screeching cacophony of a locomotive train. Sound, timing, detail, character building, camera angle, artistic interpretation; it is all here in one of the greatest film opening of all time...
6:13 Gotta love how human life his little value in Sergio Leone's scripts, yet he lets the fly live. When I first saw this film I thought the fly going to be shot.
The sound of the creaking windmill to create tension is absolute genius, so many directors have copied the subtle technique of sound from Leone, truly the 🐐
Saw this yesterday for the first time in a big screen. Not only the filmmaking, but the sound and sound editing are masterpieces that can only be fully appreciated in a cinema theatre. The use of sound in this particular sequence is a prodigy.
What an admirable movie. Leone's fluency in film making is just off the charts. Everything here is so fluid, calm, logical yet grand and meaningful at the same time.
The original plan for this scene was for the three gunslingers waiting at the station to be played by Clint Eastwood, Lee Van Cleef and Eli Wallach, so that when they all get gunned down by Harmionica, it’s Sergio Leone’s way of telling the audience that he’s moved on from those films and characters and this is something new. Lee Van Cleef and Eli Wallach actually agreed to do it... but Clint Eastwood refused, as his career was really starting to take off. So they went with these three actors instead. Woody Strode and Jack Elam had already been in some classic westerns before, so they were the next best thing.
There are not many movies I watch over and over again. But Once Upon is such a film. And the opening sequence I watch more often than "dank memes" clips.
A lot of prejudice on these kind of westerns since they weren’t John Ford or Howard Hawks like visions. Leone brought it to the next level, same with Peckenpah
Tarantino makes live action Road Runner cartoons, who are you kidding. This movie is a massive boring exercise in excess but it's still a movie, not a cartoon.
Why would Quentin try to "beat" a style he uses excessively. That would be like an artist trying to beat a brush stroke technique, it doesn't make sense to say.
Two of the three hired guns were well-established actors at the time this movie was made: Jack Elam (with a really long list of supporting roles) and Woody Strode (who played the black gladiator Draba in Sparticus, and John Wayne's servant Pompey in The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance).
Al Mulock (3rd gunman) was a well established actor as well,and a Sergio regular. But he committed suicide before the opening scene was completed, and the reason you don't see his face the last few minutes. A stand in was filmed from behind.
One of the best build-ups to an opening film sequence. The tension never wavers. You know something is about to happen, but Leone lets the ambience set the mood that indulges you as you wait.
Imagine how fast on the draw Harmonica was that the guy with the fly was so fast and accurate to be able to catch it with in his gun barrel. Small details that only Sergio Leone could point out in such way to the audience.
Leone had a thin coating of jam put on Elam face so the fly would stick around...I don't believe we hear Elam's actual voice there was a lot of dubbing in this MASTERPIECE.Bronson should have gotten the Academy award for what he was able to say with his face and eyes and no voice when gets his lifelong quest for revenge..absolutely astonishing.
If you skip to the end your not getting the full experience the thing that makes this scene so great is the dramatic build up imagine how dull it would’ve been if the opening was in a hurry to get to the action
One of the all-time great westerns, if not the best ever. Great music!! Bronson's best. Jack Elam and Woody Strode made the opening sequence, along with Bronson's line: "You brought two too many."
I bought a physical copy of this after renting it on RUclips. Such a slow yet intense opening, nothing over the top yet you know something is going to happen.
I'd love to see someone making a blockbuster these days, just to show the bosses a first cut that opens this slowly. I think they would be immediately fired. :D
The fly was even considered for a best supporting actor award.
Or the husky from The Thing
True.
that fly is better actor than Schumer
Was it related to the Mike Pence fly? They are making a come up huh lol
@@epicjackson9070 Unintelligible remark, huh?
Alfred Hitchcock: “I am the master of suspense!”
Sergio Leone: “Hold my spaghetti.”
You’d think that a 12 minute opening with little to no dialogue would fail to hook an audience, but Leone creates an atmosphere dripping with intensity, ambience and character!
One of the greatest films of all time has one of the greatest openings of all time too!
The cinematography is incredible. Every frame looks like a painting. Every shot is so beautifully framed.
Just look at the windmill shadow on the water tank!
a painting of unreal - trains stop not in middle of nowhere. farm house in desert was a mansion , so many plot errors
@ yeah, I guess that takes away its accuracy, but not its beauty.
@ Trains stopped in the middle of nowhere when they needed water. Or when the village was a mile or so from the train station.
And if you pay attention to the plot you understand why the "farm" was a mansion.
Did they really have that large train platforms in those days?
Honestly, if any complaint was to directed at Leone, it would only be that he didn’t give us enough films! He understood, casting, screenplay, scenery, cinematography, and of course music! Oh what music! If any living composer deserves to be counted among the greats of previous centuries, it would be Leone’s friend and collaborator Enio Morricone! The music he wrote for these films is unparalleled!
Sergio was great for choosing faces and editing on the 'cut' ie on movement which makes the transitions so fluid and precise. I totally agree with everything you said. I would have loved to see the war film that he was in the process of acquiring finance for. The opening scene was a close up of hands playing the piano then tracking back to outside a window with soldiers, tanks, people fleeing a city in World War 2....all in one take....:) We have to satisfy ourselves with the war scenes in The Good, The Bad and the Ugly which were epically filmed :)
He didn't give us enough films ------because he dropped dead prematurely.
@@hennagaijin100 yeah, I’m aware. I’m referring to the decade hiatus between movies. It wasn’t meant as a critique, but a mere observation. Most directors who find the kind of success he did would’ve just gone after many projects in that time, but he didn’t. Again, not criticizing, just pointing it out. I would’ve loved to have seen what he would do in the eighties.
Greatest director of all time
Fun fact: Ennio Morricone wrote the “Once Upon a Time in the West” music before filming actually took place, and Sergio Leone filmed everything to match the music. Fucking brilliant.
To dedicate so much screen time to these three characters in the opening scene of the movie, to paint their patience and determination without a single word of dialogue. Every normal person who watches the movie forna first time would guess these would be the main characters of the story but no... in the next scene they are killed by the hero ofnthe story and never return to the screen. Its absolutely amazing directing. Sergio Leone is blowing my mind with this one. Every second of this scene is cinematographic masterpeice.
Think if you just got high from smoking weed for the first time ever about 5 minutes right before the beginning of this moving is starting to come on.
Absolutely! Also, calling anyone in a Sergio Leone film a “hero” is a little generous. 😂 I love the moral ambiguity of his characters.
The greatest opening film sequence, every shot is a masterpiece
Best opening to a Western ever! ... Not surprisingly to one of the top rated Westerns of all time.
Yes
Scenes were little is said are always the most defining parts of a movie.
perfectly put :)
Every sound is a masterpiece!
Wonderful cinematography
What a movie! Even the fly has its part. 😁
Seriosly, this is one iconic film that NO ONE should miss!
The raindrop❤😊
Elam and that fly. Priceless. Like Leone is saying, “Slow down folks, we’ll be here awhile.”
Elam is really underated :)
Dichter Those first (?) five minutes? It's all brilliant, but the stuff he's doing with just his eyes... gawd. Brilliant.
In my top three favorite westerns of all time! this opening scene is straight out genius.
This one, “The Good, the Bad and the Ugly,” and “No Country for Old Men.”
Sergio wasn't just the greatest film maker ever, he was one of the best artist ever.
Never in the history of cinema have sounds described so beautifully the storyline. A milestone, a masterpiece of films.
IMO, Whoever laid all those planks down perfectly like that to make the station platform deserves some kind of special award!!!
Maybe, but I wouldn't want him to build my house.
I think those are rail tie sleepers for building and maintaining the tracks, like the railroad just decided to use them as a platform while being stored.
If you ever want decking in your garden...
It was a platform for loading and unloading hundreds of cattle. Leone wouldn't have wanted it to look perfect. He likes things to look used. It's a signature of his westerns.
Woody Strode makes a Mare's Leg almost look like a toy. Such an under appreciated actor. He got more mileage out of a single look than most actors with 1000 pages of dialogue.
So true!
and Cannonball Run
The one continuous shot when Claudia Cardinale leaves the train walks into the station and walks into town with the camera rising above the roof of the station to reveal the town is amazing.
Tonino Delli Colli is often forgotten but he was a genius with the camera work.
They needed a whole day for this one shot because Leone demanded perfection.
Did you know the actor who played knuckles at the beginning with the long blonde hair committed suicide before the scenes right before the shootout and they had to use a stand in for him? That's why they didn't show a close up of his face during the shy one horse scene....
@@swann433 He jumped out of the hotel window with his movie clothes on. And according to a rumour Sergio Leone commented..."get me the coat...we need the coat..."
Few times in the History of cinema you can see this kind of dedication from a filmmaker to the composition of the characters, the time, the sounds, the scenario, the atmosphere.
After this minutes we have been already dragged into the dirtiest but most evocative West you can imagine...
Brilliant attention to detail and building up an atmosphere of expectation and suspense! .... 5 Star Movie Direction!
Don't know how many times I have watched this excellent movie, always discover new details.
On 6:51, at the end of the credits, the line "DIRECTED BY SERGIO LEONE", drops like a barrier in front of the stopping train.
It's brilliant. In highschool we had a short Film Festival and in my group's 10 minutes film we had a 5 minutes intro ending with a car coming to a stop and the last opening credit dropping down like that. Then we had a 2 minutes fight like 60's Batman and 3 minutes blank screen. We didn't win. =)
@@rhoddryice5412 Sounds good, you have a 10/10 from me.
I took note of that as well. Awesome touch.
I think of it like a clapboard. "Once Upon a Time in the West, scene 1, take 4..."
The windmill rusty sound is stuck in my head till this day since i watched this movie.
A fly, dripping fluid and a windmill. Best opening scene ever.
I saw this movie for the first time a week ago at a special showing at an old movie theatre. I am still processing it but I think it is the best movie I've ever seen, incredible!
+teeye1 Took me a while too. Now I know it's one of the greatest film ever made.
Imagine you saw it first in 1968 - as i did - when Henry Fonda was Mr Squeeky-Clean Good Guy Hero.
And then the camera cuts from that little boy standing among the bodies of his family...
Fonda was such a perfect choice. Like you I saw this in '68 and that pan to Henry's face... what a shock, fantastic, fantastic, fantastic. the closeups 10 feet tall of those eyes of Bronson... changed my view of film ever after.
well, there is a few equally good... by the same director... :-) Try "Once upon a time in America"... you won't regret!
I can only bow down and say: "thank you, Mr Krzysztof Grzegdala for showing me these movies", nearly 40 yrs ago.
Keep processing. This isn't TGTB&TU but you'll love it.
Sergio's intro is like a small movie, in itself!🤠
Fantastico!!!!
Jack Elam got only a few minutes but was nonetheless majestic. The scene with a fly is a gem.
Rumor has it that the studios of the time would not finance Leone's film if Jack Elam was not in it. They wanted a really big name from western movies, and they put enormous pressure for Jack to be there. Sergio Leone finally caved in, up to a point. He told the studios "You want him in? He's in..." He just never told them for how long! 😆😂
Yeah, it’s all Leone, but glorious Jack Elam sure fits into Leone’s type of characters
Sergio and Ennio unbeatable combo..
The actors count for nothing? They all played brilliantly.
Such masterful contrast, from the sound of a drop of water to the screeching cacophony of a locomotive train. Sound, timing, detail, character building, camera angle, artistic interpretation; it is all here in one of the greatest film opening of all time...
Doesn't get any better! Woody Strode such an underrated actor that is finally starting to get his due.
6:13 Gotta love how human life his little value in Sergio Leone's scripts, yet he lets the fly live. When I first saw this film I thought the fly going to be shot.
This film doesn’t require you to watch it multiple times to appreciate it.. the greatness of it is obvious while you’re initially watching it
Leone must've been a GENIUS directing that fly
The sound of the creaking windmill to create tension is absolute genius, so many directors have copied the subtle technique of sound from Leone, truly the 🐐
We found it...
The greatest movie opening of all time
You're goddamn right!
Scena che lascia basiti da oltre 50 anni: nessuno ha neppure provato a imitarla
Such an incredible build-up. You can feel their every thought almost
One of the BEST opening scenes in a movie ever. I think about it every once in a while like tonight 😝
Saw this yesterday for the first time in a big screen. Not only the filmmaking, but the sound and sound editing are masterpieces that can only be fully appreciated in a cinema theatre. The use of sound in this particular sequence is a prodigy.
Most suspenseful opening scene I think I’ve ever seen. Brilliant
The opening and ending scenes are my favourite scenes, the bits between them are incredible as well
What an admirable movie. Leone's fluency in film making is just off the charts. Everything here is so fluid, calm, logical yet grand and meaningful at the same time.
Jack Elam got the greatest bit-part role ever.
Greatest opening to a western.Period!!
Arguably the greatest opening ever!
John Sailors Agreed every film student should watch this!!
Actually it closing of westerns in general. He kills it off
Come on, you can't beat Day Of Anger's kickass title credits.
The original plan for this scene was for the three gunslingers waiting at the station to be played by Clint Eastwood, Lee Van Cleef and Eli Wallach, so that when they all get gunned down by Harmionica, it’s Sergio Leone’s way of telling the audience that he’s moved on from those films and characters and this is something new.
Lee Van Cleef and Eli Wallach actually agreed to do it... but Clint Eastwood refused, as his career was really starting to take off. So they went with these three actors instead. Woody Strode and Jack Elam had already been in some classic westerns before, so they were the next best thing.
Imagine Eastwood playing a baddie as Fonda did in this.
Sergio Leone, best cinema director in history.
There are not many movies I watch over and over again. But Once Upon is such a film. And the opening sequence I watch more often than "dank memes" clips.
If you don't know Sergio. Then you don't know westerns.
A lot of prejudice on these kind of westerns since they weren’t John Ford or Howard Hawks like visions. Leone brought it to the next level, same with Peckenpah
@@DMalltheway it’s a metaphor for the end of the Eisenhower era of America and beginning of the Vietnam era
@@thomascurtis9529 Definitely, you got that right.
Amazing scenery and tension. Oh and that squeaky whatever is brilliant.
This is one the best western ever made!!!!
That windmill sound takes me right back to seeing this for the first time on a crappy VHS
Best movie ever made.....
100 % correct !!!!
Pure Western, pure art, pure Sergio Leone...
Jack Elam was brilliant , need more actors like this , too much emphasis nowadays on looks and what really makes a great actor
Quentin will never beat this
funny pussychanger never!
Tarantino makes live action Road Runner cartoons, who are you kidding. This movie is a massive boring exercise in excess but it's still a movie, not a cartoon.
Hateful Eight was pretty damn good.
Why would Quentin try to "beat" a style he uses excessively. That would be like an artist trying to beat a brush stroke technique, it doesn't make sense to say.
It's not about beating or being better or worse. It's about inspiration and what comes from it.
Two of the three hired guns were well-established actors at the time this movie was made: Jack Elam (with a really long list of supporting roles) and Woody Strode (who played the black gladiator Draba in Sparticus, and John Wayne's servant Pompey in The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance).
Al Mulock (3rd gunman) was a well established actor as well,and a Sergio regular. But he committed suicide before the opening scene was completed, and the reason you don't see his face the last few minutes. A stand in was filmed from behind.
@@hennagaijin100 yeah sad, i know where the hotel is where he jumped of roof,AL MULOCK rest in piece great actor
@@hennagaijin100 Oh wow, that's really sad. Did not know that.
The opening scene alone should have won ten Oscars!
Movie is amazing just watched it for the first time last night .
one of the best cowboy movie i ve ever seen.
Best opening scene ever. All gone, sad...
Why? Death is the sad part of life. Can't avoid it.
That was one talented fly.
One of the best build-ups to an opening film sequence. The tension never wavers. You know something is about to happen, but Leone lets the ambience set the mood that indulges you as you wait.
The greatest movie opening ever
And The greatest windmill sound I've ever heard
Insanely inspiring, you can literally feel every moment, the framing is amazing , the whole sequence ties together brilliantly
Best opening of any Western ever !!!
The scene today…CGI fly, CGI Windmill, CGI drop of water.
Shows how overrated words are.
Words are meaningless if they have no,well, meaning
i feel like it shows how powerful words can be when you use strictly the ones that are necessary
Imagine how fast on the draw Harmonica was that the guy with the fly was so fast and accurate to be able to catch it with in his gun barrel. Small details that only Sergio Leone could point out in such way to the audience.
That's such a good point, details like this are lost on me :/
You don't no how to play
someone give that goddamn fly an oscar
Leone had a thin coating of jam put on Elam face so the fly would stick around...I don't believe we hear Elam's actual voice there was a lot of dubbing in this MASTERPIECE.Bronson should have gotten the Academy award for what he was able to say with his face and eyes and no voice when gets his lifelong quest for revenge..absolutely astonishing.
CC also.
You could never have a movie opening this slow today.
Best movie , best cast & best music ever in one film
Best western ever!
Movie *
what about The good, the bad and the evil?
I think For A Few Dollars More has it beat, but this is pretty top tier
Robert M ugly not evil
This is Art
No flies were injured in the making of this movie.
The fly had it coming.
Who played the fly? He was very believable.
Man that scene is something of a trip.
his name is Jack.........Jack Elam......And don't you forget it !
I remember how surprised I was. There is this guy, a cold-blooded killer, yet he does not swat the fly that annoys him.
If you skip to the end your not getting the full experience the thing that makes this scene so great is the dramatic build up imagine how dull it would’ve been if the opening was in a hurry to get to the action
One of the greatest opening scenes in Western history!
This is a work of art.
Best opening scene in cinema history certainly.Leone is a genius and prove that cinema is 6th art..
One of the best intro in movies ever..
Yes, the sheer patience from Leone and the trust that the audience will stay with it is something you won't see too much of these days.
I usually skip the intro, but this one i had to watch again. I agree it is one of the best!
Surrounding sounds, scenery, playing...first 10minutes(incl.fight) is absolutely best from movie. :-)
One of the greatest films of all time
One of the best opening scenes ever. Back when movies were movies
This is one of the best opening scenes in film history.
But you KNOW tons of people probably walked out in 1968.
“Fuckin’ GET ON WITH IT!!!”
One of the all-time great westerns, if not the best ever. Great music!! Bronson's best. Jack Elam and Woody Strode made the opening sequence, along with Bronson's line: "You brought two too many."
And it was literally the legendary Al Mulock's last scene in his career.
John Vinga
Then last scene in his life. I believe he died the next day .
@@johnvinga5446 Anyone knows why Al Mulock's name is not on the opening credits? It says: Guest Stars: Woody Strode, Jack Elam.
Al Mulock was in both opening scenes for this movie as well as Leone’s The Good, the Bad and the Ugly. Both great scenes.
This is still only about half to two-thirds of the full sequence; it's like fifteen minutes long in total.
This is the best opening to any movie of all time.
I bought a physical copy of this after renting it on RUclips. Such a slow yet intense opening, nothing over the top yet you know something is going to happen.
Such an amazing work.
Greatest Western on the big screen ever besides the searchers.
no words, yet so much said.
Oscar for minor role for the fly :D
Sergio Leone is a legend
I'd love to see someone making a blockbuster these days, just to show the bosses a first cut that opens this slowly. I think they would be immediately fired. :D
the build-up is so slow but so interesting.... especially if if you rewatch it, you start to start noticing small details...
How have I missed this movie? Got to watch it. Going on the hunt now to find it!
R.I.P. - Ennnio Morricone ...
The best opening.. ever ❤❤❤❤❤❤
This was just great movie making.
Masterful in a thousand ways. Casting? The man knew how to show a soul in a face. My all time favorite film.
Sergio Leone's sure direction created a benchmark in the western genre.
1:56 - that moment when internet was cut off
My favorite cinema scene
It is not a western it is a masterpiece