Once Upon a Time In The West isn't just the greatest Spaghetti Western of all time, but the best Western well... pretty much ever, really.
Despite losing out on iconic status to Leone's previous directorial effort (the aforementioned Good, Bad, and Ugly), Once Upon a Time is undoubtedly the better movie, telling a tale that speaks more to the harsh realties of the Old West - of social injustice, corruption and violence - than it does its mythology.
The film itself is flawless, with Charles Bronson offering an immaculate performance as Harmonica, and Henry Fonda too - cast against type as the villain - offering an incredible portrayal of a sadistic accomplice to Frank Wolff's Rail Baron. It's just incredible, and the way in which Leone brings together personal struggle with broader, more historic themes of social injustice and exploitation - the track from which the West was made - is masterful. Beautiful, even, aided by an elegant Morricone score that again, stands out as being one of the best compositions to have ever been assembled in the medium.
WhatCulture's very own resident movie guy, Ewan has been working in the content creation biz for over 10 years now, having started as a freelance contributor to WhatCulture Gaming all the way back in 2015. After graduating with a First-Class Honours in History from Northumbria University in 2017 (where he won a prize for a totally killer dissertation on the Watergate years), Ewan took on the role of Comics Editor at WhatCulture and quickly developed WhatCulture Comics into one of the biggest superhero-focused channels on YouTube. He followed this with a brief hiatus at Screen Rant in 2021, where he worked across the Gaming and Film sections as a writer and editor, before returning to WhatCulture as a Senior Content Producer / Presenter in 2023. He started his own podcast, We Love Dad Movies, in 2022, and has contributed several written pieces to the Eisner-nominated comics website Shelfdust as well.
In his current role, Ewan incorporates his love of cinema, comic books, and history into written pieces and video essays for WhatCulture's Film & TV channel, as well as WhatCulture Gaming and WhatCulture Horror, with a particular focus on nineties-era Dad Movies, old school Westerns, and Golden Age Hollywood Noir. John Carpenter is his fave, and he thinks Batman Beyond should never have been cancelled. If that's your vibe, you'll probably like his stuff.
