Forty
years ago today, Sergio Leone’s Once Upon
a Time in the West had its world première in Rome, an event which, it goes
without saying, should not be allowed to pass without notice, even though that
is precisely what seems to have happened throughout this anniversary year.
Whereas 2005 saw the opening of the Once
Upon a Time in Italy...: The Westerns of Sergio Leone exhibition at the
Autry Museum in Los Angeles, followed, in 2006, by commemorative events marking
the fortieth anniversary of The Good, the
Bad and Ugly, and a season of Italian Westerns at the 2007 Venice film
Festival, 2008 has come and (almost) gone with not so much as a screeching
train whistle sounded in celebration of what is often called “the greatest
Western ever madeâ€.
There
was, of course, a showing of the newly restored version of the film at the
Samuel Goldwyn Theater in L.A. in June, which was billed by the Academy of
Motion Picture Arts and Sciences as marking “the 40th anniversary of
the film’s 1968 release in Italyâ€, though the fact the restoration had already
been shown at the Rome Film Festival in October, 2007, suggested that this was
more a matter of convenient timing than a committed attempt to celebrate the
Great Event. Even when the restoration played, as part of the London Film Festival,
to a packed house in Leicester Square this October, it was left to Sir
Christopher Frayling to make the point in his introduction that it was in fact the film’s fortieth
anniversary. He could also, had he wished, have drawn attention to the irony of
Paramount Pictures paying what one can safely assume was considerably more than
a fistful of dollars to restore a film which they themselves had butchered in
the first place (giving it, in the memorable words of films & filming’s David Austen, “the appearance of having been
savaged by a rampant lawn-mowerâ€), but was, of course, far too polite to do so.
While
such screenings may certainly be considered better than a poke in the eye with
a pointed stick, they nonetheless fall far short of what might – and ought – to have been done. Open-air
showings in Monument Valley, for instance, exhibitions in AlmerÃa and at
Cinecittà Studios, a special concert to mark both the film’s release and the recent eightieth birthday of
composer Ennio Morricone, the carving of Charles Bronson’s face into Mount
Rushmore – to name only the most obvious.
In a
way, however, this muted (or, to be blunt, virtually non-existent) response
mirrors the film’s initial reception in 1968-1969. In Italy, it made a
respectable box-office showing, though less so than The Good, the Bad and the Ugly. In France, it proved hugely
popular, running in Paris for two years. But in America, the shortened (by some
twenty-odd minutes) version took only one million dollars before being
consigned to cinematic Boot Hill, the words of Time magazine’s verdict carved on its marker: “Tedium in the
Tumbleweedâ€. Audiences expecting another installment in the Dollars series were disappointed by the film’s deliberate pace and
relative lack of action and humour (to say nothing of the fact that the story,
post-Paramount cuts, didn’t make much sense). And critics, many of whom were
hostile to the very idea of Italian Westerns, unwisely chose to dismiss the
film instead of reserving judgment (as the aforementioned David Austen did)
until a more complete version was made available. Nor were they prepared to
accept what Christopher Frayling terms Leone’s decision to collide “fairy tale
images of the West with the real thing,†which, as John Gillett darkly put it
in the Monthly Film Bulletin,
suggested “that Leone has set out to make a Western for Art.â€
Today,
of course, Once Upon a Time in the West
has completed a comeback only marginally less improbable than George Foreman’s second
tenure as heavyweight champion of the world, regularly featuring in lists of
the Top Ten Westerns of all time, and finding an echo in films as diverse as
they are generally unworthy (Once Upon a
Time in Mexico, Once Upon a Time in
China, Once Upon a Time in the
Midlands), to say nothing of being championed by such notables as John
Boorman, Martin Scorsese, George Lucas, John Carpenter, and Quentin Tarantino.
As Boorman so eloquently put it, “In Once
Upon a Time in the West the Western reaches its apotheosis. Leone’s title
is a declaration of intent and also his gift to America of its lost fairy
stories. This is the kind of masterpiece that can occur outside trends and
fashion. It is both the greatest and the last Western.â€
Next
year will see a double-bill of Leone anniversaries – the eightieth of his birth
and the twentieth of his death – and it is to be hoped that fitting
commemorative events will be arranged to mark both occasions (as well as the
release of Once Upon a Time in the West
outside Italy). At present, Sir Christopher Frayling, the man who has done more
for Leone’s reputation than anyone else, is in discussion with the Italian
Cultural Institute in London to arrange a Leone symposium, complete with
exhibition and screenings, for April, the month of Leone’s death. And surely it
would take little effort to persuade Ennio Morricone to arrange a special
concert in honour of his greatest collaborator and friend? And then there’s
Rome, and AlmerÃa, and Arizona . . . In the Chinese calendar, 2009 is
designated the Year of the Ox, but among aficionados of Sergio Leone, the
Western, and great cinema, it will be surely be known as the Year of the Lion .
. .