Once Upon a Time in the West (Sergio Leone, 1968)

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MichaelB
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#51 Post by MichaelB » Sat Sep 06, 2008 8:27 am

colinr0380 wrote:According to Stamp he regretted turning down the part in retrospect but after getting advice from Ustinov at the end of Billy Budd that he should not sell out and do anything with his new found fame he became a bit too choosy about roles for a few years after (he also talks about turning down Alfie).
He more or less abandoned film acting altogether in the late 1960s, after shooting Toby Dammit and Teorema back to back - he loved working with Fellini (who called him "Terencino Francobollo", a literal translation of his name), but didn't get on with Pasolini at all.

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Person
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#52 Post by Person » Sat Sep 06, 2008 11:57 pm

MichaelB wrote:
colinr0380 wrote:According to Stamp he regretted turning down the part in retrospect but after getting advice from Ustinov at the end of Billy Budd that he should not sell out and do anything with his new found fame he became a bit too choosy about roles for a few years after (he also talks about turning down Alfie).
He more or less abandoned film acting altogether in the late 1960s, after shooting Toby Dammit and Teorema back to back - he loved working with Fellini (who called him "Terencino Francobollo", a literal translation of his name), but didn't get on with Pasolini at all.
"Getting on" with Pasolini seems to have been an insurmountable challenge for any male of our species. And Terence Stamp is one of the most open and friendly people on the planet. Fellini was a more suitable choice for Terry. But he gave superb performances in both films.
Last edited by Person on Sun Sep 07, 2008 6:15 am, edited 1 time in total.

flyonthewall2983
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#53 Post by flyonthewall2983 » Sun Sep 07, 2008 12:02 am

Has Terence ever done anything in a convincing American accent?

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colinr0380
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#54 Post by colinr0380 » Sun Sep 07, 2008 6:50 am

flyonthewall2983 wrote:Has Terence ever done anything in a convincing American accent?
Why, should he have? :wink:

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tojoed
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#55 Post by tojoed » Sun Sep 07, 2008 7:49 am

King Prendergast wrote:
Somewhere I read once that someone said that seeing Leone's films in FF isn't really seeing them at all, so I'll give the film a 2nd chance on DVD.
Somewhere I heard that seeing anything in a pan and scan form is not really seeing it. Yeah I think I remember that.....

In all honesty, watching it on a TV screen is not really seeing it.

Nothing
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#56 Post by Nothing » Sun Sep 07, 2008 9:12 am

Balls to Arcade Fire. That is, however, perhaps the greatest moment in all cinema, from a little earlier than this, when Robards says "he's whittlin' on a piece of wood..." and Fonda rides up, continuing until the wide reveal at the beginning of the flashback. It kind of peters out after that. But, in terms of pure cinema, nothing can get close to Leone here - except perhaps the first appearance of Fonda & Co. out of the dust around the tree stumps towards the beginning of the same film or, perhaps, the three way stand-off at the end of GBU. Yes, a great, great film, despite it's frustrating flaws (the cuts / simplifications in the narrative that Leone was forced to make mid-shoot creating an uneven middle-section; also, the scenes where Bronson taunts Cardinale for the benefit of Fonda's men, when Robards rescues Bronson on the train and, later, when Fonda had to fight off his own men after they've been paid by Morton are a little boring after you've seen them 30+ times). I might ultimately lean towards OUATIA for it's overall emotional impact and sense of 'meatiness'.

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#57 Post by flyonthewall2983 » Sun Sep 07, 2008 9:47 am

colinr0380 wrote:
flyonthewall2983 wrote:Has Terence ever done anything in a convincing American accent?
Why, should he have? :wink:
I imagine it would have been a problem if he couldn't if he ultimately did the role of Harmonica.

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MichaelB
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#58 Post by MichaelB » Sun Sep 07, 2008 10:13 am

flyonthewall2983 wrote:I imagine it would have been a problem if he couldn't if he ultimately did the role of Harmonica.
Then again, that part wasn't exactly talky - how many lines did Bronson have to deliver?

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colinr0380
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#59 Post by colinr0380 » Sun Sep 07, 2008 11:02 am

flyonthewall2983 wrote:
colinr0380 wrote:
flyonthewall2983 wrote:Has Terence ever done anything in a convincing American accent?
Why, should he have? :wink:
I imagine it would have been a problem if he couldn't if he ultimately did the role of Harmonica.
I understand your point. In Blue the accent's from all over the place, but then so's the character (and I'm not sure I exactly 'buy' Bronson as a Native American in the Leone film, as much as I like his stoical performance!) I suppose Stamp is just Cockney, just like Connery did everything from an Irish New York cop to a Russian submarine commander in Scottish! He's just 'Connery'! It's a style of acting coming from a completely different place than method, naturalistic, trying to 'become' the character style.

OK, it's nice when some gesture is made towards verisimilitude, the correct accent or historical accuracy, but that has never seemed exactly at the forefront of filmmaker's minds when an exciting story, name actors and buget considerations are probably considered more important! That doesn't mean something interesting cannot still be produced however - the interestingly skewed take of Italian films made in Spain with dubbed actors on the American West are a case in point!

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#60 Post by Nakadai_77 » Fri Jan 01, 2010 12:25 am

colinr0380 wrote:Watching Mark Cousins' Scene By Scene interview with Terence Stamp last night it was interesting to hear that Stamp had been offered the role of Harmonica in OUATITW (maybe something that influenced him taking the lead role in Blue?)

According to Stamp he regretted turning down the part in retrospect but after getting advice from Ustinov at the end of Billy Budd that he should not sell out and do anything with his new found fame he became a bit too choosy about roles for a few years after (he also talks about turning down Alfie).
Terrence or Clint would have made a perfect Harmonica. Bronson was good in this but he just lacked charisma.

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Cold Bishop
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Re: Once Upon a Time in the West (Sergio Leone, 1968)

#61 Post by Cold Bishop » Fri Jan 01, 2010 1:01 am

But then again, wasn't Bronson one of Leone's first pick for "The Man with No Name" preceding Eastwood?

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Re: Once Upon a Time in the West (Sergio Leone, 1968)

#62 Post by flyonthewall2983 » Fri Jan 01, 2010 1:54 pm

Yes, James Coburn was someone else (who eventually worked with Leone too) considered for the part. Later on (probably right around the time of Once Upon A Time In America) Leone was very critical of Clint as an actor, maybe thinking too much of how Bronson or Coburn would have done in that part. But as I understand it, before his death Sergio and Clint had made amends.

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Re: Once Upon a Time in the West (Sergio Leone, 1968)

#63 Post by flyonthewall2983 » Mon Mar 21, 2011 4:41 pm

Blu-Ray coming May 31st, here are the details from thedigitalbits
The set will include BOTH the theatrical cut and the extended version of the film, English 5.1 DTS HD-MA audio (along with restored English Mono, and French and Spanish mono), and all the extras from the previous DVD release, including audio commentary (with contributions by directors John Carpenter, John Milius and Alex Cox, film historians Sir Christopher Frayling and Dr. Sheldon Hall, cast and crew), 5 featurettes (An Opera of Violence, The Wages of Sin, Something to Do with Death, Railroad: Revolutionizing the West and Locations Then & Now), a production photo gallery and the film's theatrical trailer.

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matrixschmatrix
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Re: Once Upon a Time in the West (Sergio Leone, 1968)

#64 Post by matrixschmatrix » Mon Mar 21, 2011 4:43 pm

Well that's exciting, though I wish they'd let Frayling do a solo commentary to supplement the old one- it's ok, but overcrowded and wildly variant in how interesting the commentators are (I'd pay money never to hear Milius speak again.)

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John Hodson
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Re: Once Upon a Time in the West (Sergio Leone, 1968)

#65 Post by John Hodson » Mon Mar 21, 2011 6:08 pm

It's not quite as exciting as first glance suggests. The Paramount press release reveals:

Runtime: 165:49 minutes (restored version)
165:10 minutes (theatrical version)

Unless I'm wrong, I think the differences will be (at least some of) the scenes re-inserted in the mid-'80s - Bronson picking himself up after the shooting and possibly a little more Elam and fly. I can't really see the point. It might have been more interesting to see the butchered US cut against the International cut; it does look like either the will to retrieve the footage from the Italian premiere has gone, or it simply doesn't exist in a usable form. Does anyone know for sure?

And - bugger - no lossless mono.

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andyli
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Re: Once Upon a Time in the West (Sergio Leone, 1968)

#66 Post by andyli » Mon Mar 21, 2011 6:45 pm

According to dvdbeaver, the Paramount 2003 dvd is 165:10. Do you mean scenes re-inserted in the mid-'80s didn't appear in the dvd?

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John Hodson
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Re: Once Upon a Time in the West (Sergio Leone, 1968)

#67 Post by John Hodson » Mon Mar 21, 2011 6:51 pm

andyli wrote:According to dvdbeaver, the Paramount 2003 dvd is 165:10. Do you mean scenes re-inserted in the mid-'80s didn't appear in the dvd?
No; it means I could be mistaken and there's a possibility of 39 seconds of...something. I think the point is that this appears to be interesting, but not sensational. We'll see.

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Re: Once Upon a Time in the West (Sergio Leone, 1968)

#68 Post by flyonthewall2983 » Tue Mar 29, 2011 12:07 pm

Amazon now has the release date set at May 3rd.

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Re: Once Upon a Time in the West (Sergio Leone, 1968)

#69 Post by Jack Phillips » Tue Mar 29, 2011 9:27 pm

And for $15.99! :shock:

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John Hodson
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Re: Once Upon a Time in the West (Sergio Leone, 1968)

#70 Post by John Hodson » Wed Mar 30, 2011 10:01 am

I think we all know by now, but I'll post it anyway - we're getting the version we got previously on home video, plus the slightly extended Film Foundation restoration which includes slightly extended/reordered scenes and corrected music cues.

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Re: Once Upon a Time in the West (Sergio Leone, 1968)

#71 Post by flyonthewall2983 » Wed Mar 30, 2011 7:46 pm

Which one is the version that was used from the print Scorsese has?

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John Hodson
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Re: Once Upon a Time in the West (Sergio Leone, 1968)

#72 Post by John Hodson » Thu Mar 31, 2011 3:33 am

That's the Film Foundation version.

Nothing
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Re: Once Upon a Time in the West (Sergio Leone, 1968)

#73 Post by Nothing » Fri Apr 01, 2011 12:26 am

If those running times are accurate, the 'restored version' refers to the Italian release cut - an earlier, inferior edit with just a few snippets of loose and unnecessary footage around the edges here and there, and the music not as well employed in a couple of places. It's been out on Italian DVD for over a decade, a great example of less is more. Leone then tightened the film up for international release, and it's extremely fortunate his final cut is still being offered here (for which I'm guessing we have Frayling to thank, standing off against Scorsese and idiots like this). A pity they're still using the 'restored mono' track, however, which is just a mixdown of the 5.1.

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Re: Once Upon a Time in the West (Sergio Leone, 1968)

#74 Post by flyonthewall2983 » Sat Apr 16, 2011 11:05 pm

Amazon has set the release date back to May 31st. Still at 15.99


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