With the exception, perhaps, of John Ford's The Searchers, it is arguable that no western has opened with twenty minutes as perfect as those that open Once Upon a Time in the West, the penultimate and greatest of Sergio Leone's spaghetti westerns. The slow-burn intensity of the opening scene at a train station—famous for its use of natural sounds to build tension—is perfectly developed and fans of Quentin Tarantino's Inglourious Basterds will recognise the ensuing scene at a western homestead, to which Tarantino paid homage in the lengthy first scene of his own film. Time magazine included the film on a list of the 100 greatest pictures of the 20th century, while last year Empire put it at No 14 on a list of the 500 greatest films made, as voted by 10,000 readers, 150 filmmakers and 50 film critics. Henry Fonda, Charles Bronson, Claudia Cardinale and Jason Robards star, and Ennio Morricone's score is a masterpiece, second only to that he wrote for Leone's previous picture, The Good, the Bad and the Ugly.

The Australian, 28 December 2009