He reinvented the Western with his Dollars trilogy, but how does Sergio Leone’s Once Upon A Time… trilogy rate alongside each other? Westerns were once one of Hollywood’s biggest genres, but by the end of the ’60s, they were in decline. Audience tastes began to drift away from the often simplistic depictions of Good vs Evil that more traditional “Oaters” depicted. That said, Sergio Leone’s unofficial Yojimbo remake A Fistful Of Dollars gave the ailing genre a stylish violent shot in the arm and made Clint Eastwood a movie star.
Leone’s “Spaghetti” Westerns succeeded by breaking the rules of the genre too. Eastwood’s Man with No Name was an anti-hero with no problem shooting first and using others to achieve his goals. Leone only made three further movies after finishing work on the Dollars movies, with this trio forming his unofficial Once Upon A Time… trilogy. They are all visually and thematically rich, with two of them considered to be Leone’s finest works.
3. Duck, You Sucker (1971)
AKA Once Upon A Time… The Revolution, Duck, You Sucker! pairs James Coburn’s former IRA bomber with Rod Steiger’s bandit who becomes an accidental hero of the Mexican revolution. The movie starts as something of a black comedy Western before morphing into a dark, pessimistic war adventure. Duck, You Sucker! might be Sergio Leone’s most obscure movie, and while certain elements have aged poorly – Steiger as a Mexican revolutionary, for one – it’s his most underrated too. It features some stunning setpieces, the chemistry between the two leads is great and its unflinching depiction of the revolution is often harrowing.
2. Once Upon A Time In America (1984)
Great as Duck, You Sucker! is, Leone’s other entries in the Once Upon A Time… trilogy utterly eclipse it. Once Upon A Time In America was Leone’s passion project for over a decade, and one of his masterworks. This decades-spanning gangster drama follows Noodles (Robert De Niro), from growing up as part of a gang to reflecting on his life as an old man when returning to New York. Befitting the movie’s title, Once Upon A Time In America is a four-hour epic that Leone famously had to chop down from ten hours.
Once Upon A Time In America was butchered into a near-incomprehensible 140-minute version for its North American release. While this damaged its initial reputation, the circulation of Leone’s intended cut has seen it become regarded as one of the decade’s best movies. Once Upon A Time In America has the epic sweep expected of a Leone movie, and is anchored by career-best work from De Niro. The movie was highly controversial for its depiction of violence and sexual assault, and while they’re still disturbing, Leone is clearly condemning these acts instead of glamorizing them.
1. Once Upon A Time In The West (1968)
Once Upon A Time In The West is the first of Leone’s Once Upon A Time… trilogy, and one of the best Westerns ever made. The movie follows several characters – Claudia Cardinale’s widow, Charles Bronson’s mysterious gunfighter, Henry Fonda’s hired killer, etc – as they battle over a piece of land in a changing Old West. Once Upon A Time In The West – which Clint Eastwood turned down – was Leone’s operatic final word on the genre, being both a romantic and dark look at the end of an era. From the remarkable ten-minute opening to the beautiful ending, cinema rarely gets better than Once Upon A Time In The West.