Once Upon a Time in the West (1968)

Once Upon a Time in the West (Italian: C'era una volta il West) is a 1968 epic spaghetti Western film directed by Sergio Leone from a screenplay he co-wrote with Sergio Donati. It stars Claudia Cardinale, Henry Fonda, Jason Robards, Charles Bronson, Gabriele Ferzetti, Woody Strode, Jack Elam, Lionel Stander, Paolo Stoppa, Frank Wolff, and Keenan Wynn. The widescreen cinematography was by Tonino Delli Colli and the film score was composed and conducted by Ennio Morricone.

After directing The Good, the Bad and the Ugly, Leone decided to retire from Westerns and aimed to produce his film based on the novel The Hoods, which eventually became Once Upon a Time in America. However, Leone accepted an offer from Paramount Pictures providing Henry Fonda and a budget to produce another Western. He recruited Dario Argento and Bernardo Bertolucci to devise the plot, researching other Westerns in the process. After Clint Eastwood turned down an offer to play the protagonist, Bronson was offered the role. During production, Leone recruited Donati to rewrite the script due to concerns over time limitations. The film is the first installment in Leone's Once Upon a Time trilogy, followed by Duck, You Sucker! and Once Upon a Time in America, though the films do not share any characters.

The original version by the director was 165 minutes when it was first released on December 21, 1968. This version was shown in European cinemas, and was a box-office success. For the U.S. release on May 28, 1969, it was edited down to 140 minutes by Paramount and was a financial flop.

In 2009, the film was selected for preservation in the US National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant". The film is regarded as one of the greatest Westerns and one of the greatest films in history.