Jules Winfield

Leone is one of the greatest.

Jules Winfield

You didn't see One Upon a Time in (bad post)?

Solid Snake

did it ever come to BD?

chris_santucci

"...in the West" in bluray in a beautiful edition. I'm grateful that Paramount released a new version. I don't think the original DVD sold like they expected.

"in America" is being released as an extended edition (I know, I know, the first version was just way too short and just flew by) in the near future.

The only omission I gather is "Fistful of Dynamite" (Duck, You Sucker).

For some odd reason, the MGM folks released the trilogy without "Dynamite" even though the Sergio Leone DVD collection includes it.

Astrofan

For what's it's worth I think the SD DVD of Once Upon A Time In The West is an amazing looking disk.

mike7162

Cristopher Frayling mentioned in the commentary track that "Duck, You Sucker" was at one time considered with the title "Once Upon a Time...the Revolution". Frayling himself considers OUTITW, DYS and OUATIA as a trilogy. Works for me.
As far as the greatest, cinema is too broad to apply that definitive a term to anyone. Sergio Leone is, after Hitchcock, my favorite director. His films are pure emotion and film (moving image + sound) at its purest.

dhmac

Sergio Leone is one of the greatest directors ever. But, in that realm, I really don't rank them because each of the greatest directors are all very different in why they are great.

When I think about Sergio Leone, I think about Roger Ebert's quote on what makes a film great: "It's not what a movie is about, it's how it is about it." Sergio Leone could take a simple plot that sounds like nothing special when described (such as "three men competing to find some lost gold while the American Civil War is going on in the background") and, with his great sense of style, transform that simple story into one of the greatest films ever: The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly. A great film is "great" not due to the story or plot, but how the story is brought to cinematic life.

Mondo Kane

I'm still blown away by the sound & clarity of that double-disc.

chris_santucci

Nice quote.

Leone possessed some true gifts--one of which is his ability to tell so much through faces. In fact, so many films today utilize the uber close-ups of faces that Leone embraced early in his career. Widescreen cinema was normally about compositions of many individuals in long angles, but Leone resorted to keeping the camera in so tight that you could see every pore, wrinkle and imperfection. He loved faces.

Also, ironically he brought the west back to a stark realism even though his western frontier was normally filmed in Europe. This isn't John Wayne's west where everyone has perfect wardrobe and there are good guys and bad guys. His west was a grey area through and through.

Rather than comparing Leone to other directors who either inspired him or were inspired by him, its best that we appreciate his impact on the medium. His contemporaries like John Ford wouldn't say much of Leone, but ask Quentin Tarantino and he'll probably tell you that he was one of the greatest of them all.

Time Warrior

Christopher Frayling in his biography of Leone makes it clear that Leone perceived OUATINW, DYS and OUATIA as a trilogy (and quotes various Leone collaborators to confirm this.)

As for best director of all time, so difficult.

My favourite director is probably Terence Fisher but he worked within a very narrow genre for the most part and there is no standout masterpiece in his canon. I suppose Orson Welles gets a gander for Citizen Kane alone (and possibly Chimes at Midnight).

I suppose John Ford gets the personal gong for creating such a huge swathe of films, most of which are full of genuine sentiment and emotion. I think the director of The Prisoner of Shark Island deserves more praise than the director of A Fistful of Dollars or the director of Barry Lyndon, but that is just me.

inri222

Touch of Evil
The Trial
The Stranger
The Lady from Shanghai
Othello
The Magnificent Ambersons

Astrofan

I never saw it until I got the DVD about 7 years ago. I was absolutely stunned by this masterpiece. I was not a Leone fan during the time his films were originally playing in the theater. I pretty much ignored him.

However, I can't stand Once Upon A Time In America. While West seems effortless I think there are many overwrought scenes in America.

chris_santucci

For those with bluray players, I would recommend the blu-ray edition of "West" which retails for as low as ten dollars, which is a steal.

FRwL

In his bio something to do with death, they say that Leone can be considered the very first before the known directors started appearing, so that the "film renaissance" started with him a couple years before the others started making their names.

Go for that, i might just do it as well considering i have only 1 entry on mine still.

asianxcore

One of the greatest.

Ky-Fi

I'm not disagreeing with the entirety of your post, and I'm a huge Leone fan (and spaghetti Western fan in general.) But, I do have to dispute that characterization of American westerns. I just watched The Searchers last night (holy crap that bluray looks amazing!), which was maybe Wayne's greatest role, and in that he:



I think you could make an argument that Wayne's Ethan Edwards was a darker character than any of The Man With No Name's characters.

Also, in "The Man Who Shot Libery Valance",



While I do love Italian westerns, I do have to respectfully disagree with fans of that genre who characterize American westerns as lacking in nuance and moral complexity----I would argue that there were many great "adult" Hollywood Westerns made in the 50s.