In honor of the upcoming US and UK theatrical showings of "Once Upon A Time In The West" - Which of Sergio Leone's near-3 hour magnum opus' is better?
The Good The Bad And The Ugly is my favorite western. I've never been able to watch Once Upon A Time In The West all the way through.
I could watch The Good, The Bad And The Ugly on a weekly basis. Whereas once was enough for Once Upon A Time In The West. I liked it, but one viewing was plenty for that one. Same with Once Upon A Time In America, now that I think about it...
Both are masterworks. I find it bizarre that people are calling OUTITW boring, once was enough etc. It’s absolutely incredible! An iconic film.
Funny thing is I don't typically like Westerns at all but the Good, The Bad and For a Few Dollars more are two of my favorite movies.
The problem I find with Once upon A Time In the West is Jason Robards, would have preferred more screen time with Charles Bronson.
The Good, The Bad and the Ugly might happen to be my favorite movie ever made - packed with action, humour, lots of shady characters and a broad variety of locations. It's like one big, epic road-movie opera with both actors and director absolutely on top of their respective games. Morricone has never been as good as with TGTBTU's score, not even with the Once Upon A Time... trilogy. And the extreme nihilistic view at the world hidden within The Good, The Bad and the Ugly makes it the dark blueprint of revisionist westerns for me, alongside with The Great Silence... but that's another topic
Better Score? yes Better actors? Hmmm, Robards vs. Wallach is a wash, Bronson vs. Clint -I'll give Clint a slight edge, Henry Fonda vs. Lee Van Cleef? Fonda for the win. Better movie? I vote for The Good, The Bad and The Ugly. I like the story better and the pacing is stronger.
I wouldn't call it boring, but the pacing is a bit of a step down from Sergio's 3 previous westerns. I too think it's iconic.
Both are masterpieces to me but Once Upon A Time In The West just has a special place in my heart, (I think it's the score) so I picked that one.
The Good, The Bad & The Ugly is my favorite movie of all time, whereas I could never get into Once Upon a Time in the West.
Once Upon a Time in the West has some great moments, and great performances by Fonda & Bronson. Seeing Fonda as a bad guy is really something. But Good bad and the Ugly is a classic that I never get tired of seeing. West I've probably only seem all of the way through once.
To me, Eli Wallach as Tuco is what elevates TGTBATU to a classic. He stole the movie right out from under Clint Eastwood.
Once Upon a Time has the better start of the two by a wide margin. But the Robards character doesn't have enough to do. And I'm just not a fan of Claudia C's acting. It will always be GB&U for me.
I find TGTBATU to be the greater film simply because I find it more organic and honest. By the time Leone made OUATITW (1968), I think his western style, as great as it was, was becoming a self-caricature.
