Once Upon a Time in the West OR

Once Upon a Time in the West

Once upon a time in the West, there was a family called the Smiths. They had a lot of children, and they always seemed to have time to say goodbye. They would say goodbye at the train station, at a bus stop, near the campground. Whenever they would leave, they would always take one last walk around the house before waving goodbye. In their last walk around the house, the eldest daughter had a maple leaf.

West

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The original version by the director was 166 minutes when it was first released on 21 December 1968. This version was shown in European cinemas, and was a box-office success. For the US release on 28 May 1969, Once Upon a Time in the West was edited down to 145 minutes by Paramount and was a financial flop. 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 in common. The film portrays two conflicts that take place around Flagstone, a fictional town in the American Old West - a land battle related to the construction of a railroad, and a mission of vengeance against a cold-blooded killer. A struggle exists for Sweetwater, a piece of land in the desert outside Flagstone that contains the region's only other water source. The land was bought by Brett McBain, who foresaw that the railroad would have to pass through that area, to provide water for the steam locomotives. When crippled railroad tycoon Morton—who wants to complete a transcontinental railroad before dying from bone tuberculosis—learns of this, he sends his hired gun Frank to intimidate McBain to move off the land, but Frank instead kills McBain and his three children, planting evidence to frame the bandit Cheyenne (Robards). Meanwhile, former prostitute Jill arrives at Flagstone from New Orleans, revealing that she was McBain's new wife, and therefore the new owner of the land.

The film opens with a mysterious harmonica-playing gunman, whom Cheyenne later dubs "Harmonica", shooting three men sent by Frank to kill him. In a roadhouse near West and East Mitten Buttes on the way to Sweetwater, where he also encounters Mrs. McBain, Harmonica informs Cheyenne that the three gunfighters appeared to be posing as Cheyenne's men. Cheyenne arrives at Sweetwater soon after, and both men seem attracted to Mrs. McBain. Harmonica explains that according to the contract of sale, she will lose Sweetwater unless the station is built by the time the track's construction crews reach that point, so Cheyenne puts his men to work building it. (Source: en.wikipedia.org)