Sergio Leone’s 1985 Renault advert.
The Americans have always depicted the West in extremely romantic terms - with the horse that runs to his master’s whistle. They have never treated the West seriously, just as we have never treated ancient Rome seriously. Perhaps the most serious debate on the subject was made by Kubrick in the film Spartacus: the other films have always been cardboard fables. It was this superficiality that struck and interested me.
— Sergio Leone
- Dalton Trumbo vs. Stanley Kubrick: Their Debate Over The Political Meaning of Spartacus
- Who Killed Spartacus? How Studio Censorship Nearly Ruined the Braveheart of the 1960’s
- The Battle Over the Editing: Kirk Douglas’ Struggle to Rescue The Legend from the Censors
- Spartacus: Still Censored After All These Years
The Kubrick Corner: Spartacus
Rare interview with Sergio Leone: The great director speaks about his trilogy; A Fistful of Dollars, For A few Dollars More and The Good, the Bad and the Ugly and his desire to make a new type of film in the USA.
Sergio Leone on the set of Once Upon a Time in the West.
Why did you decide to become a filmmaker?
SL: My mother was an actress. My father was an actor and a director. I am the son of filmmakers. I was born with this bow tie made of celluloid on my collar.
And why did you decide to make westerns?
SL: I had never thought of making a western even as I was making it. I think that my films are westerns only in their exterior aspects. Within them are some of my truths, which happily, I see, belong to lots of parts of the world. Not just America. My discussion is one that has gone all the way from Fistful of Dollars through Once Upon a Time in America. But if you look closely at all these films, you find in them the same meanings, the same humor, the same point of view, and, also, the same pains.
Which filmmakers influenced you, and what were your favorite films?
SL: I must be honest and say that I was under the fascination of films. I was
fascinated by all films, even the words of them. If I was to do a more-precise
analysis of the situation, I have to admit that I was more entertained by the bad films than the good ones. Because when something is beautiful, it is there; it is finished; it is done. It doesn’t have to be touched or be worked upon. But if it is badly realized and not completely expressed, sometimes that is more provocative and interesting than when you see something that is perfectly and beautifully done. But if there is an auteur who influenced me—and there is only one—that is Charlie Chaplin. And he never won an Oscar.
Interview with Sergio Leone (1987)
By Marlaine Glicksman
Previously on Cinephilia & Beyond:
Source: americansuburbx.com
I made 58 films as an assistant—I was at the side of directors who applied all the rules: make it, for example, a close-up to show that the character is about to say something important. I reacted against all that and so close-ups in my films are always the expression of an emotion … so they call me a perfectionist and a formalist because I watch my framing. But I’m not doing it to make it pretty, I’m seeking, first and foremost, the relevant emotion.
Source: strangewood
Stanley Kubrick admired the film as well. So much so, according to Leone, that he selected the music for Barry Lyndon before shooting the film in order to attempt a similar fusion of music and image. While he was preparing the film, he phoned Leone, who later recalled: ‘Stanley Kubrick said to me, “I’ve got all Ennio Morricone’s albums. Can you explain to me why I only seem to like the music he composed for your films?” To which I replied, “Don’t worry. I didn’t think much of Richard Strauss until I saw 2001!” Barry Lyndon could habe been Once Upon a Time in Georgian England: the music, the choreography, the deliberate pace, the ritualized duels. Leone reckoned, though, that maybe Kubrick didn’t quite have the common storyteller’s touch to pull it off.
Source: binarybonsai.com
Sergio Leone, standing behind Tuesday Weld, sets up a shot on the set of Once Upon a Time in America (1984)
Robert De Niro talks about Once Upon a Time in America.
‘Sergio Leone and the Construction of Myth’ by Peter Babiak. This article (from CineAction, March 2007) analyses the film’s use of cultural myths. Some good pictures too. (PDF)
‘Once Upon A Time In America’ by Dana Knowles. A lengthy critical essay from AboutFilm.com
‘Once Upon A Time In America’ by Rob Edelman and Audrey E. Kupferberg. An interpretation from film-reference.com which focuses on how the characters can “can never really escape their roots.” Also contains an extensive bibliography of books and articles.
Questions and Answers by Malcolm Barber (PDF). Explains some of the puzzles of the plot. The original article can be found here.
Early script by David Mills which differs from the finished film: PDF RTF
An ebook of ‘The Hoods’ by Harry Grey: PDF
Sergio Leone meets Noodles While in New York in 1968, Leone met with Harry Grey, author of The Hoods. Here is the account of the meeting given by Christopher Frayling in his biography Sergio Leone: Something to do with Death. (PDF)
Wikipedia article. Discusses differences between the film and the source-novel, unfilmed and deleted scenes, and alternative versions. (PDF)
‘How 85 Minutes Disappeared, Once Upon a Time’ by Alex Abramovich. An article from the New York Times, June 8, 2003, on the occasion of the film’s release on DVD. The article mainly discusses the way the film was cut by the studio in its initial U.S. theatrical release, and contains an interview with James Woods. (PDF)
Soundtrack liner notes by Jon Burlingame. From the 1998 re-release of the soundtrack on Rykodisc CD. (PDF)
Locations by Malcolm Barber (PDF). A list of which scenes were filmed where. The same information, along with photos of the locations, can be found here.
Once Upon a Time in America - The Restoration
Ennio Morricone – Once Upon A Time In America (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack).
Source: onceuponatimeinamerica.net
The Spaghetti West (2005). For about ten years, from 1964 to 1973, Italian production crews made hundreds of Westerns. This documentary looks chronologically at that enterprise, starting with the success of Sergio Leone and Sergio Corbucci: their silent anti-heroes gave Clint Eastwood and Franco Nero stardom. The genre then shifted to political films of the collective downtrodden facing the state. The genre ended, spent, in comedy and farce. Along the way, argues this documentary, the spaghetti western established a language of filmmaking rooted in post-war cynicism and moral ambiguity, with cinematic tropes, including close-ups, violence, and soundtracks, that influenced filmmaking in Hong Kong and the U.S.
Henry Fonda Talks about his casting in Once Upon A Time in the West. The funny reason Sergio Leone cast him as the villain in Once Upon A Time In The West in this rare 1975 interview.
Henry Fonda Talks about his casting in Once Upon A Time in the West. The funny reason Sergio Leone cast him as the villain in Once Upon A Time In The West in this rare 1975 interview.
Quite possibly my favorite story on casting: “Henry Fonda Talks about his casting in Once Upon A Time in the West” bit.ly/11JjLvH
— Gary King (@grking) December 3, 2012
Rare clip. Is this Sergio Leone working on his ‘Once Upon A Time In America’ script?
Source: twitter.com
A Fistful of Dollars Audio Commentary
Sergio Leone biographer Christopher Frayling shares anecdotes, trivia and interesting facts surrounding the production of Leone’s classic Western.
A Fistful of Dollars Audio Commentary. Sergio Leone biographer Christopher Frayling shares anecdotes, trivia and interesting facts surrounding the production of Leone’s classic Western.