A few clips from one of my favorite all-time flicks. Enjoy!

From the opening where Charles Bronson takes down Jack Elam, Woody Strode, and Frank Wolff (without hurting any of the horses behind them!).

The big gundown between Bronson and Henry Fonda. Doesn’t get better than this. The music by Ennio Morricone is fabulous.

And the passage of time. Nothing lasts forever.

Once Upon A Time In The West was both my brother Mark’s and my favorite western of all time. We played the soundtrack so much we wore down the grooves of the LP. It’s a classic, an, as they say, opera of violence. They don’t make ’em like that anymore and never will.

I’m particlarly fond of the ending, where Bronson carries off Jason Robards’ body as the railroad comes into the station and the music swells to a crescendo – it always makes me cry and touches me deeply. Y’see, Bronson, Fonda, and Robards all symbolize the passing of the old West, whereas the coming of the railroad railroad and Claudia Cardinale’s migration west from New Orleans symbolizes a new era dawning. I guess in some way it just cuts a little close to the bone, reminding me in my own way of just how much of a dinosaur I am, living in a time, place, and culture I’ve never and will never embrace. Like Bronson, I’m just running out the clock and riding to keep out of other people’s ways.

But I guess that’s why they make movies to begin with.