Once Upon a Time in the West

As the railroad builders advance unstoppably through the Arizona desert on their way to the sea, Jill arrives in the small town of Flagstone with the intention of starting a new life.

Leone's sprawling spaghetti Western now sits comfortably among the all-time greats, but it wasn't always so — on release, even sympathetic critics found the length punishing and the plot needlessly convoluted, and its reputation as a masterpiece is largely a retrospective verdict. What critics across eras agree on is the film's obsessive attention to detail, its hypnotic Morricone score, and the strange power of casting familiar faces against type; where they've differed is whether the slow, ritualistic pacing is majestic discipline or self-indulgent excess.