May 30 movie: Once Upon a Time in the West. Wow. What a movie. I had seen clips before, but had never seen the whole thing through. It's amazing, from beginning to end.
This movie comes up a lot in discussions of why pan and scan is a bad thing. And with good reason. At first I watched for shots that would be ruined by pan and scan. After about five minutes, I realized that the every scene is so grand, big, and fills the frame so well, that it made more sense to look for shots that wouldn't be ruined by pan and scan.
I kind of feel like all the talk about the wide aspect cinematography isn't quite fair. Because it makes it sound like that's the movie's main attribute. Which isn't true at all. It's beautiful to look at, and it's also a fantastic movie. A huge, epic Western. Henry Fonda is incredible. It's kind of scary how good he is at playing pure evil, and how shocking that must have been to audiences who had only seen him play heroes. The other principals -- Charles Bronson, Claudia Cardinale and Jason Robards -- are also excellent.
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Shortly after we moved to New York, I decided that I hadn't seen enough epics, so over the course of a couple of weeks I watched this, Spartacus, Judgment at Nuremburg, and The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly (and probably some others that are eluding me right now). My, what a wonderful time.
As you say, it's not just the cinematography; it's the way that Leone infuses every scene with just tremendous significance, to the point where every gesture, every twitch resonates with meaning.