Charles Bronson was perhaps never more likable than in ONCE UPON A TIME IN THE WEST
ONCE UPON A TIME IN THE WEST (Sergio Leone, 1968)
Film Forum
209 West Houston St.
Wednesday, June 20, 3:05
Series runs through June 21
212-727-8110
www.filmforum.org
One of the grandest Westerns ever made, this Sergio Leone masterpiece features an all-star cast that includes Henry Fonda, Charles Bronson, Jason Robards, Woody Strode, Keenan Wynn, Lionel Stander, and Jack Elam, all enhanced by Ennio Morricone’s epic score and Tonino delli Colli’s never-ending extreme close-ups. (The opening shot of a fly crawling over Elam’s grimy face is unforgettable.) Fonda was never more evil, and Bronson was perhaps never more likable. The film is a huge step above most of Leone’s spaghetti Westerns, partially because of the cast, but also because of the script help he got from Italian horrormeister Dario Argento and iconic filmmaker Bernardo Bertolucci. Once Upon a Time in the West is screening on June 20 as part of Film Forum’s Spaghetti Westerns series, which concludes this week with such films as The Ruthless Four, Hellbenders, Death Rides a Horse, and The Good, the Bad and the Ugly.
Genre master and onetime boxer John Huston returned to the ring in Fat City, a gritty 1972 drama about a group of has-beens and never-will-be’s struggling to survive in Stockton, California. Stacey Keach stars as Billy Tully, a down-on-his-luck fighter looking to make a comeback at the ripe old age of twenty-nine. He spars at the local Y with eighteen-year-old Ernie Munger (Jeff Bridges) and likes what he sees in the kid, telling him to meet his old manager, Ruben (Cheers’ Nicholas Colosanto), who decides to take on the unseasoned youngster. While Ruben lands Ernie — who seems more interested in bragging about having scored with his girlfriend, Faye (Candy Clark), than training properly — his first few bouts, Tully gets day work picking vegetables and hangs out at a local gin joint with a seedy, whiskey-voiced barfly named Oma (an Oscar-nominated Susan Tyrrell, who sadly just passed away a few days ago). Legendary cinematographer Conrad Hall casts a gray pale over the proceedings as dashed hopes and dreams come falling down on these disillusioned perennial losers. In many ways Fat City, based on the novel by Leonard Gardner — who also wrote the screenplay — is an update of Elia Kazan’s On the Waterfront, but moved to the hard times of early ’70s America, when so many people had no way out. You do not have to be a fight fan to fall in love with this film. A clear influence on such auteurs as Martin Scorsese, Fat City will be screening June 20 at 92YTribeca as part of the series “Jeff Bridges, Before the Dude,” consisting of such pre-Big Lebowski works as Stay Hungry, The Fisher King, and Cutter’s Way.
Operatic in its emotional scale and shameless melodrama, Kim Yong-gyun’s The Sword with No Name is a sweeping romantic epic set in late-nineteenth-century Korea during the Joseon Dynasty. King Gojong (Kim Yeong-min) is taking a new queen, Min Ja-young (Soo Ae), soon to be known as Empress Myeong-seong. Before arriving at the palace, Min meets Moo-myoung (Cho Seung-woo), a local villager who takes her to visit the sea and then saves her from a vicious attack. Although theirs is a love that can never be, Moo-myoung earns a position as a low-level guard at the palace, determined to protect Min no matter what. The queen is interested in leading the nation out of its isolationism, becoming intrigued with European culture. However, as she sidles up with Russia, Japan starts feeling threatened, and the king’s father, Daewongun (Jeon Ho-jin), who is against change and modernization, challenges his son’s authority. As battles rage, loyalty is betrayed, jealousy reigns, and secret plots abound, the queen’s life is threatened, and it’s up to Moo-myoung to save her. Despite an increasingly sappy score, several ridiculous video-game-like fight scenes, a nationalistic fervor, and a choppy narrative, The Sword with No Name still manages to be an intriguing bit of historical fiction, based on actual events surrounding the Insurrection of 1882. The fiery passion between Min, who was Korea’s queen, and Moo-myoung, who is a made-up character, drives the film, even when the story gets way out of hand. The Sword with No Name is screening for free June 19 at Tribeca Cinemas, concluding the Korean Cultural Service film series “Epic Romance.”
