Overview

A spaghetti western with a great deal of American influence—from Johnny Guitar to The Searchers—Leone’s classic (and Morricone’s music) has been beloved and aped by filmmakers of the next generation, including Scorsese and Tarantino. Informally the first film in Leone’s Once Upon a Time Trilogy, this film focuses on the only piece of land around Flagstone with water on it. And rail baron Morton (Gabriele Ferzetti) will kill for it, knowing the new railroad will have to stop there. He sends his henchman Frank (Henry Fonda) to scare the land's owner, McBain (Frank Wolff), but Frank kills him instead and pins it on a known bandit, Cheyenne (Jason Robards). Meanwhile, a mysterious gunslinger with a score to settle (Charles Bronson) and McBain's new wife, Jill (Claudia Cardinale), arrive in town.