Review: My 2,000th Film - Once Upon A Time In The West

People that know me, realise that I watch A LOT of films, especially in the last three years.

When I come up to a milestone number, I usually intentionally pick a film that is supposedly really good, I know I will like and is likely to enter my top 100 of all-time.

So for my 2,000th film, I decided to go for one I was hoping I collide with during my watching of films. But this time, I had to buy it on DVD if I was going to watch it.

Before seeing it, I know it was a spaghetti western which is a sub-genre I love a lot. It is directed by Sergio Leone who is seen as the king and founder of the spaghetti westerns, and I love his Dollars trilogy (A Fistful Of Dollars, For A Few Dollars More, The Good, The Bad And The Ugly). So I know what style of film-making to expect. Leone spaghetti-westerns usually consist of extreme close-ups, lots of intensity, vast landscapes and a soundtrack that feels operatic.

What I saw was another epic masterpiece by Leone. If I just saw the opening scene, I would have been satisfied. It consisted a lovely set piece with Leone cinematography, Charles Bronson who is in The Great Escape, one of my favorite War films, and the music had me tingling all over.
The more the film went, the more I was just loving this style of film-making. Even the smallest little twist in the plot is always cranked up so beautifully.
It was a film that clearly stands the test of time, since I am watching it now and it was released in 1968. The duration is just over two and a half hours, and it just flew by which is always a good sign that I considered this to be a classic.
It is a perfect tale to portray the end of Old West and the beginning of a new world in America. It also shows greed, back-stabbing and how people desperately gained power in that part of the world.

The cast was absolutely flawless. Leone is known for introducing new stars to the world. He introduced Clint Eastwood in his Dollars trilogy as 'The Man With No Name', but this time he brought in the best of the best. The steely-eyed Charles Bronson and the chilling Henry Fonda who eclipses all his previous hero roles and plays the most horrible villain imaginable. Jason Robards did an amazing supporting role and Claudia Cardinale had a smoking-hot presence as the leading lady.

My final mention has to be the soundtrack, which was composed by the immortal Ennio Morricone. Anything his composes turns into gold. Any scene that takes place, when the music comes in, everything instantly becomes breathtaking. It effects your emotions, and amazingly, even though it's a Western, it makes everything feel operatic. The themes for each character are easily recognisable and work every time when they get played during the film. Despite the duration being just over two and a half hours, there was only 15 pages of dialogue. So it just shows how important the music was to tell the story.

Overall, I am glad that I picked this one to be my 2,000th film. It did not disappoint me and I know I will be watching this multiple times in the near future. After doing the Dollars trilogy, Leone was at the peak of his powers, so directing this feature shows what you can do with the Western genre.
The closest thing we have to spaghetti-westerns are films by Quentin Tarantino, who does the sub-genre with a modern twist.
It is a shame we rarely see these types of films, but I am glad you can stumble on the old ones from time to time. This shows that the past can still beat the modern box-office hits.

Rating: 9/10

Review: Rush

Films with a sport involved are usually seen as a way of promoting themselves to non-fans. Films like Any Given Sunday, Tin Cup or Chariots Of Fire became popular and not just from the fans of the sports that were involved in those films.

With Rush, the big responsibility for director Ron Howard was to see if he can a) make a great film for the F1 fans because there are not many successful ones and b) bring in non-racing fans, like most of America which is where the main box office comes from for the blockbusters.

I reckon he his has done the best movie possible that mixes in enough racing for the fans to be gripped with, and a story that will have everyone talking about. It is set around an interesting time for the sport of Formula 1. Where the drivers were seen as rock and roll stars, and there was a new breed of drivers on the horizon that will change the fact of this sport.

Chris Hemsworth as James Hunt and Daniel Bruhl as Niki Lauda were great in their roles. Hemsworth was almost Thor-like playing the British playboy and Bruhl is constantly showing how good he is, and I hope he gets more roles in the future. Everyone else is basically a minor, because it is all them. The classic hot and cold personalities clashing, all battling the same thing. But nevertheless, everyone else plays their part well and all the contributions are crucial to the main story-line.

The big pluses are the race sequences which for me as a fan of the sport were absolutely terrifying, and I know what to expect in terms of the dangers involved. So I can't imagine how the non-racing fans will feel. The camera angles involved get you stuck into the action and make you feel like you cannot leave your seat because the pace of the cars is keeping you in. The 1970's setting is perfectly done by Howard and the atmosphere of F1 in that era made it look like it was found footage. You can see the lack of safety there was at that time compared to now, and those racing scenes will prove the viewers how terrifying the sport is. The music is done by Hans Zimmer and that is always going to be epic, and it did not fail. When the credits were rolling, I just had to stay seated and appreciate this talent that Zimmer has. Keep it coming Hans.

The only negative, and I am only nit-picking, is the commentary of the races. It felt like they were spoon-feeding you as to what it is going on and helping the non-racing fans along, to keep it interesting. But like I said, I am only nit-picking, so it is not a major fault.

Overall, I absolutely loved it. It was everything I wanted it to be. Ron Howard perfectly created the atmosphere of F1 at that time and will attract not just the racing fans, but the racing virgins also. Howard showed that it is not just about Formula 1, or even F1 in the 70's. But it is also about the evolving relationship between Hunt and Lauda, the human condition in one of the most brutal sports in the world and the end of an era within this sport. Back then it was all about the rebels, and Lauda was the birth of the professional racer.
It had me gripped throughout and I was even leaning forward at times. I won't be surprised if this gets a few awards for nominations for the technical side of the film. 

Rating: 8/10

My Top 10: Films Based On A True Story

For some people, films based on true stories are always the best ones. It can show some amazing courage from people that have created unforgettable stories whether it be for good or bad.

The most common true stories film adaptations come from world wars or iconic events that were not expected to happen.

10) Chariots Of Fire - Winning Best Picture at the Oscars was no fluke for one of the most successful from the 1980's.

It shows the journeys of two British athletes with differing religious views and how they get to the 1924 Olympics to achieve a medal for their country.

9) Saving Private Ryan - Set during the Normandy Landings, a group of American soldiers are given a task to rescue a fellow paratrooper and bring him home.

With Steven Spielberg directing, and an all-star cast leading the way, this modern war epic could do no wrong.

8) Gallipoli - One of the saddest stories of WWI.

On the sands of Gallipoli, two Australian sprinters face the brutality of war as the British Empire try to secure a vital part of land from the Ottoman Empire in Turkey.

7) The Social Network - Not many would think that a movie about the birth of Facebook could be so successful and attract non-Facebook users.
One of the most beautifully-shot films of recent times and the pace of the story and dialogue grips you in from the very start.

This is also become one of the best films that gets better the more times you watch it.

6) The Great Escape - A film high up on many peoples lists in many different categories.

Set in a PoW camp, there have been stories from various camps, but this is one of the more famous ones.

With an all-star cast at the helm, their terrific actor brings out the best in everything during this dark period in history.



5) Joyeux Noel - On Christmas Eve, many war-zones during World War I experienced an event no-one could have imagined.

This is one my favorite foreign language films and I will be surprised if no-one gets emotional during this beautiful story.

4) Titanic - For the people who have seen this, yes one big part of this film is not exactly true. But the backdrop is set during one of the most famous accidents of all-time.

Directed by James Cameron, this modern epic became the most successful film of its time.

3) Finding Neverland - Ever wondered how some of history most famous books got started?
In this one, we find out how J.M. Barrie created the world of Peter Pan.

Played by Johnny Depp, Barrie finds the child in him that never left and also captures the imaginations of even some of the hard-nosed people in their society.

2) Catch Me If You Can - Another Spielberg classic and a bit of an under-rated one. The story of America's most famous con-man Frank Abagnale Jnr (played by Leonardo DiCaprio), who managed to work under several different names, in three top professions and stole millions of dollars whilst still being a teenager.

Starring alongside Tom Hanks, this epic chase creates a friendship that no-one could have imagined.

1) Schindler's List - Steven Spielberg's Oscar winning war epic based on Germany spy Oskar Schindler and his Jewish workforce in Nazi-occupied Poland.

This heartwarming and heavily detailed presentation of this story shows how passionate Spielberg is.