An Opera of Violence (2003) (V)

Director:

Lancelot Narayan

Writers:

Release Date:

18 November 2003 (USA)

Genre:

Documentary | Short

Plot:

Part one of the making of Sergio Leone's Once Upon A Time In The West.

Plot Keywords:

Behind The Scenes | Interview | Western Filmmaking | Non Fiction

Cast

Christopher Frayling	...	Himself
Tonino Delli Colli	...	Himself
Gabriele Ferzetti	...	Himself
Bernardo Bertolucci	...	Himself
John Carpenter	...	Himself
John Milius	...	Himself
Alex Cox	...	Himself
Sergio Leone	...	Himself (archive footage)
Claudia Cardinale	...	Herself (also archive footage)
Henry Fonda	...	Himself (archive footage)

Runtime:

29 min

Country:

UK

Language:

English | Italian

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.78 : 1

Sound Mix:

3 Channel Stereo

Filming Locations:

Cinecittà Studios, Cinecittà, Rome, Lazio, Italy

Company:

Lipsync Productions

Trivia:

This documentary is featured on the 2-Disc Special Collector's Edition for C'era una volta il West (1968) (Once Upon a Time in the West).

Movie Connections:

References Once Upon a Time in America (1984)

Sweet Justice!

Finally, the greatest film of all time - "Once Upon A Time In The West" (yep, my mind's changed again) - is out on DVD!

Of the three documentaries, this my favorite. I love Christopher Frayling, he's an excellent writer (he does make a few factual errors here and there, but his style is exceptionally intelligent, witty, and analytical), and his comments on the film are probably the best of those offered (the commentary he does for the film itself is simply excellent). Also marvelous are Bernardo Bertolucci and Tonino Del Conti, the story writer and cinematographer for the film, respectively (it's a great shame that they couldn't get Ennio Morricone, or Mickey Knox, who did the film's English dialogue and has given a very in-depth interview on the film before), who add very interesting backstory as well as some hilarious anecdotes into the mix. "An Opera of Violence" offers a very interesting insight into the career and life of Sergio Leone, how this film came to be, and a cast overview (including interviews with Claudia Cardinale and Gabrielle Ferzetti) which in of itself is worth watching for. Additional commentary by Alex Cox, John Carpenter, and John Millius is also worth a look. And Henry Fonda and Sergio Leone appear all too briefly in archived discussions from old television interviews.

Though again I would've liked to have seen Morricone and maybe a few others involved with the film here, the documentary itself is wonderful. All three of them are, so I'm not going to comment on every single one.

Ten stars for all of these documentaries.

R.I.P. to Charles Bronson (Harmonica) and Jack Elam (Snaky).