This 1968 Legendary Western With 96% RT Score Will Soon Be Free to Watch
Initially supposed to star Clint Eastwood in one of the leading roles, the movie did just fine without him and is still considered one of the best spaghetti westerns ever made.
March is just around the corner, which means big premieres are coming to streaming platforms, and that’s not only Netflix ’s case. In recent months, the free streaming service Tubi rose to new heights, releasing some old, but highly anticipated flicks on its platform that is free for everyone to use.
This time the streamer is about to drop the Sergio Leone-directed 1968 acclaimed Western that is just as good as the director’s Dollars Trilogy with Clint Eastwood in the leading role. Ironically, the latter was considered for this movie too at some point, but later on got replaced with another actor.
Once Upon a Time in the West Will Be Free to Stream on Tubi in March
There’s little time left until the audiences will finally be able to check the flick out as it’s now set to arrive on Tubi on March 1.
Released all the way back in 1968, Once Upon a Time in the West is directed by renowned master of the genre and Italian filmmaker Sergio Leone, following rail baron Morton as he tries to secure a piece of land around Flagstone with water on it to build a new railroad.
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However, things get much more complicated when Morton’s henchman Frank kills the land’s owner instead of making a deal with him.
The movie stars Charles Branson as “Harmonica”, a role initially offered to the star of Leone’s previous hit Westerns Clint Eastwood, but he ultimately turned it down. The rest of the cast also includes Henry Fonda, Claudia Cardinale, Jason Robards, Gabriele Ferzetti, Paolo Stoppa, Marco Zuanelli, Keenan Wynn, Frank Wolff, Lionel Stander and others.
Once Upon a Time in the West Is Still One of the Best Westerns (Despite Box Office Failure)
It might be hard to pinpoint the reasons for the movie’s lack of luck in theatres as things were quite different with the box office back in the 1960s, but that doesn’t change the matter of Leone’s now-turned-hit film not becoming a big success anyway.
One of the theories names Paramount’s decision to shorten the movie, cutting out around 20 minutes of runtime and turning it into a 145-minute film. As a result, the audiences might have feared that Once Upon a Time in the West would now lack something essential to the storyline, and the movie eventually grossed a little more than $5 million with the same budget.
However, the film’s acclaim was probably even more rewarding than the box office results: almost 60 years later, Once Upon a Time in the West holds scores of 96% and 94% of positive reviews from critics and viewers, proving its status of one of the best spaghetti Westerns to-date.
