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Many fans of the genre will vehemently argue that Sergio Leone's Once Upon a Time in the West is the greatest spaghetti western ever made. Audiences will soon have the opportunity to revisit the classic film on a free streaming platform.

Once Upon a Time in the West will arrive on Tubi on March 1. The legendary movie stars the iconic Charles Bronson opposite Henry Fonda's villain. The revenge-western follows Bronson's character, Harmonica (a role originally intended for Clint Eastwood), as he tracks down Fonda's outlaw Frank to right a past wrong. The movie's ensemble includes Claudia Cardinale, Jason Robards, Gabriele Ferzetti, Paolo Stoppa, Marco Zuanelli, Keenan Wynn, Frank Wolff, Lionel Stander, Woody Strode, Jack Elam, Al Mulock, Benito Stefanelli and Aldo Sambrell.

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One of Sergio Leone's spaghetti western masterpieces has hit a major streaming platform. Once Upon a Time in the West, starring Henry Fonda and Charles Bronson, has arrived on Prime Video as of December 1.

Directed and co-written by Leone, the revenge-western Once Upon a Time in the West follows Bronson's character, Harmonica (a role originally intended for Clint Eastwood), as he tracks down Fonda's outlaw Frank to right a past wrong. The film notably cast Fonda against type as the villain. The movie's ensemble includes Claudia Cardinale, Jason Robards, Gabriele Ferzetti, Paolo Stoppa, Marco Zuanelli, Keenan Wynn, Frank Wolff, Lionel Stander, Woody Strode, Jack Elam, Al Mulock, Benito Stefanelli and Aldo Sambrell.

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Once Upon a Time in the West...

One of Sergio Leone's most beloved spaghetti westerns is coming to Paramount+ soon. The iconic filmmaker's Once Upon a Time in the West, considered one of the greatest movies ever, hits the service in August.

Directed and co-written by Leone, the legendary western debuted in 1968 with Paramount Pictures credited as one of the production companies that helped bring it to the big screen. Over half a century later, Once Upon a Time in the West will arrive on Paramount+ on August 1, 2024. The original 166-minute director's version of the movie premiered on December 21, 1968, in European territories, where it became a box-office success. Paramount cut Once Upon a Time in the West down to 145 minutes for its subsequent release in the United States on May 28 of the following year to more modest box office takings.

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This July, Prime Video is bringing you a lot of entertainment with a sequel of a beloved film like My Spy titled The Eternal City and an animated sequel series to the comedy gold, which was the Sausage Party film titled Foodtopia. However, for the purposes of this article, we are only including the films that are coming to Prime Video this month and have a 90% or higher Rotten Tomatoes score. So, check out the 7 best films that are coming to Prime Video in July 2024 with a 90% or higher Rotten Tomatoes score.

Animal House (July 1)

Rotten Tomatoes Score: 91%

National Lampoon’s Animal House is a classic comedy-drama film directed by John Landis from a screenplay co-written by Harold Ramis, Douglas Kenney, and Chris Miller. Inspired by National Lampoon stories written by Matty Simmons and Ivan Reitman, the 1978 film follows the story of freshmen Larry and Kent as they join a troublemaking...

Quentin Tarantino crowned Sergio Corbucci as the second-best director of Italian westerns, but our vote goes to Sergio Sollima — this is the most satisfying Spaghetti oater outside of the Leone corral. In his first starring role, Lee Van Cleef is lawman Jonathan Corbett, who pursues Tomas Milian’s killer into Mexico for an American millionaire. Political screenwriter Franco Solinas helped cook up the story, which pitches frontier ethics against ‘establishment’ corruption. The two-disc special edition presents the show in 4 versions, if we count a clever English-Italian language hybrid.

The Big Gundown

Region B Blu-ray

Powerhouse Indicator

1967 / Color / 2:35 widescreen / 110, 90, 95 min. / La resa dei conti / Street Date February 13, 2023 / available from Powerhouse Films UK / £22.99

Starring: Lee Van Cleef, Tomas Milian, Walter Barnes, Nieves Navarro, Gérard Herter, Manolita Barroso, Robert Camardiel, Ángel del Pozo, Luisa Rivelli, Luis Barboo, Benito Stefanelli.

Cinematography: Carlo Carlini

Set decorators: Carlo Leva, Carlo Simi, Nicola Tamburo

Costumes: Carlo...

It’s still one of the most popular movies ever, and fans are proving that by shelling out for an umpteenth home video release, this time on the 4K Ultra HD format. Everybody knows exactly what to expect from Clint Eastwood, Lee Van Cleef and Eli Wallach, but what about the transfer quality and encoding — Sergio Leone’s film was originally shot in the half-frame Techniscope format, which is on the low-res side to scan in 4K. Kino adds a Blu-ray disc and a mountain of accumulated extras from earlier editions.

The Good, The Bad and The Ugly

4K Ultra-hd + Blu-ray

Kl Studio Classics

1966 / Color / 2:35 widescreen / 162 min. / Il buono, il brutto, il cattivo / Street Date April 27, 2021 / available through Kino Lorber / 39.95

Starring: Clint Eastwood, Lee Van Cleef, Eli Wallach, Aldo Giuffrè, Luigi Pistilli, Rada Rassimov, Enzo Petito, Benito Stefanelli, Aldo Sambrell, Al Mulock, Antonio Molino Rojo, Mario Brega, Chelo Alonso,...

No, it’s not the story of the 18th President of the United States. Kirk Douglas must have been a big hit in Rome, starring in one of the first and best of the Italo epic ‘classics,’ before the musclemen cornered the market. Homer’s tale of the husband who took ten years to come back from Troy is given real star power, a splendid production and best of all, an intelligent script. This disc looks a lot better than the ragged earlier DVD, plus it offers a superior Italian language soundtrack. And don’t forget Gary Teetzel’s recommendation: as an adaptation of The Odyssey, it’s right up there with O Brother Where Art Thou!

Ulysses

Blu-ray

Kl Studio Classics

1954 / Color / 1:37 flat Academy / 94 104 117 min. / Street Date November 17, 2020 / Ulisse / available through Kino Lorber / 29.95

Starring: Kirk Douglas, Silvana Mangano, Anthony Quinn, Rossana Podestà, Jacques Dumesnil, Daniel Ivernel, Sylvie, Franco Interlenghi,...

Guest reviewer Lee Broughton tackles Tonino Valerii’s Spaghetti Western-cum-political conspiracy thriller. By brazenly transposing key aspects of John F. Kennedy’s assassination onto the assassination of James A. Garfield in 1881, Valerii gives both western and conspiracy film fans much food for thought. A career best performance by Giuliano Gemma, repurposed sets from Once Upon a Time in the West and great turns by a plethora of Sergio Leone’s regular supporting actors bring a sense of gravitas to this intriguing show.

A Bullet for the President

Region Free Blu-ray

Wild East

1969 / Color / 2:35 widescreen / 112 min. / Il prezzo del potere, The Price of Power / Street Date November 25, 2019 / 18.45

Starring: Giuliano Gemma, Warren Vanders, Van Johnson, Maria Cuadra, Ray Saunders, Fernando Rey, Antonio Casas, Benito Stefanelli, Jose Suarez, Jose Calvo, Manuel Zarzo, Michael Harvey, Norma Jordan, Angel Alvarez.

Cinematography: Stelvio Massi

Film Editor: Franco Fraticelli

Original Music: Luis Bacalov

Production Designer: Carlo Leva...

Guest Reviewer Lee Broughton is back, with another Italo Western double bill DVD review. Wild East’s ongoing Spaghetti Western Collection continues to grow and this double bill release is particularly welcome since it features two obscure and wholly idiosyncratic genre entries from 1969. Italian Western directors had found it relatively easy to appropriate key plot points and ideas from Sergio Leone’s Dollars films during the genre’s early years but when Leone’s sprawling, mega-budgeted, meta-Western Once Upon a Time in the West was released in 1968 it was clear that this was one genre entry that local filmmakers would not be able to easily emulate.

With scriptwriters and directors now essentially being forced to come up with their own ideas and generic trends, a new wave of Spaghetti Westerns were produced that effectively took the genre in a multitude of new directions. The two films featured here were part of that wave.

I believe there's a hint as to what we're supposed to take out of Werner Herzog introduces Cobra Verde in the speed with which he introduces the film's central character, Francisco Manoel da Silva (Klaus Kinski), a ruined Brazilian rancher-turned-bandit who eventually finds himself at the center of the slave trade between Africa and South America. We never get to know Francisco the rancher, instead we first see him rumbling down a muddy hill, where he works for a gold mining company, and has just learned his wages have gone straight to the bank. That night he kills his boss, the scene cuts to black, next we meet the man Francisco has become, the feared bandit known as Cobra Verde (Green Snake). Cold, fearless and without sympathy, da Silva's travels eventually find him in the favor of Don Octavio Coutinho (Jose Lewgoy), who hires da Silva to oversea his sugar...