Once Upon a Time in the West (1968)

Most people think so. 82% of audiences gave it a thumbs up, by Google's archived audience score. Critics agree, scoring it 89%.

As the railroad builders advance unstoppably through the Arizona desert on their way to the sea, Jill arrives in the small town of Flagstone with the intention of starting a new life. Wikipedia ↗

Once Upon a Time in the West is a 1968 Italian epic Spaghetti Western directed by Sergio Leone, widely regarded as the greatest Western ever made. Henry Fonda plays against type as Frank, a cold-blooded hired killer working for a railroad baron who murders a homesteading family to clear the path for the transcontinental railroad. Charles Bronson is Harmonica, a mysterious stranger seeking Frank for a deeply personal revenge; Claudia Cardinale is Jill McBain, the murdered homesteader's wife who inherits the land the railroad needs; and Jason Robards is Cheyenne, a bandit falsely accused of the massacre.

Sergio Leone created his magnum opus — a three-hour meditation on the death of the American frontier told through extreme close-ups, impossibly wide landscapes, and silence so sustained that the crack of a gunshot could make audiences flinch. Ennio Morricone's score, composed before filming began, is considered one of the greatest in cinema history — each main character has their own musical theme that functions as a leitmotif throughout. Henry Fonda's casting as the villain was deliberately shocking, his famous blue eyes — symbol of American heroism for three decades — now cold and merciless.