CORY REYNOLDS | DATE 7/4/2019

OTD in 1776 and 1969

Today, we're celebrating 243 years of American Independence, as well as the 50th anniversary of the American wide release of Sergio Leone's quintessential American Western masterpiece, Once Upon a Time in the West. "I do believe that Sergio Leone is pointing the way towards modern filmmaking," Quentin Tarantino says in his Foreword to Once Upon a Time in the West: Shooting a Masterpiece, Sir Christopher Frayling's now-and-forever ultimate study of the film. "You don't go past Leone, you start with Leone… For my money I think he is the greatest of all Italy's filmmakers." Other figures interviewed in this definitive, copiously illustrated, 336-page volume include Leone himself, who spoke with Frayling on numerous occasions over his lifetime; his wife, Carla Leone; Assistant Director Giancarlo Santi; story and screenplay writers Bernardo Bertolucci, Dario Argento, Sergio Donati and Mickey Knox; Cinematographer Tonino Delli Colli; Production Designer Carlo Simi; Production Manager Claudio Mancini; Composer Ennio Morricone; actors Henry Fonda, Jason Robards, Claudia Cardinale, Charles Bronson, Gabriele Ferzetti, Woody Strode and Jack Elam; and others!