The Henry Fonda and Charles Bronson Western That Gave Us the Genre’s Most Iconic Twist

Sergio Leone certainly didn’t create the western, as filmmakers like John Ford, John Huston, and George Stevens had already created foundational works within the genre by the time Leone changed the game with his innovative western A Fistful of Dollars in 1964. However, the recurring hallmarks of the Italian filmmaker “The Man With No Name” trilogy, which also include For A Few Dollars More and The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly, epitomized the stylistic hallmarks that led to the popularization of the “spaghetti western” in the 1960s. While “The Man With No Name” trilogy was highly influential and made an international star out of Clint Eastwood, Leone took on a more ambitious genre exercise with his 1968 spaghetti western epic Once Upon a Time in the West. A timeless exploration of the dynamic between economy and greed, Once Upon A Time In The West warps the audience’s perspective of heroes and villains with its iconic twist.