Behind every great Western movie is a great director, and I think it’s fair to say that one of the most legendary Western directors of all time is, without a doubt, Sergio Leone.
Leone helped reinvent the Western genre in the 1960s with his Dollars Trilogy, which starred Clint Eastwood as the Man with No Name in A Fistful of Dollars (1964), For a Few Dollars More (1965), and The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (1966).
While I love the Dollars Trilogy and Eastwood’s portrayal of a cunning, morally ambiguous gunslinger, one of my favorite Sergio Leone Westerns is actually the film he made right after completing the trilogy in 1968: Once Upon a Time in the West. It’s widely considered a masterpiece of the genre, with its methodical pacing, beautiful cinematography, breathtaking score by Ennio Morricone, and, of course, its unforgettable story set in the dying days of the Old West.
If you’ve never seen it, the film follows a mysterious gunslinger known as Harmonica (Charles Bronson) as he arrives in the American West and becomes embroiled in a struggle over valuable land belonging to Jill McBain (Claudia Cardinale), a recent widow. As railroad construction pushes westward, Harmonica is drawn into a deadly confrontation with the ruthless outlaw Frank (Henry Fonda), who will stop at nothing to control the land.
Luckily, if you haven’t seen Once Upon a Time in the West, or it’s been too long since you last saw it, now’s the perfect time to watch it, as it’s just arrived on this free streaming service.
Once Upon a Time in the West is now on Tubi
You can stream this legendary Western for free
Every month, Tubi adds a bunch of new movies to its free streaming library. This October, in addition to tons of horror movies for Halloween and action films like Spider-Man: Far From Home, Tubi has also added Once Upon a Time in the West to its lineup.
That means you can stream the movie completely for free, with the only catch being that you’ll have to sit through a few ads, since Tubi is a free, ad-supported streaming service.
Alternatively, if you want an ad-free experience, you can buy a digital copy of Once Upon a Time in the West on Prime Video, Apple TV, or Fandango.
And if you’re a fan of physical media, Once Upon a Time in the West is also available on 4K UHD from Amazon. A new box set, the Sergio Leone Masterworks 4K UHD Collection, is also coming in November and includes not only Once Upon a Time in the West in 4K UHD, but the entire Dollars Trilogy as well.
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Hemlock Grove, Babylon 5, Spartacus, Gotham, Columbo
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Don’t Tell Mom the Babysitter’s Dead, Child’s Play, White House Down, Knives Out, It
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More free movies to stream this October
Tubi and Pluto TV have tons of options
Beyond Once Upon a Time in the West, Tubi has added more than 100 other free movies to stream this October, including Spider-Man: Homecoming, Spider-Man: Far From Home, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, 28 Days Later, Insidious, Spaceballs, and The Terminator.
Pluto TV has also added a bunch of free movies to watch this month, including 40 horror movies just in time for Halloween, such as Scary Movie, Resident Evil, Sleepaway Camp, and Paranormal Activity.
Once Upon a Time in the West
- Release Date
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December 20, 1968
- Runtime
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166 Minutes
- Director
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Sergio Leone
- Writers
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Sergio Leone, Sergio Donati, Dario Argento, Bernardo Bertolucci
