Once Upon a Time in the West is a 1968 Italian epic

Epic Western

The Epic Western is a sub-genre of the Western.An archetypical example is Once Upon a Time in the West, a lengthy revenge epic directed by Sergio Leone and starring Charles Bronson...

 spaghetti western

Spaghetti Western

Spaghetti Western, also known as Italo-Western, is a nickname for a broad sub-genre of Western films that emerged in the mid-1960s in the wake of Sergio Leone's unique and much copied film-making style and international box-office success, so named by American critics because most were produced and...

 film directed by Sergio Leone

Sergio Leone

Sergio Leone was an Italian film director, producer and screenwriter most associated with the "Spaghetti Western" genre.Leone's film-making style includes juxtaposing extreme close-up shots with lengthy long shots...

 for Paramount Pictures

Paramount Pictures

Paramount Pictures Corporation is an American film production and distribution company, located at 5555 Melrose Avenue in Hollywood. Founded in 1912 and currently owned by media conglomerate Viacom, it is America's oldest existing film studio; it is also the last major film studio still...

. It stars Henry Fonda

Henry Fonda

Henry Jaynes Fonda was an American film and stage actor.Fonda made his mark early as a Broadway actor. He also appeared in 1938 in plays performed in White Plains, New York, with Joan Tompkins...

 cast against type as the villain, Charles Bronson

Charles Bronson

Charles Bronson , born Charles Dennis Buchinsky was an American actor, best-known for such films as Once Upon a Time in the West, The Magnificent Seven, The Dirty Dozen, The Great Escape, Rider on the Rain, The Mechanic, and the popular Death Wish series...

 as his nemesis, Jason Robards

Jason Robards

Jason Nelson Robards, Jr. was an American actor on stage, and in film and television, and a winner of the Tony Award , two Academy Awards and the Emmy Award...

 as a bandit, and Claudia Cardinale

Claudia Cardinale

Claudia Cardinale is an Italian actress, and has appeared in some of the most prominent European films of the 1960s and 1970s. The majority of Cardinale's films have been either Italian or French...

 as a newly widowed homesteader

Homesteading

Broadly defined, homesteading is a lifestyle of simple self-sufficiency.-Current practice:The term may apply to anyone who follows the back-to-the-land movement by adopting a sustainable, self-sufficient lifestyle. While land is no longer freely available in most areas of the world, homesteading...

 with a past as a prostitute. The screenplay was written by Leone and Sergio Donati

Sergio Donati

Sergio Donati is an Italian screenwriter. He has written for over 70 films since 1952. He was born in Rome, Italy.-Selected filmography:* The Big Gundown * Mission Stardust * Faccia a faccia ...

, from a story devised by Leone, Bernardo Bertolucci

Bernardo Bertolucci

Bernardo Bertolucci is an Italian film director and screenwriter, whose films include The Conformist, Last Tango in Paris, 1900, The Last Emperor and The Dreamers...

, and Dario Argento

Dario Argento

Dario Argento is an Italian film director, producer and screenwriter. He is best known for his work in the horror film genre, particularly in the subgenre known as giallo, and for his influence on modern horror and slasher movies....

. The widescreen cinematography was by Tonino Delli Colli

Tonino Delli Colli

Tonino Delli Colli was an Italian cinematographer.Antonio Delli Colli was born in Rome, and he began work at Rome's Cinecittà studio in 1938, at the age of sixteen. By the mid-1940s he was working as a cinematographer and in 1952 shot the first Italian film in colour, Totò a colori...

, and Ennio Morricone

Ennio Morricone

Ennio Morricone, Grand Officer OMRI, , is an Italian composer and conductor, who wrote music to more than 500 motion pictures and television series, in a career lasting over 50 years. His scores have been included in over 20 award-winning films as well as several symphonic and choral pieces...

 provided the film score.

In Europe, the film was a substantial box office success, playing for multiple years in some cities.