The Western Epic That Influenced Quentin Tarantino in “Every Way, Shape, and Form” Is Leaving Free Streaming

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Three legendary Italian directors united to work on one of the most acclaimed films of all time. The movie inspired generations of directors who came after, with perhaps the biggest fan being none other than Quentin Tarantino. A lifelong admirer of spaghetti Westerns — grimy European counterparts to the more straight-laced American Westerns — Tarantino paid homage to the iconic movie in several of his own films. His most recent release as a director owes its title to the classic, which will turn 60 years old in 2028. Now, the movie in question is streaming for free in the United States, but only for a little while longer.

Released in 1968, the film was produced as a sort of catharsis for director Sergio Leone, Tarantino’s favorite filmmaker, following his culture-defining Dollars Trilogy. Leone worked on the film with Dario Argento and Bernardo Bertolucci, and together, they made a classic that Tarantino credits for teaching him what filmmaking is. In the foreword of a book about the making of the film, he described it as “the movie that made me consider filmmaking, the movie that showed me how a director does what he does, how a director can control a movie through his camera.” Tarantino added that the classic “affected my films in every way, shape and form.”

Four icons and four completely different ways of walking into trouble.
This is the one you would have been out there, why it fits, and what it would have cost you.

You have never explained yourself and you have never needed to,
because people work out fairly quickly that you are the most capable person in the room
without you ever having to mention it.

• Eastwood built the character out of everything he refused to do, stripping away the
  backstory, the speeches and every bit of reassurance until only the competence was left.
• You keep your own counsel, and while other people occasionally find that unnerving, you
  have never felt any real need to fix it for them.
• The Dollars films work because he genuinely is in it for himself right up until the
  moment he is not, and he never explains that part either.
• You would be gone before anybody got a chance to thank you.

You are the funniest person in most rooms and the most loyal
person in all of them, and you would be genuinely insulted if somebody suggested those two
things were in any tension.

• Doc has no real reason to be in this fight beyond the fact that his friend is in it,
  which is the only reason he has ever needed for anything.
• You lead with wit, and it does a very effective job of hiding how seriously you take the
  handful of people you actually care about.
• Val Kilmer’s performance is the most quoted in the entire genre because the jokes keep
  getting sharper as the situation gets worse.
• You would spend everything you had on this and still describe it as a good week.

You never wanted this job, and you took it anyway because the
alternative was standing there watching somebody less careful do it badly, which is the most
Western reason there has ever been.

• Earp is the reluctant authority figure, a man who came to town specifically to be left
  alone and somehow ended up answerable for all of it.
• You are protective by instinct, so when something goes wrong your first thought is who
  is exposed rather than who is to blame.
• These films understand that keeping order costs far more than breaking it, and that the
  person holding the line almost never gets thanked.
• You would do the whole thing again, and you would complain about it the entire time.

Nobody has ever successfully talked you out of something you had
already decided was right, and a long line of grown adults has found that out the hard way.

• Mattie is the most relentless character in the Western canon and she manages it through
  argument, paperwork and flat refusal rather than a fast draw.
• You have no patience for being managed, so you negotiate, you check the details and you
  turn up exactly when you said you would.
• True Grit is the rare Western where the moral centre is the youngest person on screen
  and every adult around her has to catch up.
• You would get what you came for, and the film is honest about what that takes out of
  you.

One of Quentin Tarantino’s Favorite Spaghetti Westerns Is Leaving Free Streaming

• Image via Paramount.

• Image via Paramount Pictures

• Image via Paramount Pictures

• Image via Paramount

• Image via Paramount Pictures

Image via Paramount.

Image via Paramount Pictures

Image via Paramount Pictures

Image via Paramount

Image via Paramount Pictures

• Image via Paramount.

• Image via Paramount Pictures

• Image via Paramount Pictures

• Image via Paramount

• Image via Paramount Pictures

Image via Paramount.

Image via Paramount Pictures

Image via Paramount Pictures

Image via Paramount

Image via Paramount Pictures

We’re talking, of course, about Once Upon a Time in the West. Starring Claudia Cardinale, Jason Robards, Henry Fonda, Charles Bronson, and others, the movie united many of Leone’s key collaborators, such as composer Ennio Morricone and cinematographer Tonino Delli Colli. While Tarantino has ranked it at number five on his list of favorite spaghetti Westerns, the late critic Roger Ebert had quite a journey with the movie. He initially gave it two and a half stars out of four, but years later added it to his “Great Movies” list. In addition to Tarantino’s work, the film’s influence can also be felt in Breaking Bad and Star Wars. It now holds a “Certified Fresh” 96% score on the aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, where the consensus reads, “A landmark Sergio Leone spaghetti Western masterpiece featuring a classic Morricone score.” You can watch Once Upon a Time in the West for free on Tubi, but only until November 1. Stay tuned to Collider for more updates.

Once Upon a Time in the West