Once Upon a Time in the West - Wikiquote (2024)

Once Upon a Time in the West is a 1968 spaghetti western film about a mysterious stranger with a harmonica who joins forces with a notorious desperado to protect a beautiful widow from a ruthless assassin working for the railroad.

Directed by Sergio Leone. Written by Sergio Donati and Sergio Leone, based on a story by Dario Argento, Bernardo Bertolucci, and Sergio Leone.

There were three men in her life. One to take her, one to love her, and one to kill her.

• [Harmonica's brother stands on his shoulders with a rope around his neck, Frank puts a harmonica in his mouth] Keep your lovin' brother happy.
• How can you trust a man who wears both a belt and suspenders? The man can't even trust his own pants.

• Do you know anything about a guy going around playing the harmonica? He's someone you'd remember. Instead of talking, he plays. And when he better play, he talks.
• You don't understand, Jill. People like that have something inside... something to do with death.
• They wanna hang me. The big, black crows. Idiots. What the hell? I'll kill anything. Never a kid. Be like killin' a priest. Catholic priest, that is.
• Hey, Harmonica - when they do you in, pray it's somebody who knows where to shoot... Go away... go away... go away, I don't want you to see me die.

Morton: There are many things you'll never understand.

[Frank draws on Morton as he pulls out money to show him]

Morton: This is one of them. You see, Frank, there are many kinds of weapons. And the only one that can stop that is this. Now, shall we get back to our little problem?

Frank: My weapons might look simple to you, Mr. Morton, but they can still shoot holes big enough for our little problems.

Cheyenne: Harmonica, a town built around a railroad. [laughs] You could make a fortune. Hundreds of thousands of dollars. Hey, more than that. Thousands of thousands.

Harmonica: They call them "millions".

Cheyenne: "Millions". Hmm.

Harmonica: I saw three of these dusters a short time ago. They were waiting for a train. Inside the dusters there were three men.

Cheyenne: So?

Harmonica: Inside the men there were three bullets.

Cheyenne: That's a crazy story, Harmonica, for two reasons. One, nobody around these part's got the guts to wear those dusters except Cheyenne's men. Two, Cheyenne's men don't get killed. That surprise you?

Harmonica: Yeah. Well, you know music and you can count. All the way up to two.

Cheyenne: [Turns the cylinder of his revolver] All the way up to six if I have to. [gestures to Harmonica's wound] And maybe faster than you.

Frank: Morton once told me I could never be like him. Now I understand why. Wouldn't have bothered him, knowing you were around somewhere alive.

Harmonica: So, you found out you're not a businessman after all.

Frank: Just a man.

Harmonica: An ancient race. Other Mortons will be along, and they'll kill it off.

Frank: The future don't matter to us. Nothing matters now - not the land, not the money, not the woman. I came here to see you. 'Cause I know that now, you'll tell me what you're after.

Harmonica: ...Only at the point of dyin'.

Frank: I know.

Frank: What's your name?

Harmonica: Dave Jenkins.

Frank: Dave Jenkins has been dead a long time.

Harmonica: Calder Benson.

Frank: What's your name? Benson's dead, too.

Harmonica: You would know, Frank. You killed them.

Harmonica: And Frank?

Snaky: Frank sent us.

Harmonica: Did you bring a horse for me?

Snaky: [Chuckling] It looks like we're... it looks like we're shy of one horse!

Harmonica: You brought two too many. [Harmonica shoots the three henchmen dead]

Jill: If you want to, you can lay me over the table and amuse yourself. And even call in your men. Well. No woman ever died from that. When you're finished, all I'll need will be a tub of boiling water, and I'll be exactly what I was before - with just another filthy memory.

Cheyenne: [sighs] You make good coffee, at least?

Jill: What's he waiting for out there? What's he doing?

Cheyenne: He's whittlin' on a piece of wood. I've got a feeling when he stops whittlin'... Somethin's gonna happen.

Morton: Tell me, was it necessary that you kill all of them? I only told you to scare them.

Frank: People scare better when they're dying.

Harmonica: Your friends have a high mortality rate Frank. First three, then two.

Frank: So, you're the one who makes appointments.

Harmonica: And you're the one who doesn't keep them.

Frank: Who are you?

Harmonica: Jim Cooper. Chuck Youngblood.

Frank: More dead men.

Harmonica: They were all alive until they met you, Frank.

Cheyenne: Judas was satisfied with 4,970 dollars less.

Harmonica: There weren't no dollars in them days.

Cheyenne: But sons-of-bitches? Yeah.

Jill: Mrs. McBain goes back to civilization. Minus a husband and plus a great future.

Cheyenne: You deserve better.

Jill: The last man who told me that is buried out there.

Cheyenne: You know, Jill, you remind me of my mother. She was the biggest whor* in Alameda and the finest woman that ever lived. Whoever my father was for an hour or for a month... he must have been a happy man.

Jill: But... but those were his men.

Harmonica: Yeah.

Jill: And they tried to kill him.

Harmonica: They must've found someone who pays better.

Jill: And you! You saved his life.

Harmonica: I didn't let them kill him. That's not the same thing.

Jill: I wish you'll come back someday.

Harmonica: Someday.

• Henry Fonda - Frank
• Charles Bronson - Harmonica
• Claudia Cardinale - Jill McBain
• Jason Robards - Cheyenne
• Gabriele Ferzetti - Morton
• Paolo Stoppa - Sam
• Woody Strode - Stony
• Jack Elam - Snaky
• Keenan Wynn - Sheriff
• Frank Wolff - Brett McBain
• Lionel Stander - Barman
• Al Mulock - Knuckles (final film role)

• Encyclopedic article on Once Upon a Time in the West on Wikipedia
• Media related to C'era una volta il West on Wikimedia Commons
• Once Upon a Time in the West quotes at the Internet Movie Database
• Once Upon a Time in the West at Rotten Tomatoes

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