John Carpenter names the 1968 movie so good it ruined an entire genre: “You cannot do it any better”
It always sounds a little hyperbolic when anybody says a movie is so good that any other entries in its genre of choice will never be able to compare. According to John Carpenter, though, it’s not without merit.
In his defence, it’s not like he doesn’t have a point, at least to some degree. Has there ever been a sci-fi flick more innovative, ambitious, and influential than 2001: A Space Odyssey? You could add Star Wars and Blade Runner to the list, but beyond that, there aren’t many candidates that come to mind.
Similarly, while there have been a lot of good-to-great boxing films since Raging Bull, how many can actually hold a candle to Martin Scorsese’s masterpiece? Not many. Did the big-screen war epic peak with Saving Private Ryan? Maybe. Has fantasy ever gotten any better than The Lord of the Rings? Perhaps. Will comic book adaptations ever eclipse The Dark Knight? Possibly, but not based on what we’ve seen recently.
There are a thousand valid reasons why those aforementioned pictures are held in the regard they’ve been held in since they first landed in theatres, but saying that an entire genre has reached a pinnacle that it’ll never be able to recapture for as long as the moving image exists is a defeatist attitude, which does kind of make sense, seeing as Carpenter has shown himself to be a fairly dour fella.
Funnily enough, the movie that the Escape from New York, The Thing, and Big Trouble in Little China maestro singled out as the be-all and end-all of the art form was a medium that he was raised on, had adored for his entire life, and always wanted to tackle, but never did.
“I remember seeing Once Upon a Time in the West, and it was a jaw-dropping movie,” the filmmaker shared. “I couldn’t believe that movie. But after that, what are you going to do? I mean, you can’t do a gunfight any better than Henry Fonda and Charles Bronson. You cannot do it any better. You cannot; there’s nothing you can do.”
Sergio Leone’s epic is undoubtedly one of the greatest westerns of all time, and beyond its six-shooting showdowns, Carpenter was insistent that everything about the film couldn’t be replicated by anyone. “You cannot do a revenge story, Bronson’s whole journey in that, any better,” he added. “What are you going to do?”
It’s not completely untrue that Once Upon a Time in the West marked the end of an era for the sweeping, elegiac, and visually stunning westerns that had been fairly commonplace up until then, but so good that nothing could ever come close again? Clint Eastwood’s Unforgiven would like to have a word.
After all, his 1992 swansong to the genre that made him a superstar is a revenge story with several impeccable shootouts, and it’s also one of the greatest westerns ever made. Admittedly, one movie doesn’t disprove Carpenter’s theory, but it’s still evidence that Leone’s feature wasn’t as definitive an ending point as he believes it to be.
