After making Clint Eastwood an international star with A Fistful of Dollars, For a Few Dollars More and The Good, The Bad and the Ugly, director Sergio Leone said ciao to his poncho-wearing muse, and replaced his nameless hero with Charles Bronson for his 1968 feature Once Upon a Time in the West.

Times are a-changing in the Old West, with the construction of the railway system across the country seemingly unstoppable. But tracks aren't the only thing coming into town, crime is snapping at its heels.

Brett McBain (Frank Wolff) has more pressing matters on his mind however; his estranged wife Jill (Claudia Cardinale) is finally returning home after years away, and he and his children have put on quite the feast. Sadly no-one gets a chance to enjoy it, as they are all slaughtered just before she arrives.

A bandit by the name of Cheyenne (Jason Robards) is blamed for the murders, although he's pretty sure he didn't do them. But if he didn't, that means someone else did, and they're trying to frame him for it.

Meanwhile, a nameless stranger (Charles Bronson) moseys into town, who slowly puts the pieces together. He works out that the McBain land isn't as worthless as it first appears, as railroad tycoon Morton (Gabriele Ferzetti), is keen to purchase it. However, his plan went awry when he sent hired gun Frank (Henry Fonda) to lean on McBain, but wasn't expecting him to massacre the family.

The nameless stranger, who is given the nickname of Harmonica for the instrument he carries around and often plays, knows that this isn't the first time that Frank has needlessly murdered. So with some help from Cheyenne, the pair decide to help each other out in an attempt to make the West that little bit less wild.

I'm going to lean against this wall if that's OK with you, otherwise my top will fall down.

Although the film squarely falls under the mandate of being a spaghetti western (for being filmed in Italy's Cinecittá studios), Leone had certainly moved on stylistically from his earlier work. At times he uses the camera as a sponge as it slowly absorbs every detail of its dusty surroundings. Where once he was focused on action, this film was all about plot and characters.

Leone also took his time, as this film clocks in at just under the three hour mark. It's by no means an action-fest, as he deliberately wanted to revel in his rich characters and their actions when they weren't constantly shooting at each other.

Although Bronson doesn't quite fill the boots of Eastwood, there are some other great performances on show; Robards is superb as the craggy Cheyenne, and Henry Fonda bravely went against type by playing a major role as a baddie for the first time.

The pace may well be on the trotting side, and Leone is borderline obsessive with his use of the close-up, but there's no denying the sheer scope and scale that he clearly set out to achieve.

Overall Once Upon a Time in the West is a shift away from the bang-bang-bang! Of his earlier work, deciding instead to reveal a West caught in transition, as it tentatively takes one step closer into a more modern industrial world, even though it's not entirely sure if it's ready for such a mass change.

If you're not put off by the film's deliberate slow pacing, then you should give this masterly spaghetti western a twirl.