While Clint Eastwood is the king of Western movies, he doesn’t have the best one-liner in the entire genre; Charles Bronson does. Both Charles Bronson and Clint Eastwood are responsible for some of the best Western movies ever made, and they’re both legends of the genre. Bronson and Eastwood both present a very strong case to be considered the best Western actor ever, as they’re neck and neck in almost every area that matters. One area where Bronson beats Eastwood, however, is in the single best one-liner in Western history.
Westerns are filled with great and cool one-liners, and the genre is almost built to produce them. Gunslingers always need some quippy phrase to cap off a shootout – or get them into one – and there’s no shortage of ways to work a one-liner into a good Western. In arguably one of the best movies from unarguably the best Western director, Sergio Leone, Charles Bronson made Western history. Bronson’s one-liner came in Once Upon a Time in the West, and since it came in the film’s first minutes, it set the tone for what proved to be a nearly flawless Western epic.
Charles Bronson’s “You Brought Two Too Many” Is One Of The Best One-Liners In Western History
Bronson’s One-Liner Is A Chilling Introduction To Harmonica & Expertly Delivered
In Once Upon a Time in the West, Charles Bronson plays the mysterious stranger known only as Harmonica. In the opening scene of Sergio Leone’s epic, Harmonica asks a group of Frank’s (Henry Fonda) men if they brought a horse for him to ride into town on, and Snaky (Jack Elam) responds that they’re “shy one horse.” In a truly bone-chilling moment, Bronson silently shakes his head and delivers the incredible line “You brought two too many.” It’s deceptively simple, but that simplicity also helped Bronson and Once Upon a Time in the West earn the distinction of having the best one-liner.
In a truly bone-chilling moment, Bronson silently shakes his head and delivers the incredible line “You brought two too many.”
Bronson’s “You brought two too many” line is, in many ways, the perfect Western one-liner. Without actually saying it, Harmonica informs Frank’s men that they’re going to die, and the wording of the line lets the audience pick up on the threat on their own. Bronson also had this incredible ability to sound completely uninterested and even bored as he informs his enemies that he’s about to kill them. Harmonica is absolutely positive that these three men are going to die, even though he’s got a suitcase in one hand and a harmonica in the other, and it all contributed to a nearly perfect line reading.
Clint Eastwood Has Plenty Of Great Western One-Liners, Too
Eastwood Definitely Has More Great Quotes, But Bronson’s Is Still The Best
Though Charles Bronson’s line in Once Upon a Time in the West is the single best one-liner in the Western genre, Clint Eastwood has far more entries to the list, and they don’t trail far behind. The list of Clint Eastwood’s best quotes is so long he could have spread half of them around to other actors and still dominated the top ten. From A Fistful of Dollars‘ “Build three coffins” to The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly‘s “There’s two kinds of people, my friend: those with loaded guns and those who dig. You dig,” Eastwood is a nearly endless fount of great quotes.
The Secret To Charles Bronson’s OUATITW Quote Is The Movie Itself, Not Him
The Intro To OUATITW Is The Best In The Western Genre & It Elevated Bronson’s One-Liner
At the end of the day, Charles Bronson is probably on equal footing with Clint Eastwood in terms of their talent for playing Western heroes, and Eastwood had a greater number of successful outings. What really sets Bronson’s quote apart and gives it the edge over Eastwood’s long list of one-liners is Once Upon a Time in the West itself. Once Upon a Time in the West has one of the best character introductions in Western history, and the scene only elevated Bronson’s one-liner.
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Everything about Harmonica’s first scene made his one-liner better. The massive, minutes-long buildup to his appearance, the truly haunting and expertly written harmonica medley he plays, and the sheer terror on the faces of Frank’s men all made Harmonica an almost legendary figure right from the start. The mere fact that the one-liner is only Harmonica’s third line in the movie only makes it more legendary. Many of Eastwood’s best one-liners came after several scenes with his respective characters, while Bronson’s best is how Once Upon a Time in the West chose to introduce him.
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Charles Bronson’s delivery of “You brought two too many” is great in its own right, but Sergio Leone’s direction elevated it to the stuff of myth. Clint Eastwood has plenty of timeless Western scenes and lines, but none of them can compare to the sheer amount of expertly crafted parts of Once Upon a Time in the West‘s introduction. There isn’t a single beat that Bronson or Leone missed. It’s the single best one-liner the Western genre has to offer, even if Eastwood still holds the overall crown.
Once Upon a Time in the West
- Release Date
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December 20, 1968
- Runtime
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166 Minutes
- Director
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Sergio Leone
- Writers
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Sergio Leone, Sergio Donati, Dario Argento, Bernardo Bertolucci
