Once Upon a Time in the West Analysis

Once Upon a Time in the West (1968)

Directed by: Sergio Leone

Western films give a lot of opportunity for filmmakers to work their filmmaking muscles - because of the vast landscapes, which makes them choose between a wide, long, mid, close, extreme close pretty comfortably and every choice is done intentionally. Also in the build up of a shoot out, the editing and the pacing is played around so much - even in The Good, The Bad and The Ugly - we see few minutes of film just before the shoot out and the sheer suddenness of the move, is captured only through the edit. This film uses even sound design to create tension, a technique which was later used in Sholay - the sound of a swing, or a fan - the rustic, repetitive sound in an otherwise silent ambiance. The music by Ennio Morricone stands out, like his other works too - although this time, they use a mouth organ and they have the instrument in scenes which means the theme would've been worked before the shoot itself.

The ending wide shot has probably hundreds of extras, huge sets built and across a huge space - it's elements like these that make these Westerns epics. This film has a lot of fun shootouts, like the one where a person from above the train puts a show on the window and shoots through it - and a lot of stuff like that. The violence in this film is not disturbing - it plays on a witty level more than on a brutal gory level - like that of in Sam Peckinpah's or in Quentin Tarantino's films.