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Once Upon A Time In The West Essay

Decent Essays

The opening sequence of Spaghetti Western film, Once Upon a Time in the West (Sergio Leone, 1968), showcases how director, Sergio Leone, utilises the formal properties of the medium of cinema to produce meaning for the audience and foreshadow later events and themes which arise throughout the development of the plot. The film opens with a single scene of a mysterious, harmonica-playing gunman (Charles Bronson), embroiled in a showdown with three men that have been drafted to kill him (Jack Elam, Woody Strode, Al Mulock). The sequence culminates with the gunman binding up his wounded arm and collecting his belongings, abandoning the other three men dead by a railway line. This essay will endeavour to explore how each creative and technical element of the production creates a sense of ambiguity and tension to the scene, grasping the audience’s engagement with the film. To do this, the mise-en-scène, cinematography, editing, sound and performance of the text will each be subject to detailed analysis.

Without a doubt, the most effective and compelling element of the opening scene is …show more content…

The length of each shot is long, moments of subtle action drawn out into longer cuts to heighten the sense of dread. For example, in the moments of the aftermath of the shooting, the character of the Harmonica is shown to bandage up his arm and put his hat on. Instead of adopting a range of angles and cuts to portray this sequence, Leone favours a single mid-shot that lasts twenty-seven seconds. This protracted sequence builds the sense of enigma surrounding the Harmonica – who is this man and what will he do next? The length of the shot also hints at the characterisation of the gunman to the audience; the leisurely pace at which he performs his duties depicting him as someone who is not afraid of danger or violence, traits which are seen again and again throughout the progression of the

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