Once upon a Time in the West

Once upon a time in the West so far is my favorite movie we have watched in class. Serio Leone's film eally uses alot of the techniques we learned in class, while keeping the great story going throughout. This film falls under the revisonist catagorie because it is a more recent film, and it has many differences to the classic western films. It is way more complex than the typical western as each character's backround is slowly revealed throughout the movie.

I chose to write about the final scene in the movie because it shows how this film is revisionist and it pieces together the entire film. During this scene we finally find out what is Harmonica's driving force to kill Frank. As Harmonica and Frank stare each other down in the shootout, Director Serio Leone quicky cuts to a flashback in their lives. During this flashback Harmonica has a harmonica stuck in his mouth and is holding up his brother as he is being strangled with a rope around his neck. If Harmonica falls, his brohter dies. The camera then pans to Frank in the corner looking on. So we find out that Frank somehow forced Harmonica to kill his older brother. Harmonica draws his weapon first and hits Frank in the chest. Its over. Frank is done. But right as you think Harmonica will walk away, he goes up to Frank and puts his harmonica in his mouth. This part of the scene adds alot to the movie. It really got me jacked up.

throughout the story I was often asking myself where is this going? But with this final scene it all came together and made sense. The classical, lovable Harmonica gets revenge on the stone cold killing bad guy, then gives him a little taste of his own medicine. It can't really get much better. this movie shows that it is revisionist as all the different clues and backround information comes together with this scene. In the older classical westerns, things wernt so complex. Overall this western is an awesome film and I would reccomend it to anyone, even if you don't like westyerns. I klnow I didn't before this film