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Hello, I'm Lancelot Narayan.
Welcome to the audio commentary track
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for Sergio Leone's,
Once Upon a Time in the West.
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You will be hearing
from Sir Christopher Frayling,
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author of the book Sergio Leone,
Something to Do With Death,
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Film historian Dr Sheldon Hall,
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directors Alex Cox, John Milius,
John Carpenter, Bernardo Bertolucci,
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and star of the film
Claudia Cardinale.
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We hear first
from Sir Christopher Frayling,
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who takes us through
the classic opening scenes.
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We're in a deserted station
in the middle of nowhere,
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somewhere in Arizona,
but actually filmed in Spain,
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near a town called Guadix, in a place
called Estaci�n de Calahorra.
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Three gunfighters, in a menacing way,
are moving in on the station.
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They're wearing long duster coats,
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canvas coats sometimes
featured in American Westerns,
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but were the result of research
by the designers and Sergio Leone,
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who thought them rather impressive.
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The three gunfighters are played by
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Woody Strode,
John Ford's great black actor,
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Jack Elam, who appeared as a baddie
in countless Hollywood Westerns,
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and Al Mulock, who is
a rather mysterious Canadian actor,
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whose last appearance this was.
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The woman, the Indian squaw,
is played by Mrs Woody Strode.
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So they're threatening
the station agent.
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The design of this station
is interesting,
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it's just made
of higgledy-piggledy pieces of wood,
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railway sleepers on the floor, even
a railway going through the station.
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One of the gunfighters is making
a cat-like face at this caged bird.
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It's all very threatening
macho behaviour.
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There's usually a character
of a crazy old man in Leone's films,
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For a Few Dollars More
and so on.
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The station agent here
plays that role.
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Trying to sell a ticket,
but Jack Elam isn't buying.
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Now, of course, this sequence
is based on the equivalent sequences
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in Fred Zinnemann's film High Noon,
made in the early 1950s,
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where three gunfighters are waiting
at Hadleyville Station,
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a much brighter, cleaner, well-lit
station in a Hollywood backlot.
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And the three gunfighters
in High Noon
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are played by Lee Van Cleef,
Sheb Wooley and Robert Wilke.
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The station agent is banged up.
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The door closes
with an amplified natural sound,
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and we get, as if we needed
reminding, "A Sergio Leone film".
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Now, the whole of this
soundtrack sequence
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is built around
amplified natural sounds.
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Creaking doors,
slamming metal doors, the bird,
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the "chi-chi-chi" of the cat-like
face, the scrunches on the sand,
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and, above all, a windmill
that's in bad need of oiling,
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that creaks away
throughout the scene.
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Originally, there was a theme
composed for this by Ennio Morricone.
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It didn't seem to work,
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and they decided
to orchestrate the soundtrack
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in a very complex way
for the late 1960s,
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around all these natural sounds. It's
like a huge piece of performance art.
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A ballet performed to natural sounds.
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It relates to Morricone's experiments
with avant-garde music.
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He went to a symphony for metal
ladder where someone stood on stage,
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first in absolute silence, then
holding the ladder to a microphone,
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and the squeaking noise of the ladder
lasted for about 15 or 20 minutes.
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The philosophy of it, which is based
on John Cage's musical experiments,
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was that all natural sounds are
music, it's a question of context.
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In a concert hall
a squeaky ladder becomes music.
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That was the basic idea that gave
them the concept for this soundtrack.
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It's a squeaky windmill and all sorts
of other creaks, winds whistling,
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knuckles about to be pulled,
and so on.
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But it's orchestrated
around natural sounds,
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whereas the rest of the film
is orchestrated around music.
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Instead of the smooth wooden platform
of the usual Hollywood movie,
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you have just discarded sleepers,
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a hint that the railroad is being
built around them as they sit here.
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The train, we've learned from
the blackboard, is two hours late.
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So they've arrived, obviously for
some assignation, but the train,
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unlike the train in High Noon, which
is dead on time, is two hours late.
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And what we experience in this scene
is the gunfighters passing the time,
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bored out of their skulls,
waiting to shoot somebody,
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and how they behave under
those rather stressful conditions.
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So the sound of the telegraph
has been irritating Jack Elam.
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He pulls the wires out and instead
of just the telegraph stopping,
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the windmill stops as well,
and all the other sounds.
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So this is an artificial soundtrack.
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When you pull the wires out,
the entire soundtrack stops.
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And then slowly
they fade back the windmill.
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Woody Strode meanwhile is standing
under some rusty water
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dropping on his fabulous bald head.
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Woody Strode, ex-American footballer,
had appeared in John Ford's films
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Sergeant Rutledge, The Man Who Shot
Liberty Valance and other Westerns,
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and, in the way that Sergio Leone
did his casting,
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he brought with him
all those John Ford films.
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Al Mulock had appeared in various
Italian Westerns,
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including a Lee Van Cleef film.
He's the one pulling on his knuckles.
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Jack Elam
is the veteran of High Noon.
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He appeared as the town drunk
way back in the early '50s,
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and Leone remembered this
astonishing Hollywood bad-guy face,
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one of whose eyes
doesn't quite work properly.
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And instead of the water
and the knuckles, he gets the fly.
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I asked the production manager
once how he did this.
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They put jam, or marmalade
all over Jack Elam's beard
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and had a jar of flies off camera.
They let the flies out one by one,
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hoping that one would land on his
chin, and this one worked very well.
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More attention is paid
to the fate of this fly
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than to the fate of several
human beings later on in the film.
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And so the sound effects build up,
the knuckles get more insistent,
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the buzzing of the fly gets more
insistent, the drip of the water,
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and this piece of sonic art
really comes into its own.
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Leone has this extraordinary ability
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to combine grungy close-ups
with epic landscapes.
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A lot of his films have these
big faces in Techniscope close-up,
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with every pore, every piece of
beard, every aspect of physiognomy,
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as if it's carved out of the geology
of America or Spain.
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You crosscut that with the
landscapes. The faces get in the way.
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The opening shot of The Good,
the Bad and the Ugly is Al Mulock,
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the third gunfighter here,
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blocking the landscape,
and the sound of a dog howling.
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So grungy close-ups
and epic long shots.
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The fly walks up the side of the
bench and Jack Elam pulls his gun.
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Is this a rerun of Buster Keaton's
gag in The Paleface,
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where he actually shoots it? No.
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He traps it in the barrel of the gun
and you get another sound,
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this "neow-neow-chung-chung" sound,
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as the fly, terrified, flies up
and down the barrel of the gun,
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and Jack Elam smiles as he listens
to it. An extraordinary moment.
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That eye has to feature
in a rather comic way.
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Incredible emphasis
on physical details.
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Leone was a collector of antiques.
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He loved craftsmanship
and finely made things.
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He loved
the tactile quality of materials.
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Now, the train comes over the camera,
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a shot first used in John Ford's film
The Iron Horse, 1924,
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where the train helps the white
settlers during an Indian attack.
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That's the second reference
to a Hollywood Western.
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We start with High Noon,
we then go to The Iron Horse.
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Woody Strode wrote
in his autobiography, Gold Dust,
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that in 20 years in Hollywood
he'd never had close-ups like this.
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Even in The Professionals, which he'd
just made with Claudia Cardinale,
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he only got three close-ups.
But here he has lots of close-ups.
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And this ten-minute appearance
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was probably his most memorable
appearance ever in a movie.
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Note the sawn-off rifle which has a
trigger guard just like John Wayne's.
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A reference to John Wayne movies,
particularly Howard Hawks' Rio Bravo.
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This elaborate trigger guard,
everything about this is conscious,
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references to all the Westerns that
the writers and director had seen.
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"Directed by Sergio Leone"
coming down over the cowcatcher,
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as if it's stopping the train.
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And now a new sound effect,
the wheezing and puffing of the train
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as the boiler keeps going
while they wait for someone.
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Now, in High Noon,
they'd be waiting for the bad guy.
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Here
they're waiting for the good guy.
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They had two locomotives
when making this film.
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Production designer Carlo Simi
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disguised them
to look like American locomotives.
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They're Spanish trains that were
dressed up to look like Western ones,
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and this was one of them.
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They think the person hasn't
turned up. All that wait for nothing.
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So they're about to go.
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What freezes them
is the sound of a harmonica.
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We get a delayed drop.
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The curtain comes aside
in the form of the railway carriage,
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to reveal the central character,
the man with the harmonica.
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A real man with no name
played by Charles Bronson.
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And Leone said to me that Bronson's
harmonica is Johnny's guitar.
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Just like Sterling Hayden's entrance
into the bar in Johnny Guitar,
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there's a delayed drop as a glass on
the bar rolls, falling into his hand,
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the camera goes up and you see
his face. So this is a delayed drop,
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as Charles Bronson's face
is revealed by the train.
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Throughout the film Bronson appears
behind pillars, through curtains.
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He sort of drifts into frame,
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as if he has a supernatural control
over time and space.
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His first entrance, he's simply
discovered standing there.
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And the first dialogue.
We're well into the film,
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but these are the first words spoken.
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The railway line in the foreground,
as that's what the movie is about.
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This confrontation is basically
about the building of the railroad.
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"You brought two too many." Bronson
wonderful, almost parody dialogue.
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"Did you bring a horse for me?"
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"Looks like we're shy of one horse."
"You brought two too many."
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It's almost an excuse for a laugh.
Such extreme Western dialogue,
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but it's also magnificently written.
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Then, despite all that build-up,
the violence happens very quickly,
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unlike in a Sam Peckinpah film
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where the moment of violence
is stretched with slow motion.
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Leone's interested in the rituals
that precede the violence,
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not the violence itself.
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What happens is that two of the guest
stars, Jack Elam and Woody Strode,
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are dead
before the film has even begun.
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This is going to be
a very strange movie.
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Carlo Simi, the production designer,
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said that when they were recording
the windmill, an assistant said,
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"Shouldn't we oil it,
it sounds a bit creaky?",
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Leone said,
"Touch it and I'll strangle you."
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He wanted this incredible squeak that
grinds and gets on everyone's nerves.
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And so Harmonica gets up,
but the other three are dead.
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The second big sequence
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is the second cluster of references
to Hollywood Westerns.
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The opening moments of Shane
by George Stevens
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have a little boy with a wooden rifle
pointing it at a deer.
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The deer's antlers frame, famously,
Shane arriving from the wilderness.
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Well, this is another little boy,
who's miming hunting,
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birds rather than a deer,
but it's a direct reference
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to the very opening moments
of George Stevens' 1950s film Shane.
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We have the cicadas, the sound
of crickets and the Spanish desert.
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This was filmed
further south in Spain,
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whereas the station was the
Estaci�n de Calahorra, near Guadix,
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this is down in Almeria
about ten miles outside Tabernas.
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Indeed, the set is still standing
there as a tourist attraction today.
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Little Timmy mimes
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in exactly the same way
little Joey Starrett does in Shane.
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It's the McBain family.
When they were preparing the script,
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the writers, Bertolucci, Argento
and Leone initially,
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then Sergio Donati the scriptwriter,
were looking at American references.
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They thought, thrillers,
Ed McBain, Brett Halliday,
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both authors of policiers.
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So let's call the man Brett McBain
after Brett Halliday and Ed McBain,
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let's call the boy Timmy McBain and
there's Maureen McBain, the daughter,
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the little boy's sister at the house.
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She comes out singing, "Danny Boy,
the pipes, the pipes are calling."
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That's a reference
to Raoul Walsh's film Pursued,
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where a similar sequence with the
checked tablecloth and family meal
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is actually illustrated by a musical
box playing Danny Boy,
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which everyone joins in, including
Robert Mitchum and Teresa Wright.
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So this is a family gathering and
the Irish song is an example of that.
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But suddenly there's silence.
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So all is not well in the wilderness.
The cicadas have stopped chirping.
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And these moments
are yet another reference,
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this is to John Ford's film
The Searchers,
224
00:16:30,240 --> 00:16:35,792
where you have the ranch
at twilight in Monument Valley
225
00:16:35,920 --> 00:16:38,309
and sudden moments of silence
226
00:16:38,440 --> 00:16:42,433
with the buttes and mesas
of Monument Valley in the distance.
227
00:16:42,560 --> 00:16:45,996
In Shane, it's the Comanche Indians
signalling to each other
228
00:16:46,120 --> 00:16:49,078
and about to engage
in a massacre of the ranch.
229
00:16:49,200 --> 00:16:53,432
But in this case it isn't
the Comanche Indians, as we'll see.
230
00:17:14,560 --> 00:17:16,676
Brett McBain
is played by Frank Wolff,
231
00:17:16,800 --> 00:17:19,792
an expat actor
who'd worked in America.
232
00:17:27,080 --> 00:17:30,789
And who was to play the sheriff
in a classic Italian Western,
233
00:17:30,920 --> 00:17:34,754
The Big Silence, which also has one
of the great Ennio Morricone scores,
234
00:17:34,880 --> 00:17:36,632
shortly after this.
235
00:17:49,560 --> 00:17:52,950
We're introduced to Patrick,
another member of the family.
236
00:17:53,080 --> 00:17:56,629
We've met Timmy and Maureen,
we now meet Patrick, the third child,
237
00:17:56,760 --> 00:18:01,117
who's got to go off
and meet his new stepmother.
238
00:18:02,320 --> 00:18:04,629
A feast is being laid out
in the wilderness.
239
00:18:04,760 --> 00:18:09,436
The checked tablecloth is the classic
image of domesticity and family life.
240
00:18:09,560 --> 00:18:15,954
It's being laid out for the arrival
of Claudia Cardinale as Jill.
241
00:18:16,800 --> 00:18:19,268
And it's a classic
Hollywood Western set-up
242
00:18:19,400 --> 00:18:22,915
where the family gathering
or the dance or the celebration
243
00:18:23,040 --> 00:18:25,600
is interrupted by something sinister,
244
00:18:25,720 --> 00:18:28,393
usually Native Americans
in the wilderness,
245
00:18:28,520 --> 00:18:30,670
but in this case, it's the bad guys.
246
00:18:30,800 --> 00:18:34,679
This juxtaposition
between the rituals of family life
247
00:18:34,800 --> 00:18:38,110
and the terror
of living in the wilderness
248
00:18:38,240 --> 00:18:41,596
is one of the staple
moments in the Hollywood Western.
249
00:18:49,240 --> 00:18:54,189
The house of Sweetwater is
interesting. It's made of solid logs,
250
00:18:54,320 --> 00:18:59,155
actually a job lot left over
from Orson Welles' film Falstaff.
251
00:18:59,280 --> 00:19:02,192
But it's much more substantial
than it should be.
252
00:19:02,320 --> 00:19:05,437
It's got a pitched roof
over two floors, it's got a balcony,
253
00:19:05,560 --> 00:19:07,869
it's made to last.
254
00:19:08,000 --> 00:19:11,231
What Leone wanted was a house
that an Irishman like McBain,
255
00:19:11,360 --> 00:19:12,793
who has this dream of a lifetime,
256
00:19:13,400 --> 00:19:15,311
and the well is key to that dream,
257
00:19:15,440 --> 00:19:18,750
that he has this house
that's built to last for generations.
258
00:19:18,880 --> 00:19:21,599
You don't need a house like that
for three children
259
00:19:21,720 --> 00:19:24,553
when there's no land
to speak of being farmed.
260
00:19:24,680 --> 00:19:28,593
All you have is the water in front
of it and a very substantial house.
261
00:19:28,720 --> 00:19:30,039
In fact, it has lasted.
262
00:19:30,160 --> 00:19:33,038
It's in almost as good condition
today as it was then.
263
00:19:34,440 --> 00:19:37,238
One of Carlo Simi's
most interesting designs.
264
00:19:37,360 --> 00:19:40,716
Again the silence,
this build up of tension.
265
00:19:40,840 --> 00:19:45,231
There's something out there,
and they're not sure what it is.
266
00:19:47,440 --> 00:19:50,796
Another moment from The Searchers
as the birds fly.
267
00:19:50,920 --> 00:19:53,309
Maureen thinks it's beautiful.
Or is it?
268
00:19:53,440 --> 00:19:57,513
Is it because someone's hunting?
Is one going to fall from the sky?
269
00:20:01,760 --> 00:20:04,797
No, the sounds are coming
from somewhere else.
270
00:20:07,120 --> 00:20:09,873
And Maureen is the first to be shot.
271
00:20:20,480 --> 00:20:27,158
Brett himself is the second to be
shot. And then Patrick is shot.
272
00:20:28,640 --> 00:20:32,633
This is a real massacre
of an entire family.
273
00:20:32,760 --> 00:20:36,275
And out comes Timmy
to be confronted by this mayhem
274
00:20:36,400 --> 00:20:39,995
of everyone he holds dear in life
just lying there
275
00:20:40,120 --> 00:20:44,113
around this meal
that was to be a great celebration.
276
00:20:48,560 --> 00:20:51,836
The music swells up.
The first use of this theme,
277
00:20:51,960 --> 00:20:57,159
Like a Judgement it was called,
with a trumpet and amplified guitar
278
00:20:57,280 --> 00:21:00,397
to represent
the Henry Fonda character
279
00:21:00,520 --> 00:21:04,798
and to represent the vendetta,
the vengeance theme of the movie.
280
00:21:04,920 --> 00:21:09,436
In an almost operatic way, as Timmy
rushes out, the music swells up,
281
00:21:09,560 --> 00:21:12,677
and these characters come
from behind the sage brush,
282
00:21:12,800 --> 00:21:15,155
again wearing these long dusters,
283
00:21:15,280 --> 00:21:17,874
like Jack Elam and friends
at the station.
284
00:21:18,000 --> 00:21:20,753
But you can't quite see who they are.
285
00:21:20,880 --> 00:21:25,556
The leader of the gang
hands his rifle to a sidekick,
286
00:21:25,680 --> 00:21:28,956
but deliberately
you can't quite see their faces.
287
00:21:29,840 --> 00:21:33,674
The tree stump, always there
outside big houses in the Wild West,
288
00:21:33,800 --> 00:21:37,475
as it was in Shane. That's how
the house was built, from trees.
289
00:21:37,600 --> 00:21:42,674
And then a shot from behind
of these very, very sinister five men
290
00:21:42,800 --> 00:21:45,712
in their long coats
confronting this little child,
291
00:21:45,840 --> 00:21:49,071
with his toes pointed inwards,
clutching a bottle.
292
00:21:50,240 --> 00:21:53,312
Then the camera goes round
and we see, at shoulder height,
293
00:21:53,440 --> 00:21:57,513
his cheek puffed out with tobacco,
the first shot of Henry Fonda.
294
00:21:57,640 --> 00:22:01,872
Leone wanted everyone to say,
"Jesus Christ! It's Henry Fonda!"
295
00:22:02,000 --> 00:22:04,833
They can't imagine
someone behind a massacre,
296
00:22:04,960 --> 00:22:09,636
who smiles in this sinister way
with those beautiful blue eyes,
297
00:22:09,760 --> 00:22:14,231
had been the man who played
young Mr Lincoln and Wyatt Earp,
298
00:22:14,360 --> 00:22:17,636
who said that playing Mr Lincoln
was like playing Jesus.
299
00:22:17,760 --> 00:22:20,115
Those eyes are smiling...
300
00:22:21,600 --> 00:22:23,830
...Iooking at this small child.
301
00:22:23,960 --> 00:22:26,554
It is an incredibly sinister
and nasty moment.
302
00:22:26,680 --> 00:22:29,990
The whole of Fonda's cinematic image
is in tatters.
303
00:22:30,120 --> 00:22:36,309
This man is a psychotic bad guy.
That was the point of the casting.
304
00:22:38,920 --> 00:22:40,876
"Since you called me by name..."
305
00:22:41,000 --> 00:22:46,120
He said, "Frank", so unfortunately
the child has to bite the dust.
306
00:22:48,600 --> 00:22:52,513
When this film was originally
shown on American television,
307
00:22:52,640 --> 00:22:54,949
this moment was always cut out.
308
00:22:55,520 --> 00:22:57,829
It was when
the advertisements came in,
309
00:22:57,960 --> 00:23:01,475
and it cut straight to the next scene
with the locomotive arriving.
310
00:23:04,400 --> 00:23:09,394
It was left ambiguous. They couldn't
cope with the sainted Henry Fonda
311
00:23:09,520 --> 00:23:11,909
doing something
so absolutely dreadful.
312
00:23:12,040 --> 00:23:15,919
So here comes the locomotive
arriving at Flagstone,
313
00:23:16,040 --> 00:23:21,592
and a lot of detail about the sort
of people coming to the Wild West
314
00:23:21,720 --> 00:23:25,474
by the new technology
of the railroad.
315
00:23:25,600 --> 00:23:29,275
Another theme by Morricone
called Bad Orchestra,
316
00:23:29,400 --> 00:23:35,111
it's like a jug band in a pub,
being played as the train arrives.
317
00:23:35,240 --> 00:23:39,313
And the camera shows us the social
life of people in the Wild West.
318
00:23:39,440 --> 00:23:42,750
There's cattle being moved out
into the cattle pens.
319
00:23:43,720 --> 00:23:46,473
There's people arriving
to visit relatives.
320
00:23:50,600 --> 00:23:53,797
There's a soldier from the US Army.
321
00:23:53,920 --> 00:23:57,708
And here's Claudia Cardinale,
the first appearance as Jill McBain.
322
00:23:57,840 --> 00:24:02,755
In the original script, the camera
was underneath the carriage steps
323
00:24:02,880 --> 00:24:08,159
so Jill McBain would step over it,
not wearing any knickers.
324
00:24:08,280 --> 00:24:11,636
They decided, perhaps sensibly,
not to include that.
325
00:24:11,760 --> 00:24:13,990
She steps down from the train.
326
00:24:18,800 --> 00:24:20,153
Huge hustle and bustle.
327
00:24:20,280 --> 00:24:25,513
Lots of bottles and baskets and
barrels and agricultural equipment,
328
00:24:25,640 --> 00:24:27,915
all lined up on the platform.
329
00:24:36,600 --> 00:24:41,196
Jill's dressed in a city way.
She's come from New Orleans.
330
00:24:41,320 --> 00:24:46,440
The hat, the lace, the fashionable
shawl. This is a stylish woman
331
00:24:46,560 --> 00:24:50,189
from a rather different culture
to the one she's arriving at now.
332
00:25:05,240 --> 00:25:09,631
Native Americans coming off the
train, a prospector gold-digging.
333
00:25:11,480 --> 00:25:16,634
It's very rare to have a shot of
Native Americans in Italian Westerns.
334
00:25:16,760 --> 00:25:19,752
Usually they were concerned
with urban gunfighters,
335
00:25:19,880 --> 00:25:22,758
goodies and baddies
and Billy-the-Kid types.
336
00:25:22,880 --> 00:25:26,350
This is a rare moment
of social background.
337
00:25:26,480 --> 00:25:31,508
This is an epic Western where
people are arriving on the frontier.
338
00:25:31,640 --> 00:25:36,031
Some of them are used to travelling
in the new technology, some aren't.
339
00:25:38,000 --> 00:25:40,355
But there's no one to meet her.
340
00:25:40,480 --> 00:25:44,917
In the first scene, three unwanted
gunfighters waited for the train,
341
00:25:45,040 --> 00:25:49,158
this time there's no one waiting
for the train when there should be.
342
00:26:00,160 --> 00:26:04,312
Deserted. It's not even a platform.
It's just instant wilderness
343
00:26:04,440 --> 00:26:06,237
with all the things dumped there
344
00:26:06,360 --> 00:26:12,833
to be delivered to the various farms
and estates in the Arizona desert.
345
00:26:14,960 --> 00:26:16,951
And now a famous Leone shot.
346
00:26:17,080 --> 00:26:21,153
Probably the most flamboyant shot
that he'd done so far in his career.
347
00:26:21,280 --> 00:26:23,794
We're on railway tracks
for a tracking shot.
348
00:26:23,920 --> 00:26:27,993
We follow Claudia Cardinale
walking down the platform.
349
00:26:29,280 --> 00:26:31,748
She goes in to see the stationmaster.
350
00:26:31,880 --> 00:26:35,919
The window is a letter-box window
to match the letter box of the image.
351
00:26:36,040 --> 00:26:40,636
A frame within a frame. We're in
the same shot, there's been no cut.
352
00:26:40,760 --> 00:26:43,877
We don't quite hear
what she says to the stationmaster,
353
00:26:44,000 --> 00:26:47,515
but, "How do I find my way
to Sweetwater?"
354
00:26:47,640 --> 00:26:50,996
The track finishes, the camera
starts going up on a crane,
355
00:26:51,120 --> 00:26:54,749
the music swells in a crescendo,
and the timing of the crane shot
356
00:26:54,880 --> 00:26:58,714
was exactly matched to Morricone's
crescendo, written in advance.
357
00:26:58,840 --> 00:27:02,628
And the soaring voice of soprano
Edda Del'Orso reaches a pitch
358
00:27:02,760 --> 00:27:08,551
as we go over the roof tiles and see
the town of Flagstone being built.
359
00:27:08,680 --> 00:27:11,558
This is no finished,
well-scrubbed Wild West town,
360
00:27:11,680 --> 00:27:14,911
this is a town
in the process of construction.
361
00:27:15,040 --> 00:27:17,634
There's a bus, an unusual detail.
362
00:27:17,760 --> 00:27:21,719
A horse-drawn omnibus goes by,
a sign of the town of the future,
363
00:27:21,840 --> 00:27:26,630
and the buggy with Sam, played by
the Italian actor Paolo Stoppa,
364
00:27:26,760 --> 00:27:31,754
who'd appeared in a lot of Visconti
movies, a well-known stage actor,
365
00:27:31,880 --> 00:27:34,110
sitting next to Jill McBain
on the buggy.
366
00:27:34,240 --> 00:27:36,470
They're going from
the burgeoning town,
367
00:27:36,600 --> 00:27:40,434
originally based on photographs
of Abilene, Kansas,
368
00:27:40,560 --> 00:27:44,951
a mixture of brick construction
and wood construction and tents.
369
00:27:45,080 --> 00:27:50,279
A potential town, a town that may
last or may become a ghost town.
370
00:27:50,400 --> 00:27:53,472
Carlo Simi based it
on archive photos of Abilene.
371
00:28:02,320 --> 00:28:06,836
It's not just a main street, like
many film sets, it has side streets
372
00:28:06,960 --> 00:28:09,838
and a relationship
between town and wilderness.
373
00:28:09,960 --> 00:28:13,396
In fact, the town
cost $250,000 to build,
374
00:28:13,520 --> 00:28:17,957
more than the budget of Leone's
first Western, A Fistful of Dollars.
375
00:28:18,080 --> 00:28:21,550
And it only really appears... Yes,
they shoot in individual streets,
376
00:28:21,680 --> 00:28:25,468
but that crane shot at the station
is our only real view of Flagstone.
377
00:28:25,600 --> 00:28:28,672
So the building of that huge set
was for that moment.
378
00:28:28,800 --> 00:28:34,158
So we go from train to wilderness
platform to town in the Wild West,
379
00:28:34,280 --> 00:28:36,748
and it was that moment
that he was paying for.
380
00:28:36,880 --> 00:28:42,955
And the buggy leaves this town
and heads into the Spanish desert,
381
00:28:43,080 --> 00:28:45,833
but we cut and are no longer
in the Spanish desert,
382
00:28:45,960 --> 00:28:48,030
we're on the Arizona/Utah border now
383
00:28:48,160 --> 00:28:54,599
because Leone simply had to shoot
some sequences in Monument Valley.
384
00:28:54,720 --> 00:28:57,553
John Ford's location,
where he made so many movies
385
00:28:57,680 --> 00:28:59,910
between Stagecoach
and Cheyenne Autumn
386
00:29:00,040 --> 00:29:04,431
with the great Mittens
in their red sandstone,
387
00:29:04,560 --> 00:29:08,235
which stood for those great Ford
movies from Stagecoach onwards.
388
00:29:08,360 --> 00:29:09,873
He had to have a moment here.
389
00:29:10,000 --> 00:29:14,391
There are only a couple of short
sequences set in Monument Valley
390
00:29:14,520 --> 00:29:16,988
in a recognisable way,
but they were enough.
391
00:29:17,120 --> 00:29:20,874
Leone shot in Monument Valley
after he'd finished filming in Spain.
392
00:29:21,000 --> 00:29:24,834
In fact, the opening station sequence
was the last to be shot in Spain,
393
00:29:24,960 --> 00:29:28,509
then the crew went to Monument
Valley, which Leone had recced.
394
00:29:28,640 --> 00:29:33,953
And when he recced it, Carlo Simi
remembered Leone rushing round
395
00:29:34,080 --> 00:29:38,232
remembering exactly where John Ford
placed the camera for all his movies.
396
00:29:38,360 --> 00:29:43,559
"That's where The Searchers was,
that's where Stagecoach was."
397
00:29:43,680 --> 00:29:47,036
He knew every inch of Monument Valley
from the movies.
398
00:29:47,160 --> 00:29:49,390
We're disrupting the railroad gangs.
399
00:29:49,520 --> 00:29:52,830
One of the tensions in the film
is between the old West,
400
00:29:52,960 --> 00:29:56,669
represented by Sam and his horse,
Lafayette, here with the buggy,
401
00:29:56,800 --> 00:30:00,588
and the new world of the West,
the technology pushing westwards,
402
00:30:00,720 --> 00:30:03,757
digging up Monument Valley
with its railroad tracks.
403
00:30:03,880 --> 00:30:07,634
Here's the second great shot
of Monument Valley,
404
00:30:07,760 --> 00:30:12,914
with the swelling Jill's theme,
this orchestral theme,
405
00:30:13,040 --> 00:30:15,634
one of the great leitmotifs
on the soundtrack.
406
00:30:15,760 --> 00:30:18,354
We've had As a Judgement,
Henry Fonda's theme.
407
00:30:18,480 --> 00:30:20,948
This is Jill's theme,
408
00:30:21,080 --> 00:30:25,915
for another wonderful,
expansive shot of Monument Valley.
409
00:30:27,000 --> 00:30:30,549
And this brings with it
John Ford's cinema.
410
00:30:31,520 --> 00:30:33,033
They had the devil's own job
411
00:30:33,200 --> 00:30:36,875
matching up the sequences
shot in Spain and in Monument Valley.
412
00:30:37,000 --> 00:30:39,230
They imported dust
from Monument Valley
413
00:30:39,360 --> 00:30:43,433
to chuck through the doors in Spain,
because Monument Valley's very red,
414
00:30:43,560 --> 00:30:46,279
and Spain is very yellow
and olive coloured.
415
00:30:46,400 --> 00:30:50,075
And here's a wayside inn
that's been built in Monument Valley,
416
00:30:50,200 --> 00:30:54,751
a huge operation which is part livery
stable, part blacksmith's shop,
417
00:30:54,880 --> 00:30:59,635
part bar, part bathing establishment,
a mad kind of trading post,
418
00:30:59,760 --> 00:31:04,197
a reference to Anthony Mann's movies,
particularly Winchester '73,
419
00:31:04,320 --> 00:31:07,551
where James Stewart
arrives at a trading post,
420
00:31:07,680 --> 00:31:11,309
although it looks nothing like this,
in the middle of the desert.
421
00:31:11,440 --> 00:31:14,159
Yet another reference
to a classic Hollywood Western.
422
00:31:27,160 --> 00:31:32,553
This was a sequence cut from
the original American-release print
423
00:31:32,680 --> 00:31:36,753
of Once Upon a Time in the West
when it came out in 1968.
424
00:31:36,880 --> 00:31:40,509
It features Lionel Stander
as the bartender,
425
00:31:40,640 --> 00:31:44,633
and here's Paolo Stoppa as Sam
having a drink.
426
00:31:45,920 --> 00:31:50,391
Lionel Stander was blacklisted
in Hollywood in the early 1950s
427
00:31:50,520 --> 00:31:53,353
and became an expatriate
actor in Europe.
428
00:31:53,480 --> 00:31:58,508
Interestingly, the dialogue for
this film was translated into English
429
00:31:58,640 --> 00:32:04,272
by Mickey Knox, another blacklistee,
an actor, who knew Lionel Stander.
430
00:32:04,400 --> 00:32:08,279
So this was something of a reunion
of expatriate Americans
431
00:32:08,400 --> 00:32:10,834
in Rome and in Spain.
432
00:32:11,280 --> 00:32:15,558
So, it's a livery stable
and it's a bar, all under cover,
433
00:32:15,680 --> 00:32:19,798
and clearly someone looking like
Jill McBain is extremely rare
434
00:32:19,920 --> 00:32:24,914
in this ramshackle trading post
in the middle of nowhere.
435
00:32:36,160 --> 00:32:42,269
Lionel Stander, leering with
his cigar in this rather extreme way.
436
00:32:47,840 --> 00:32:51,435
Offensive, perhaps, by today's
standards of sexual politics,
437
00:32:51,560 --> 00:32:55,758
but it's trying to say not much
happens like this in the West.
438
00:32:55,880 --> 00:32:59,111
Certainly, it would be unusual
for someone dressed like her
439
00:32:59,240 --> 00:33:03,950
to walk into a flyblown trading post
in the middle of Arizona.
440
00:33:16,840 --> 00:33:20,276
This is the sort of low comedy
you find in a lot of Leone's films,
441
00:33:20,400 --> 00:33:25,030
where having had a rather dramatic
sequence, Jill, desolated
442
00:33:25,160 --> 00:33:28,516
because she hasn't been met
at the station by Brett McBain,
443
00:33:28,640 --> 00:33:32,235
and coming after a long journey
from New Orleans,
444
00:33:32,360 --> 00:33:35,670
having to travel across the desert
to find her destination,
445
00:33:35,800 --> 00:33:39,031
then you have this
sort of Shakespearean low comedy
446
00:33:39,160 --> 00:33:42,357
to take the heat out
of the situation.
447
00:33:42,480 --> 00:33:44,391
And a wonderful delayed drop.
448
00:33:44,520 --> 00:33:48,479
Gunshots, sounds, horses outside
the door. We don't know what it is.
449
00:33:48,600 --> 00:33:51,751
All we see is the people's reactions
choreographed.
450
00:33:51,880 --> 00:33:53,598
Something's going on outside,
451
00:33:53,720 --> 00:33:56,314
but it's a purely visual moment
with sound
452
00:33:56,440 --> 00:33:58,874
for the first entrance
of Jason Robards
453
00:33:59,000 --> 00:34:01,434
as Cheyenne, the romantic bandit,
454
00:34:01,560 --> 00:34:04,632
with just a hint
of his musical theme.
455
00:34:07,600 --> 00:34:12,196
So whereas Bronson arrives
by the curtains revealing him
456
00:34:12,320 --> 00:34:13,912
in a semi-supernatural way,
457
00:34:14,040 --> 00:34:19,114
Robards constantly blusters through
doors and slams doors as he comes in.
458
00:34:19,240 --> 00:34:23,950
This guy breaks the door down.
And he's on the run.
459
00:34:33,160 --> 00:34:35,913
So we're introduced
to the final main character.
460
00:34:36,040 --> 00:34:38,395
To Bronson
at the station at the beginning,
461
00:34:38,520 --> 00:34:41,239
to Fonda
during the Sweetwater massacre,
462
00:34:41,360 --> 00:34:44,158
to Jill at Flagstone railway station
463
00:34:44,280 --> 00:34:47,909
and now to Jason Robards in this
trading post in the wilderness.
464
00:34:48,040 --> 00:34:51,794
We have the four main protagonists,
each with a musical theme,
465
00:34:51,920 --> 00:34:54,434
each with a different mode of entry.
466
00:34:55,680 --> 00:34:58,752
And now their destinies
are about to intertwine.
467
00:35:00,880 --> 00:35:04,589
A great Leone gag here. He walks in.
We haven't seen his hands.
468
00:35:04,720 --> 00:35:07,792
He's come to the bar for a drink.
He wants a jug.
469
00:35:12,680 --> 00:35:16,275
And only when he lifts his hands
do you see
470
00:35:16,400 --> 00:35:19,631
what the reason
for him being on the run is.
471
00:35:21,960 --> 00:35:23,712
He's wearing handcuffs.
472
00:35:24,320 --> 00:35:29,394
And Leone loves those delayed drops.
He called it indirect dialogue.
473
00:35:29,520 --> 00:35:32,114
Never say something
in an obvious way.
474
00:35:32,240 --> 00:35:36,552
Let the audience do the guessing
and then you deliver the punch line.
475
00:35:36,680 --> 00:35:39,558
It's a very cinematic approach
to telling stories,
476
00:35:39,680 --> 00:35:42,956
always in slightly convoluted way.
He loves trompe I'oeil,
477
00:35:43,080 --> 00:35:46,834
he loves indirect dialogue, he loves
what he calls cinema cinema,
478
00:35:46,960 --> 00:35:49,713
which is references to other films,
479
00:35:49,840 --> 00:35:52,912
and a kind of surreal approach
to setting up his scenes.
480
00:35:53,040 --> 00:35:55,793
Very seldom do things happen
in your face,
481
00:35:55,920 --> 00:35:58,036
he wants
to keep the audience guessing.
482
00:36:00,120 --> 00:36:03,874
And now we have
the second Harmonica appearance.
483
00:36:04,000 --> 00:36:07,754
We've had the first appearance
at the station, and here it is again,
484
00:36:07,880 --> 00:36:11,953
sitting in the corner in the
darkness, licking his wounds.
485
00:36:12,080 --> 00:36:14,833
Charles Bronson
playing his harmonica.
486
00:36:14,960 --> 00:36:18,873
A wonderful moment where the lamp
on its runner along the ceiling
487
00:36:19,000 --> 00:36:20,797
is thrown across the room,
488
00:36:20,920 --> 00:36:24,993
and it swings and lights up Bronson
as the music swells up.
489
00:36:29,680 --> 00:36:32,911
But he's not saying anything.
He just plays his harmonica,
490
00:36:33,040 --> 00:36:36,032
rather like Silent Tongue,
the little Indian boy
491
00:36:36,160 --> 00:36:38,469
in Sam Fuller's Western
Run Of The Arrow,
492
00:36:38,600 --> 00:36:42,957
who's dumb and doesn't say anything,
but he just plays a mouth organ.
493
00:36:43,320 --> 00:36:45,993
And like Johnny with his guitar
in Johnny Guitar,
494
00:36:46,120 --> 00:36:50,318
this is how he communicates,
this bluesy lament.
495
00:36:50,440 --> 00:36:55,036
But he does keep his gun at his side.
He's a prudent guy.
496
00:37:07,600 --> 00:37:13,118
A sort of game between these two men.
Playing harmonica, playing with guns,
497
00:37:13,760 --> 00:37:16,877
the music swelling up,
a lot of staring at each other.
498
00:37:17,000 --> 00:37:21,676
Someone once called this film an
opera in which the arias aren't sung,
499
00:37:21,800 --> 00:37:25,509
they're stared. And in a way
this is a classic moment for that.
500
00:37:25,640 --> 00:37:27,358
It is very operatic.
501
00:37:27,480 --> 00:37:30,278
All you're doing
is looking at these people's eyes
502
00:37:30,400 --> 00:37:32,630
as they stare at each other.
503
00:37:33,160 --> 00:37:37,199
But Bronson wants his gun pointing
in the right direction just in case.
504
00:37:55,160 --> 00:37:58,709
Now just under Bronson's right eye
is a little scar,
505
00:37:58,840 --> 00:38:01,195
and you may wonder
where that came from.
506
00:38:01,320 --> 00:38:07,077
There's a sequence that was cut
during the shooting of the film,
507
00:38:07,200 --> 00:38:13,594
because the film's elliptical style
was making it slow to make its point,
508
00:38:13,720 --> 00:38:16,871
and Leone realised he'd have
a three-and-a-half hour movie.
509
00:38:17,000 --> 00:38:21,790
There was a scene where Bronson
was beaten up by some deputies
510
00:38:21,920 --> 00:38:25,230
in town
after having arrived at the station,
511
00:38:25,360 --> 00:38:30,559
and he bears the scars for this scene
and the next scene at Sweetwater.
512
00:38:31,400 --> 00:38:34,472
It was a scene
for which stills have survived
513
00:38:34,600 --> 00:38:38,354
with Keenan Wynn as the sheriff,
who makes an appearance later on.
514
00:38:38,480 --> 00:38:42,393
But Leone cut it and distributed
the story points from that sequence
515
00:38:42,520 --> 00:38:46,274
to later on in the movie.
This was cut on the run.
516
00:38:48,120 --> 00:38:54,355
He wanted this slow, reactive,
balletic quality in the film.
517
00:38:54,480 --> 00:38:58,871
A new pace, much less frenetic
than his earlier Italian Westerns,
518
00:38:59,000 --> 00:39:04,791
but he found that if he kept up that
pace for a sustained period of time,
519
00:39:04,920 --> 00:39:07,354
it really would turn
into a very long film.
520
00:39:07,480 --> 00:39:11,189
It's a pace he got from the Japanese
masters Kurosawa and Ozu
521
00:39:11,320 --> 00:39:13,197
rather than from Hollywood.
522
00:39:13,320 --> 00:39:16,392
He said people talked too fast,
the cutting was too fast,
523
00:39:16,520 --> 00:39:21,071
dialogue overlapped, you couldn't see
faces, things happened too quickly.
524
00:39:21,200 --> 00:39:24,397
Why not stretch it out?
Why not distend it?
525
00:39:24,520 --> 00:39:26,750
Why not make it
much more rhetorical?
526
00:39:26,880 --> 00:39:31,908
This is a classic example of Sergio
Leone's rhetoric, Tarantino-style.
527
00:39:32,040 --> 00:39:35,874
Two people point guns at each other,
like The Good, the Bad and the Ugly,
528
00:39:36,000 --> 00:39:39,515
where three people point guns.
What's going to happen?
529
00:39:39,640 --> 00:39:42,677
Who's going to shoot who,
and who's going to do it first?
530
00:39:42,800 --> 00:39:49,558
Like the last moment of Reservoir
Dogs and the end of Pulp Fiction.
531
00:39:59,400 --> 00:40:04,110
It was just Robards wanting someone
to shoot through his manacles.
532
00:40:04,240 --> 00:40:08,631
So the whole of that build-up
was about a very simple thing
533
00:40:08,760 --> 00:40:12,992
that could've taken seconds,
but that's not Leone's project.
534
00:40:13,120 --> 00:40:15,236
That's not his way of doing it.
535
00:40:16,560 --> 00:40:18,357
So back we go to the bartender
536
00:40:18,960 --> 00:40:20,552
as if nothing's happened.
537
00:40:20,680 --> 00:40:24,275
But Cheyenne's men come in.
The red dust comes through the door,
538
00:40:24,400 --> 00:40:26,231
as if from Monument Valley.
539
00:40:26,360 --> 00:40:29,477
Actually,
this is a set at Cinecitt� in Rome.
540
00:40:52,600 --> 00:40:54,989
So Cheyenne's men wear dusters,
541
00:40:55,120 --> 00:40:58,112
and Frank's men, played by
Henry Fonda, wear dusters,
542
00:40:58,240 --> 00:41:01,437
and Jack Elam wears one.
Everyone seems to wear dusters.
543
00:41:01,560 --> 00:41:03,869
It's confusing,
but it's part of the plot.
544
00:41:04,000 --> 00:41:07,788
Classic entrance by Bronson.
Sliding in from left of frame,
545
00:41:07,920 --> 00:41:10,036
as if he's been there all the time.
546
00:41:17,960 --> 00:41:21,669
And this dialogue, about
"Can you play or do you shoot, too?",
547
00:41:21,800 --> 00:41:24,030
"You play harmonica,
but can you shoot?",
548
00:41:24,160 --> 00:41:28,119
is very similar to the dialogue
in Nicholas Ray's Johnny Guitar,
549
00:41:28,240 --> 00:41:32,199
a key reference point in making
Once Upon a Time in the West.
550
00:41:32,320 --> 00:41:36,359
Bernardo Bertolucci had written
a famous review of Johnny Guitar
551
00:41:36,480 --> 00:41:40,155
and the whole theme of the woman
in the wilderness, with the saloon,
552
00:41:40,280 --> 00:41:43,078
with the water,
with the railroad about to arrive,
553
00:41:43,200 --> 00:41:46,033
with the various men
that revolve around her life,
554
00:41:46,160 --> 00:41:50,756
including the man with the guitar,
is a key reference for this film.
555
00:41:50,880 --> 00:41:53,599
And this dialogue
"Can you shoot? Can you play?"
556
00:41:53,720 --> 00:41:57,269
is like the dialogue between
Sterling Hayden and the dancing kid
557
00:41:57,400 --> 00:41:59,516
in Johnny Guitar.
558
00:42:26,720 --> 00:42:29,518
On the left is Aldo Sambrell,
a Spanish actor
559
00:42:29,640 --> 00:42:33,315
who'd appeared in a lot of Italian
Westerns, usually as a baddie,
560
00:42:33,440 --> 00:42:38,719
and very often had his dialogue track
dubbed into English.
561
00:42:41,200 --> 00:42:44,317
He was quite a big star
in the Spanish side of things
562
00:42:44,440 --> 00:42:46,954
and tended to appear
further up the credits,
563
00:42:47,080 --> 00:42:51,153
but in America wouldn't have been
so well known, except as a face,
564
00:42:51,280 --> 00:42:54,716
the second baddie from the left
in an Italian Western.
565
00:43:05,840 --> 00:43:08,877
The sound of the gun.
Every gun makes its own tune.
566
00:43:09,000 --> 00:43:11,036
Very like The Good,
the Bad and the Ugly
567
00:43:11,160 --> 00:43:14,835
where Eli Wallach gets hold of
a Colt revolver and makes the sound.
568
00:43:14,960 --> 00:43:18,157
Holds it up against his ear.
Every gun makes its own tune.
569
00:43:19,240 --> 00:43:21,959
Another sound effect.
Back to the harmonica.
570
00:43:36,840 --> 00:43:38,637
There's a bum note.
571
00:43:39,400 --> 00:43:41,630
It's so operatic, that moment.
572
00:43:41,760 --> 00:43:44,274
A bum note on a harmonica,
what does it matter?
573
00:43:44,400 --> 00:43:50,350
But in the setting of this
extraordinary tense rhetorical ballet
574
00:43:50,480 --> 00:43:53,711
a moment like that
takes on a huge significance.
575
00:43:53,840 --> 00:43:56,149
It's very theatrical and artificial.
576
00:43:56,280 --> 00:43:59,955
Suddenly, Stander starts
talking as if nothing's happened.
577
00:44:00,080 --> 00:44:03,959
Continuing with his jabbering on
about people he's known in the West
578
00:44:04,080 --> 00:44:07,993
and what a wonderful person Jill is,
and does she want a bath?
579
00:44:46,120 --> 00:44:50,477
Dr Sheldon Hall is an author,
lecturer and film historian.
580
00:44:50,600 --> 00:44:56,152
Here he guides us through Jill's
shocking discovery at Sweetwater.
581
00:44:56,280 --> 00:45:00,159
Jill's arrival at Sweetwater
is the first and only sequence
582
00:45:00,280 --> 00:45:02,430
which she shares with the McBains.
583
00:45:02,560 --> 00:45:05,393
All we know of her relationship
with Brett McBain
584
00:45:05,520 --> 00:45:09,718
is information given to us
in dialogue and in this sequence,
585
00:45:09,840 --> 00:45:15,119
where Claudia Cardinale's reaction
shots carry most of the weight
586
00:45:15,240 --> 00:45:18,949
of her emotional relationship
with her late husband.
587
00:45:19,920 --> 00:45:21,399
Like so much of the film,
588
00:45:21,520 --> 00:45:24,796
this is played through a series
of extended reaction shots
589
00:45:24,920 --> 00:45:29,869
in which the performers facial
reaction says all we need to know
590
00:45:30,000 --> 00:45:32,468
about how they feel,
what they're thinking,
591
00:45:32,600 --> 00:45:35,433
how we're meant to feel
about their relationship.
592
00:45:38,320 --> 00:45:42,233
This is an instance of Leone's
command of the widescreen format,
593
00:45:42,360 --> 00:45:45,955
the full width
of the Techniscope frame being used.
594
00:45:47,640 --> 00:45:50,598
Fritz Lang, in Jean-Luc Godard's film
Le M�pris,
595
00:45:50,720 --> 00:45:54,395
said CinemaScope was only good
for snakes and funerals.
596
00:45:54,520 --> 00:45:57,034
This is a good case in point.
597
00:45:57,160 --> 00:46:01,676
It's useful for other things, too,
as Leone shows throughout this movie.
598
00:46:01,800 --> 00:46:05,395
The bodies are laid out
on the gingham tablecloths,
599
00:46:05,520 --> 00:46:10,799
which will form one of the many
visual motifs of the film.
600
00:46:10,920 --> 00:46:15,198
We later see Jill laying out those
cloths on tables, where they belong.
601
00:46:15,320 --> 00:46:21,759
Here they serve as a macabre funeral
shroud for the bodies of her family.
602
00:46:21,880 --> 00:46:26,192
The gingham tablecloth is one
of those emblems of domesticity,
603
00:46:26,320 --> 00:46:30,836
of homeliness,
a symbol of pioneer America,
604
00:46:30,960 --> 00:46:34,714
which is here, of course, undermined.
605
00:47:11,440 --> 00:47:15,319
Leone's very fond of profile shots
which turn into full-face shots
606
00:47:15,440 --> 00:47:19,035
with the aid of a camera movement
which brings the camera round
607
00:47:19,160 --> 00:47:21,196
into the actor's face.
608
00:47:22,480 --> 00:47:26,917
Recall also Henry Fonda's
first appearance in the movie.
609
00:47:29,520 --> 00:47:32,512
And the funeral sequence proper.
610
00:47:33,040 --> 00:47:35,156
The wood of the coffin,
611
00:47:35,280 --> 00:47:40,070
the same crude lumber
which forms the log cabin,
612
00:47:40,200 --> 00:47:44,557
the typical building
of the pioneering Western town.
613
00:47:46,400 --> 00:47:48,709
A crude form of burial.
614
00:47:51,680 --> 00:47:57,277
Funerals, one of the most common
rituals in Western movies.
615
00:47:57,400 --> 00:48:02,633
John Ford was very famous
for his lyrical funeral sequences.
616
00:48:02,760 --> 00:48:05,832
And this one evokes The Searchers
617
00:48:05,960 --> 00:48:11,671
in the way that it's broken up before
the funeral has properly finished.
618
00:48:11,800 --> 00:48:14,439
There, John Wayne's character,
Ethan Edwards,
619
00:48:14,560 --> 00:48:17,074
walks away during the service,
620
00:48:17,200 --> 00:48:20,476
breaking up the funeral crowd
around the burial site.
621
00:48:20,600 --> 00:48:24,036
In this case, Claudia Cardinale
turns away from the burial
622
00:48:24,160 --> 00:48:28,153
to receive some information about
the suspected murderer of her family,
623
00:48:28,280 --> 00:48:30,191
which we know to be false,
624
00:48:30,320 --> 00:48:33,915
having seen the deaths of the McBains
earlier in the picture.
625
00:48:34,040 --> 00:48:35,837
The burial virtually forgotten,
626
00:48:35,960 --> 00:48:41,159
as the crowd moves away
to pursue the outlaw band.
627
00:48:48,760 --> 00:48:51,752
Leone here using the width
of the Techniscope format
628
00:48:51,880 --> 00:48:56,908
to keep in shot simultaneously
Claudia Cardinale and Paolo Stoppa.
629
00:48:57,040 --> 00:49:00,112
We have two close-ups in one,
630
00:49:00,240 --> 00:49:03,550
and the ease of the scope format
for allowing that
631
00:49:03,680 --> 00:49:06,069
is displayed to full advantage here.
632
00:49:13,880 --> 00:49:17,509
Jill looks through what remains
of her husband's belongings.
633
00:49:17,640 --> 00:49:22,760
What she finds is a series of gifts
that would have been meant for her,
634
00:49:22,880 --> 00:49:28,477
her wedding corsage,
various forms of jewellery, clothing.
635
00:49:31,000 --> 00:49:36,120
She's looking for the money which
she believes her husband has left,
636
00:49:36,240 --> 00:49:39,038
which we later discover
has been spent on lumber
637
00:49:39,160 --> 00:49:41,993
for the building
of Sweetwater Station.
638
00:49:43,880 --> 00:49:49,318
It's a typically oblique way of Leone
giving us information piecemeal.
639
00:49:49,440 --> 00:49:52,557
Obliquely, so that we have to form
our own conclusions.
640
00:49:52,680 --> 00:49:57,515
We have to draw from
the visual evidence before our eyes
641
00:49:57,640 --> 00:50:00,154
the sense of what's going on.
642
00:50:01,800 --> 00:50:04,234
This is one
of a number of shots in the film
643
00:50:04,360 --> 00:50:07,397
of Cardinale looking
at her own image in the mirror.
644
00:50:07,520 --> 00:50:10,398
There's a more sustained example
of this later on.
645
00:50:18,520 --> 00:50:22,354
Not feminine narcissism,
but self-examination.
646
00:50:34,560 --> 00:50:39,111
This, you might say, is the bedroom
scene with the absent husband,
647
00:50:39,240 --> 00:50:43,597
which has its echo
in the later bedroom sequence
648
00:50:43,720 --> 00:50:45,756
with Henry Fonda's Frank.
649
00:50:46,680 --> 00:50:50,593
Again, the weight of the relationship
with McBain
650
00:50:50,720 --> 00:50:55,999
carried only through a studied look
at the face of the widow.
651
00:51:01,080 --> 00:51:07,952
And this famous shot anticipates
the later shot in Leone's career
652
00:51:08,080 --> 00:51:11,470
at the end of
Once Upon a Time in America,
653
00:51:11,600 --> 00:51:14,797
the last shot in a Leone film
654
00:51:14,920 --> 00:51:20,950
of Robert De Niro's
drug-induced reverie.
655
00:51:49,440 --> 00:51:52,318
Wobbles,
the proprietor of the local laundry,
656
00:51:52,440 --> 00:51:55,398
is one of those figures
in Western movies
657
00:51:55,520 --> 00:52:00,275
who seems fated to be humiliated,
tortured, beaten up.
658
00:52:00,400 --> 00:52:02,960
His function really
is to be expendable.
659
00:52:03,080 --> 00:52:06,595
He serves only to relay information
between characters
660
00:52:06,720 --> 00:52:10,156
and eventually to be shot by Frank.
661
00:52:27,960 --> 00:52:30,269
With Gothic appropriateness,
662
00:52:30,400 --> 00:52:33,039
the machinery,
the equipment of his laundry,
663
00:52:33,160 --> 00:52:35,196
is used as the main torture device.
664
00:52:37,280 --> 00:52:39,669
This again picks up
the theme of water,
665
00:52:39,800 --> 00:52:45,272
used as a linking motif throughout
the film in many different forms.
666
00:52:49,720 --> 00:52:53,429
Sustained beatings offer quite
a common feature of Leone movies,
667
00:52:53,560 --> 00:52:57,235
particularly suffered by Clint
Eastwood in the Dollars trilogy.
668
00:52:59,000 --> 00:53:02,436
There may be something
peculiarly Italian about this.
669
00:53:02,560 --> 00:53:05,916
Sustained brutality was only just
becoming a common feature
670
00:53:06,040 --> 00:53:09,555
of American Westerns,
and that, I think, was partly,
671
00:53:09,680 --> 00:53:11,591
in the later '60s and '70s,
672
00:53:11,720 --> 00:53:14,678
under the influence
of the Italian Western.
673
00:53:14,800 --> 00:53:17,997
The more baroque
and excessive varieties of violence
674
00:53:18,120 --> 00:53:22,272
which we find in Leone's work
gradually became a common feature,
675
00:53:22,400 --> 00:53:25,756
almost a clich�,
of American Westerns of the 1970s.
676
00:53:30,320 --> 00:53:36,077
And it was arguably Leone's film
which established Charles Bronson
677
00:53:36,200 --> 00:53:42,514
as the cold-eyed mean avenger,
the righteous seeker-after-justice,
678
00:53:42,640 --> 00:53:47,509
who's not averse
to a bit of strong-arm tactics.
679
00:53:47,640 --> 00:53:51,952
And of course you see that throughout
his thriller films of the 1970s.
680
00:54:00,920 --> 00:54:06,552
Jill's discovery in this sequence of
the models of the Sweetwater Station
681
00:54:06,680 --> 00:54:10,559
which Brett McBain
had planned to build,
682
00:54:10,680 --> 00:54:13,797
is another evocation
of Johnny Guitar.
683
00:54:13,920 --> 00:54:18,675
In one of Joan Crawford's
early sequences in that film,
684
00:54:18,800 --> 00:54:25,194
she is shown with a representative
of a railway line
685
00:54:25,320 --> 00:54:29,074
whose station she is going to build
in her own town.
686
00:54:29,200 --> 00:54:37,039
She will become the powerful figure
of authority in her own community
687
00:54:37,160 --> 00:54:40,755
by having a station
built on her property.
688
00:54:41,600 --> 00:54:44,068
And in the sequence
which establishes that,
689
00:54:44,200 --> 00:54:48,478
we see on the desk in front of Joan
Crawford's character a model train.
690
00:54:48,600 --> 00:54:51,319
And this sequence
appears to be one of many echoes
691
00:54:51,440 --> 00:54:54,159
of Nicholas Ray's film by Leone.
692
00:54:56,560 --> 00:55:01,236
This sequence, the shot of
the two photographs on the dresser,
693
00:55:01,360 --> 00:55:03,874
is a reminder
not just of the absent husband
694
00:55:04,000 --> 00:55:08,357
but also
of the original McBain family,
695
00:55:08,480 --> 00:55:11,756
with the mother
in the group portrait,
696
00:55:11,880 --> 00:55:15,839
whose role Jill was to take up.
697
00:55:17,640 --> 00:55:23,431
And this part of the sequence is yet
another reference to The Searchers.
698
00:55:24,320 --> 00:55:26,550
In an early sequence
of John Ford's film,
699
00:55:26,680 --> 00:55:33,028
a pioneer family out West
hears sinister noises outside...
700
00:55:34,120 --> 00:55:38,477
...see signs of surrounding Indians,
701
00:55:38,600 --> 00:55:42,036
Native Americans,
as we should now say...
702
00:55:45,320 --> 00:55:52,431
...and prepare to batten down
and withstand a siege if need be.
703
00:55:52,560 --> 00:55:57,190
Here the role of the Indians
is taken by Harmonica.
704
00:55:58,560 --> 00:56:02,473
And we later discover that he
is indeed a Native American.
705
00:56:05,360 --> 00:56:10,229
Although, far from as threatening
as the Indians in Ford's film.
706
00:56:17,160 --> 00:56:20,357
Here Jill seems about
to take her leave of the cabin.
707
00:56:23,880 --> 00:56:28,112
Perhaps in premature recognition
that there's no place for her here.
708
00:56:32,200 --> 00:56:38,309
And again, this use of the mirror
to reinforce Jill's contemplation
709
00:56:38,440 --> 00:56:41,159
of herself, of her future...
710
00:56:42,960 --> 00:56:45,918
...of her current,
seemingly desperate situation.
711
00:56:47,800 --> 00:56:51,110
It's tempting just to wallow
in this wonderful close-up
712
00:56:51,240 --> 00:56:53,196
of Claudia Cardinale's face.
713
00:56:56,360 --> 00:56:59,352
Feel free to freeze frame
at this particular point.
714
00:57:36,080 --> 00:57:40,596
And now we're introduced, or rather
Jill is introduced, to Cheyenne.
715
00:57:40,720 --> 00:57:46,352
And again, that favoured curving
camera movement of Leone's,
716
00:57:46,480 --> 00:57:49,916
to introduce us
to a new element of the scene.
717
00:57:51,800 --> 00:57:56,510
Jill, at this point, thinks Cheyenne
to be the murderer of her family.
718
00:57:56,640 --> 00:57:58,471
We know better.
719
00:58:05,160 --> 00:58:10,917
The defining motif of the scenes
between Cheyenne and Jill is coffee.
720
00:58:14,320 --> 00:58:16,311
A variation on the water motif.
721
00:58:20,360 --> 00:58:23,716
It's linked, as we later hear
in Cheyenne's dialogue,
722
00:58:23,840 --> 00:58:25,831
to his memory of his own mother.
723
00:58:37,600 --> 00:58:41,957
He recalls his mother as both
a great whore and a great mother,
724
00:58:42,080 --> 00:58:45,914
and Jill herself is both,
or represents both.
725
00:58:47,640 --> 00:58:51,269
Her former life as a prostitute
being left behind
726
00:58:51,400 --> 00:58:56,952
to assume, she had thought, the role
of mother to the McBain family.
727
00:59:00,480 --> 00:59:05,156
In fact, a symbolic mother we later
discover to the railroad workers,
728
00:59:05,280 --> 00:59:09,512
to the pioneers who come to build
the new community of Sweetwater.
729
00:59:15,840 --> 00:59:20,675
Jason Robards is perhaps not an actor
immediately associated with Westerns.
730
00:59:20,800 --> 00:59:24,395
In fact, he'd just completed
two very significant Western roles.
731
00:59:24,520 --> 00:59:29,753
In 1966, he'd been among the cast
of A Big Hand for the Little Lady...
732
00:59:30,640 --> 00:59:35,236
...whose leading man had been Henry
Fonda, the villain of this picture.
733
00:59:36,080 --> 00:59:39,038
And in 1967, he played Doc Holliday
734
00:59:39,160 --> 00:59:42,118
for John Sturges
in Hour Of The Gun,
735
00:59:42,240 --> 00:59:45,277
a kind of sequel to and revision of
736
00:59:45,400 --> 00:59:48,437
Sturges' earlier
Gunfight At The OK Corral.
737
00:59:52,560 --> 00:59:55,154
Later, two years after this,
738
00:59:55,280 --> 01:00:00,400
he was to appear for Sam Peckinpah
in The Ballad Of Cable Hogue,
739
01:00:00,520 --> 01:00:07,756
which is itself a commentary
on the pioneering West.
740
01:00:09,720 --> 01:00:16,159
The small-scale capitalist
who builds for himself
741
01:00:16,280 --> 01:00:22,037
a station in the wilderness to
provide water to passing travellers,
742
01:00:22,160 --> 01:00:25,277
passing stagecoaches and riders,
743
01:00:25,400 --> 01:00:30,520
who forms his own small-scale
empire beneath the sun.
744
01:00:32,920 --> 01:00:37,357
Which picks up the significance
of the theme of water from this film.
745
01:00:56,040 --> 01:00:58,508
A lot of eating in Leone movies.
746
01:00:59,400 --> 01:01:02,597
Mostly stews
from earthenware pots like this.
747
01:01:05,120 --> 01:01:07,793
John Milius
has been affectionately described
748
01:01:07,920 --> 01:01:10,275
as the General George Patton
of Hollywood
749
01:01:10,400 --> 01:01:14,188
for his red-blooded, action-packed,
and somewhat right-wing movies.
750
01:01:14,320 --> 01:01:17,790
Already a prolific writer,
he turned his talents to direction
751
01:01:17,920 --> 01:01:22,311
in 1973 with a biopic of
the infamous gangster John Dillinger.
752
01:01:22,440 --> 01:01:23,839
His directorial credits
753
01:01:23,960 --> 01:01:27,316
include The Wind And The Lion
and Conan The Barbarian.
754
01:01:27,440 --> 01:01:31,558
Here John Milius talks about
his friendship with Sergio Leone.
755
01:01:31,680 --> 01:01:35,719
Well, I was really lucky to know
Sergio Leone very, very well,
756
01:01:35,840 --> 01:01:38,593
because for years he would come over
757
01:01:38,720 --> 01:01:43,953
and try and convince me
to write one of his films.
758
01:01:44,080 --> 01:01:46,799
And it was a great honour
that he felt that way,
759
01:01:46,920 --> 01:01:50,117
except he wanted me to write
Once Upon A Time In America,
760
01:01:50,240 --> 01:01:52,800
and it came from a book
called The Hoods,
761
01:01:52,920 --> 01:01:55,559
and he would constantly tell me
about this book,
762
01:01:55,680 --> 01:01:59,514
but he would never let me have the
book, because he didn't own the book.
763
01:01:59,640 --> 01:02:04,395
He was constantly coming over and
saying, "When can you write this?"
764
01:02:04,520 --> 01:02:05,999
And I'd say, "Whoa...
765
01:02:06,120 --> 01:02:09,157
I can write it as soon as I'm done
with what I'm doing."
766
01:02:09,280 --> 01:02:11,999
"I can write it
in two or three months."
767
01:02:12,120 --> 01:02:15,590
And he'd say,
"I let you know. I let you know."
768
01:02:15,720 --> 01:02:18,075
And, of course,
he never owned the book.
769
01:02:18,200 --> 01:02:23,479
And this would go on every year
for three or four years, maybe five.
770
01:02:23,600 --> 01:02:29,994
And he finally did get the... I'm
trying to think when he got the book.
771
01:02:30,120 --> 01:02:32,076
But, by that time,
772
01:02:32,200 --> 01:02:37,479
I think I was already directing
and stuff and couldn't do it.
773
01:02:37,600 --> 01:02:41,070
I was directing The Wind
and the Lion, or something like that,
774
01:02:41,200 --> 01:02:45,716
and didn't have the time
and so somebody else wrote it.
775
01:02:45,840 --> 01:02:49,355
It was too bad.
I would've enjoyed writing it.
776
01:02:49,480 --> 01:02:53,155
But I would've really much preferred
to write a Western for him.
777
01:02:56,000 --> 01:02:59,913
But I got to see him over there
when I was making Conan.
778
01:03:00,040 --> 01:03:03,794
He took me to a restaurant once,
took me out to lunch once,
779
01:03:03,920 --> 01:03:06,070
and he insisted that we had to have
780
01:03:06,200 --> 01:03:11,069
about five or six different types
of pasta that he knew.
781
01:03:11,200 --> 01:03:14,397
And we had to go to two restaurants
to get it all.
782
01:03:14,520 --> 01:03:19,310
And he knew how to eat.
Here was a man who enjoyed food.
783
01:03:19,440 --> 01:03:26,676
He enjoyed, you know,
certain kinds of physical vices.
784
01:03:26,800 --> 01:03:30,793
He enjoyed his lusts,
he enjoyed food.
785
01:03:31,400 --> 01:03:33,994
He enjoyed all those kind of things.
786
01:03:34,120 --> 01:03:40,229
It's really too bad. He passed away
much, much too soon.
787
01:03:40,360 --> 01:03:43,079
But he certainly left
a wonderful legacy.
788
01:03:43,200 --> 01:03:46,636
I remember one time I was arguing
with a critic in New York.
789
01:03:46,760 --> 01:03:50,196
This was a woman who thought
she was something special
790
01:03:50,320 --> 01:03:53,915
and very hip and everything,
and she was running down Sergio.
791
01:03:54,040 --> 01:03:57,191
She just didn't consider Sergio Leone
very important.
792
01:03:57,320 --> 01:04:01,518
And I said, "You know,
when you're an old woman,
793
01:04:01,640 --> 01:04:07,237
the name Sergio Leone
will be whispered by young girls."
794
01:04:14,440 --> 01:04:16,590
We return to Dr Sheldon Hall.
795
01:04:16,720 --> 01:04:20,235
The painting here
which represents the Pacific Ocean,
796
01:04:20,360 --> 01:04:23,033
the ultimate destiny
of Morton's railway line,
797
01:04:23,160 --> 01:04:25,196
is his equivalent of the water motif,
798
01:04:25,320 --> 01:04:27,959
which has been running
throughout the picture.
799
01:04:28,080 --> 01:04:30,719
And through the window
we see a covered wagon
800
01:04:30,840 --> 01:04:34,355
which is also known
as a Prairie Schooner...
801
01:04:36,480 --> 01:04:40,871
...which may be a pun
on the water motif.
802
01:05:00,520 --> 01:05:04,513
This is one of the more baroque
inventions of Leone's film.
803
01:05:04,640 --> 01:05:09,509
The figure of Morton, whose name
of course itself evokes death,
804
01:05:09,640 --> 01:05:13,872
is possibly derived from
two characters in earlier Westerns.
805
01:05:14,000 --> 01:05:18,278
In King Vidor's 1946 film
Duel In The Sun,
806
01:05:18,400 --> 01:05:25,476
Lionel Barrymore plays a ranching
patriarch, an empire builder,
807
01:05:25,600 --> 01:05:31,755
confined to a wheelchair
after an accident.
808
01:05:31,880 --> 01:05:37,238
And in the 1955 film The Violent Men
directed by Rudolph Mat�,
809
01:05:37,360 --> 01:05:43,071
Edward G Robinson plays
a rancher who walks on crutches.
810
01:05:43,200 --> 01:05:46,590
In all three cases,
there is a contrast
811
01:05:46,720 --> 01:05:51,032
between the physical frailty
of the men themselves
812
01:05:51,160 --> 01:05:55,915
and the power which,
notionally at least, they wield.
813
01:06:10,520 --> 01:06:13,796
Throughout this sequence
there's a very strong contrast
814
01:06:13,920 --> 01:06:22,032
between the displays of power
provided by Fonda's body language,
815
01:06:22,160 --> 01:06:26,039
his movement around the carriage
in a commanding fashion,
816
01:06:26,160 --> 01:06:31,518
his lighting of the cigar,
his taking up a commanding position
817
01:06:31,640 --> 01:06:35,155
in Morton's own chair
behind his desk,
818
01:06:35,280 --> 01:06:39,034
signalling his future aspirations
to take Morton's place.
819
01:06:39,160 --> 01:06:42,550
He represents
a kind of charismatic authority...
820
01:06:44,760 --> 01:06:48,958
...as compared with the hollow
authority represented by Morton.
821
01:06:50,600 --> 01:06:54,912
And Morton's disability is not,
as some people might have it,
822
01:06:55,040 --> 01:06:59,716
any comment on disability itself,
but a metaphor,
823
01:06:59,840 --> 01:07:06,996
a metaphor for his internal
corruption, his weakness as a man.
824
01:07:08,280 --> 01:07:13,195
All his power resides
in his position, in his social class,
825
01:07:13,320 --> 01:07:15,675
in his money and in his business.
826
01:07:15,800 --> 01:07:20,112
The man himself is an empty shell
rotting from the feet up.
827
01:07:24,320 --> 01:07:31,078
And he's given this encasing
of metal struts to hold him up,
828
01:07:31,200 --> 01:07:35,990
and the crisscross network of rails
829
01:07:36,120 --> 01:07:41,433
to enable his movement
in his own carriage.
830
01:07:41,560 --> 01:07:45,553
The whole train is a kind of
elaborate wheelchair for him.
831
01:07:53,400 --> 01:07:56,756
One might be tempted
to think of Morton
832
01:07:56,880 --> 01:08:01,590
as virtually a figure
out of the same sort of fantasy
833
01:08:01,720 --> 01:08:03,950
that the James Bond films represent.
834
01:08:04,080 --> 01:08:09,234
He's not a million miles away
from the Ernst Stavro Blofeld
835
01:08:09,360 --> 01:08:15,879
or similarly disabled or disfigured
super villains in the Bond series.
836
01:08:16,000 --> 01:08:21,632
And, of course, Gabriele Ferzetti
whose most distinguished work
837
01:08:21,760 --> 01:08:27,949
was in such European films as
Michelangelo Antonioni's L'Avventura,
838
01:08:28,080 --> 01:08:32,596
was also a featured player
in On Her Majesty's Secret Service,
839
01:08:32,720 --> 01:08:36,793
the Bond film of 1969
which immediately followed this film.
840
01:08:36,920 --> 01:08:40,993
The very temporary father-in-law
of James Bond himself,
841
01:08:41,120 --> 01:08:43,395
the head of a Mafia organisation.
842
01:09:08,400 --> 01:09:11,437
Here again we see
the checked gingham motif
843
01:09:11,560 --> 01:09:15,678
which is associated
with the pioneer woman.
844
01:09:21,560 --> 01:09:22,913
And in this sequence,
845
01:09:23,040 --> 01:09:30,594
the maternal aspirations of Jill
are very much to the fore...
846
01:09:32,320 --> 01:09:36,996
...which links her with Cheyenne,
who is almost a child figure.
847
01:09:44,720 --> 01:09:48,110
The only character
who speaks fondly of his past.
848
01:09:52,280 --> 01:09:55,636
The character of Cheyenne
was apparently initially written
849
01:09:55,760 --> 01:09:58,479
to be a Mexican bandit.
850
01:10:00,640 --> 01:10:07,352
There are versions of the film,
versions of the script,
851
01:10:07,480 --> 01:10:13,430
which suggest
that Cheyenne's surname is Ramirez
852
01:10:13,560 --> 01:10:17,394
or some such Mexican-sounding name.
853
01:10:17,520 --> 01:10:22,355
And there is an occasional line
of dialogue which suggests
854
01:10:22,480 --> 01:10:26,473
that it might have been designed
to be spoken with a Mexican accent.
855
01:10:26,600 --> 01:10:28,830
Wisely, I think, Jason Robards
856
01:10:28,960 --> 01:10:36,275
chose not to exercise the opportunity
to essay a foreign accent.
857
01:10:36,400 --> 01:10:40,439
Perhaps that was Leone's idea,
perhaps it was Robards's own.
858
01:10:47,400 --> 01:10:51,075
But his character here
is very much the equivalent
859
01:10:51,200 --> 01:10:58,914
of Eli Wallach's Tuco, the bandit of
The Good, the Bad and the Ugly,
860
01:10:59,040 --> 01:11:03,352
and also
of Rod Steiger's character Juan
861
01:11:03,480 --> 01:11:08,076
in Leone's next Western,
A Fistful of Dynamite.
862
01:11:08,200 --> 01:11:10,634
They're all childlike figures
863
01:11:10,760 --> 01:11:16,517
characterised
by a kind of boyish naive quality,
864
01:11:16,640 --> 01:11:21,156
despite, obviously,
their being desperate criminals.
865
01:11:22,880 --> 01:11:25,792
They seem
not to be tainted by the villainy
866
01:11:25,920 --> 01:11:30,675
which marks a truly monstrous figure
such as Frank in this film,
867
01:11:30,800 --> 01:11:36,796
or Lee Van Cleef's killer
in The Good, the Bad and the Ugly.
868
01:11:46,240 --> 01:11:48,310
Jill hears once again...
869
01:11:52,800 --> 01:11:57,078
...the harmonica sound,
which seems to be calling her back,
870
01:11:57,200 --> 01:11:59,668
keeping her in Sweetwater.
871
01:12:12,760 --> 01:12:15,149
And this sequence
begins with a suggestion
872
01:12:15,280 --> 01:12:21,116
that Jill may be the victim
of an attempted rape.
873
01:12:21,240 --> 01:12:24,471
That may be a thought
that goes through her mind or ours
874
01:12:24,600 --> 01:12:29,833
the first time she sees Cheyenne in
the sequence immediately before this,
875
01:12:29,960 --> 01:12:32,679
or the first part of this sequence.
876
01:12:37,080 --> 01:12:44,077
We're not, at this stage, at all
clear about Harmonica's intent,
877
01:12:44,200 --> 01:12:46,509
about what motivates him.
878
01:12:46,640 --> 01:12:51,031
As far as we know,
he may be as villainous,
879
01:12:51,160 --> 01:12:54,038
as cold-blooded as Frank is.
880
01:13:01,360 --> 01:13:06,559
The tearing of the lace from Jill's
dress suggests an overture to rape,
881
01:13:06,680 --> 01:13:10,309
which, of course, never transpires.
882
01:13:30,360 --> 01:13:33,318
One of the remarkable things
about Jill's character,
883
01:13:33,440 --> 01:13:38,116
which is so rarely true of female
characters in American Westerns,
884
01:13:38,240 --> 01:13:43,075
is that she is allowed
to be both the whore and the mother.
885
01:13:45,200 --> 01:13:48,715
She is allowed
to have had a shady past,
886
01:13:48,840 --> 01:13:52,913
she is allowed
to have a very sexual presence,
887
01:14:02,000 --> 01:14:04,753
which is quite unusual
for women in Westerns.
888
01:14:05,240 --> 01:14:06,719
Typically the whore and the mother
are opposed characters,
889
01:14:09,600 --> 01:14:14,833
sexuality and maternity
separated into separate roles.
890
01:14:15,920 --> 01:14:20,152
And Jill, remarkably,
brings both roles together.
891
01:14:27,560 --> 01:14:30,677
And here again, of course,
we have the water motif.
892
01:14:30,800 --> 01:14:33,792
Harmonica likes his water fresh.
893
01:15:16,480 --> 01:15:19,233
This sequence,
of course, is a parallel
894
01:15:19,360 --> 01:15:22,796
with the earlier sequence
of the McBain family's massacre.
895
01:15:39,400 --> 01:15:43,996
A very different outcome
with the presence of Harmonica.
896
01:16:06,040 --> 01:16:07,996
Leone is very fond
897
01:16:08,600 --> 01:16:11,478
of that sort of gnomic, enigmatic
dialogue. Very quotable.
898
01:16:21,520 --> 01:16:24,671
With Sergio Leone and Dario Argento,
899
01:16:24,800 --> 01:16:27,872
Bernardo Bertolucci
is the author of the screen story
900
01:16:28,000 --> 01:16:30,594
of Once Upon a Time in the West.
901
01:16:30,720 --> 01:16:36,272
His 1987 film The Last Emperor won
an Academy Award for best picture,
902
01:16:36,400 --> 01:16:39,517
with Bertolucci himself
winning best director.
903
01:16:39,640 --> 01:16:42,837
Here he talks about
his love of the Western.
904
01:16:42,960 --> 01:16:47,476
My father was the critic
of a newspaper
905
01:16:47,600 --> 01:16:50,956
called La Gazzetta di Parma,
The Parma Gazette.
906
01:16:51,080 --> 01:16:54,436
We were living in the countryside
907
01:16:54,560 --> 01:16:57,028
and he was taking me
to town very often
908
01:16:57,160 --> 01:17:01,073
to see the movie
he was going to review.
909
01:17:01,200 --> 01:17:06,558
And it was after
the Second World War.
910
01:17:06,680 --> 01:17:12,915
It was like 1949, '50, '51.
911
01:17:14,720 --> 01:17:19,077
The Westerns were my food,
912
01:17:19,200 --> 01:17:24,718
in the sense that I was going back
home after I'd seen the movies
913
01:17:24,840 --> 01:17:28,355
and there was a huge group of kids,
914
01:17:28,480 --> 01:17:33,110
they were all coming to play
in our place,
915
01:17:33,240 --> 01:17:38,473
and I remember
that I was starting telling them
916
01:17:38,600 --> 01:17:41,717
the story of the Western
I'd just seen.
917
01:17:41,840 --> 01:17:46,709
Of course, I was keeping for me
the role of John Wayne.
918
01:17:46,840 --> 01:17:49,513
I was sure
I was looking like John Wayne,
919
01:17:49,640 --> 01:17:54,350
and I was sure
I was walking like John Wayne,
920
01:17:54,480 --> 01:17:58,996
I was smiling like John Wayne.
It was a complete identification.
921
01:17:59,120 --> 01:18:02,078
Anyway, it was a moment
922
01:18:02,200 --> 01:18:09,470
where John Ford was doing his movies
still in black and white,
923
01:18:09,600 --> 01:18:12,478
and then The Searchers came.
924
01:18:13,480 --> 01:18:19,669
Anyway, I was very young. I was
eight, nine, ten, eleven, twelve.
925
01:18:20,480 --> 01:18:23,916
And I was thinking,
when I saw Stagecoach,
926
01:18:24,040 --> 01:18:29,114
which in Italy has a beautiful title,
Ombre Rosse,
927
01:18:29,240 --> 01:18:37,636
which I now re-translate
in English as Red Shadows...
928
01:18:39,800 --> 01:18:41,756
...because of the Indians.
929
01:18:41,880 --> 01:18:48,558
I remember that I thought
this is really the epic,
930
01:18:48,680 --> 01:18:50,910
the essence of the epic,
931
01:18:51,040 --> 01:18:57,718
like I'm studying at school
when I read The Odyssey.
932
01:18:57,840 --> 01:19:03,039
And I never found any other epic
933
01:19:03,640 --> 01:19:06,313
as extraordinary, as synthetic,
934
01:19:06,440 --> 01:19:09,796
as powerful as Stagecoach.
935
01:19:09,920 --> 01:19:14,152
We were, of course, playing a lot
936
01:19:14,280 --> 01:19:18,068
from the Westerns I had seen in town.
937
01:19:20,480 --> 01:19:23,074
And then Sergio came.
938
01:19:26,880 --> 01:19:31,351
John Carpenter has been
filling movie theatres since 1974.
939
01:19:31,480 --> 01:19:35,234
His cinematic cannon includes
seminal slasher film Halloween,
940
01:19:35,360 --> 01:19:38,750
The Fog,
Escape From New York and Star Man.
941
01:19:38,880 --> 01:19:44,512
John Carpenter gives us his take
on Cheyenne's rescue of Harmonica.
942
01:19:45,000 --> 01:19:48,231
So here we have
Charles Bronson on top of the train,
943
01:19:48,360 --> 01:19:52,797
then an immediate cut
as he comes down the other side.
944
01:19:52,920 --> 01:19:57,277
Both the background and he are
in focus. The sunlight is blistering.
945
01:19:57,400 --> 01:20:01,678
They've got shiny boards
and lights just lighting him up.
946
01:20:02,920 --> 01:20:05,718
And the same with Fonda here.
947
01:20:05,840 --> 01:20:09,310
He's just lit up
like a Christmas tree.
948
01:20:09,440 --> 01:20:11,749
They're all burning up
because of this light.
949
01:20:11,880 --> 01:20:18,592
That's because of focus and because
they're out in the desert.
950
01:20:18,720 --> 01:20:21,280
A little flashback action here.
951
01:20:21,400 --> 01:20:24,790
I believe this is the Devil himself
walking out of the desert.
952
01:20:24,920 --> 01:20:27,070
He begins to come into focus later,
953
01:20:27,200 --> 01:20:31,751
when Henry Fonda's about to kill
Bronson's older brother.
954
01:20:31,880 --> 01:20:36,670
And harmonica music is roaring away.
955
01:20:40,560 --> 01:20:43,632
Look at those eyes.
Boy, he had blue eyes.
956
01:20:43,760 --> 01:20:47,753
Fonda was startling in this movie
because he looked so young in it.
957
01:20:54,600 --> 01:20:59,594
Now we're inside the train
and this...
958
01:20:59,720 --> 01:21:04,396
At least, that part is shot
right there on location.
959
01:21:04,520 --> 01:21:08,718
There you see the outside.
That's really tough to light.
960
01:21:08,840 --> 01:21:11,070
They're kinda
going into darkness here
961
01:21:11,200 --> 01:21:14,158
because you've got so much light
from the outside.
962
01:21:16,800 --> 01:21:23,592
A very slow-moving camera
tracking Fonda over to this position.
963
01:21:23,720 --> 01:21:31,718
There's no rush in anything.
Everything's very staid. Evenly done.
964
01:21:33,680 --> 01:21:37,036
Again, these big old close-ups
of people who are in the scene.
965
01:21:37,160 --> 01:21:39,549
They're back to the master now.
966
01:21:39,680 --> 01:21:42,558
His point of view
as he comes back through.
967
01:21:44,240 --> 01:21:46,276
He makes such a great bad guy.
968
01:21:46,400 --> 01:21:51,713
I know he showed up on the set
with a moustache and a beard,
969
01:21:51,840 --> 01:21:54,354
I believe it was a moustache only.
970
01:21:54,480 --> 01:21:58,359
Leone made him shave it off.
This poor guy's going flying.
971
01:22:00,000 --> 01:22:03,231
Something about a belt
and suspenders, I believe.
972
01:22:03,360 --> 01:22:07,638
Both. You can't trust a man,
or something along those lines.
973
01:22:07,760 --> 01:22:10,513
It's been a long time
since I've seen this.
974
01:22:13,080 --> 01:22:17,631
And we reveal who's under the train.
A comic...
975
01:22:18,760 --> 01:22:20,398
There we go.
976
01:22:20,520 --> 01:22:23,512
Totally unbelievable that he blows
both suspenders off,
977
01:22:23,640 --> 01:22:26,552
but, hey, it's a Leone Western.
978
01:22:26,960 --> 01:22:30,350
And then his belt. There we go.
979
01:22:32,320 --> 01:22:34,754
Looks like Spain to me.
980
01:22:53,240 --> 01:22:58,234
Bronson is interestingly passive
throughout this entire sequence.
981
01:22:58,360 --> 01:23:03,229
He is passive throughout a lot of
the film, kind of a glacial presence,
982
01:23:03,360 --> 01:23:07,239
but you get the idea
he's waiting around for his chance.
983
01:23:07,360 --> 01:23:10,670
The way he delivers his lines,
he appears to have
984
01:23:10,800 --> 01:23:15,715
some sort of almost mystical wisdom
about everything that's going on.
985
01:23:15,840 --> 01:23:19,833
I never get the idea Bronson's scared
in this film. I guess he never is.
986
01:23:19,960 --> 01:23:22,474
He's one of these tough guys.
987
01:23:23,720 --> 01:23:26,029
He shows no fear.
988
01:23:48,320 --> 01:23:51,471
Look at that shot of Fonda,
it's ridiculous.
989
01:23:51,600 --> 01:23:55,559
Very cool. Right in their faces.
990
01:24:14,480 --> 01:24:18,712
This strange character, this rich guy
who can't move any more,
991
01:24:18,840 --> 01:24:23,197
he's like the snail, like the train,
he leaves tracks behind him.
992
01:24:23,320 --> 01:24:28,314
A bizarre idea in a Western.
It's interesting.
993
01:24:28,440 --> 01:24:32,319
I think this is where people get the
idea that it may be a political film.
994
01:24:32,440 --> 01:24:35,876
That he represents,
I don't know, capitalism,
995
01:24:36,000 --> 01:24:39,959
or he represents the raping, the
taming, the destruction of the West.
996
01:24:40,080 --> 01:24:42,674
I'm not quite sure,
I've never figured it out.
997
01:24:48,640 --> 01:24:51,552
And so Fonda leaves
and we get the sense
998
01:24:51,680 --> 01:24:58,472
that now is maybe
Robards' opportunity to free Bronson.
999
01:25:02,640 --> 01:25:06,269
That's a beautiful tracking shot.
It starts with the horses
1000
01:25:06,400 --> 01:25:09,836
and keeps moving
until both the train and the horses
1001
01:25:09,960 --> 01:25:13,873
get to a certain distance and pans
with them. That's a really nice shot.
1002
01:25:20,000 --> 01:25:23,231
I don't recall how much
of this particular sequence
1003
01:25:23,360 --> 01:25:27,353
was shot in a sound stage
or on location actually moving along.
1004
01:25:27,480 --> 01:25:32,190
I believe that's a process shot,
but I couldn't be certain.
1005
01:25:33,240 --> 01:25:36,630
Yeah, that's process.
They're back in the sound stage now.
1006
01:25:36,760 --> 01:25:39,593
They shot part of it sitting there,
1007
01:25:39,720 --> 01:25:43,474
now they're shooting
the rest of it, the moving sequences,
1008
01:25:43,600 --> 01:25:47,832
inside a sound stage. You can see
the difference in lighting.
1009
01:25:48,680 --> 01:25:52,559
It's not quite as bright
on some of the actors.
1010
01:25:52,680 --> 01:25:56,593
Now you have the kind of invention
that Leone's famous for,
1011
01:25:56,720 --> 01:25:59,757
taking a Western clich�
and turning it on its head
1012
01:25:59,880 --> 01:26:02,474
by inventing new ways of action.
1013
01:26:02,600 --> 01:26:07,628
This kind of playful way that Robards
gets the attention of the bad guys
1014
01:26:07,760 --> 01:26:12,276
and takes care of them
is a kind of fascinating situation.
1015
01:26:12,400 --> 01:26:17,758
And then he shoots him and he goes
back up on top of the train.
1016
01:26:17,880 --> 01:26:20,348
It's a unique invention.
1017
01:26:20,480 --> 01:26:23,916
Leone started it, and his writers.
1018
01:26:24,040 --> 01:26:30,513
I'm sure their task was to come up
with gags in each of these scenes
1019
01:26:30,640 --> 01:26:35,668
as a homage, or a send up
of Hollywood action scenes.
1020
01:26:41,880 --> 01:26:46,749
A whole lot of big close-ups
of actors looking at each other.
1021
01:26:52,560 --> 01:26:58,829
They always had an annoying gunshot
that the Italian movies dubbed in.
1022
01:27:00,400 --> 01:27:04,951
It really used to bother me a lot,
horses hooves and the gunshots.
1023
01:27:09,240 --> 01:27:12,232
I think the boot gag
is coming up here in a minute.
1024
01:27:22,720 --> 01:27:28,875
Notice how Bronson is the visual
pivot for everything that happens,
1025
01:27:29,000 --> 01:27:32,356
which way he looks
is where the action's going.
1026
01:27:32,480 --> 01:27:36,029
Before, he looked over and Robards
came out of the bathroom,
1027
01:27:36,160 --> 01:27:40,438
now he's looking up
and our attention is drawn upwards.
1028
01:27:40,560 --> 01:27:45,918
So the prisoner, Bronson,
is kind of us,
1029
01:27:46,040 --> 01:27:49,032
in that
he's leading us the audience
1030
01:27:49,160 --> 01:27:51,993
in terms of our interest,
as to where to look.
1031
01:27:55,160 --> 01:27:58,277
There's a tracking shot,
a subjective shot looking up.
1032
01:28:02,440 --> 01:28:06,399
Poor guy's straddling the tracks
as the camera's right beneath him.
1033
01:28:10,600 --> 01:28:13,319
They don't cut
these reaction shots quickly,
1034
01:28:13,440 --> 01:28:16,591
they just let them hang,
but that's part of the movie
1035
01:28:18,800 --> 01:28:21,394
There you've got Bronson
checking things out.
1036
01:28:23,560 --> 01:28:27,030
He's telling the audience,
in a sense, what's happening.
1037
01:28:27,160 --> 01:28:30,755
He's our clue
to how we should feel about all this.
1038
01:28:31,680 --> 01:28:35,116
It also includes him in
on his own rescue.
1039
01:28:36,560 --> 01:28:39,836
There his eyes go.
And he's the first to see it.
1040
01:28:39,960 --> 01:28:41,871
So now we see it.
1041
01:28:46,120 --> 01:28:49,112
And there's
a nice little invention here.
1042
01:28:49,240 --> 01:28:55,509
This nice little zoom
in on the boot. Bang. Ouch!
1043
01:28:57,760 --> 01:29:00,354
Yeah.
That was a bad day for that guy.
1044
01:29:21,240 --> 01:29:24,869
Bernardo Bertolucci here remembers
the first time he saw
1045
01:29:25,000 --> 01:29:27,912
Once Upon a Time in the West.
1046
01:29:28,040 --> 01:29:35,993
I was very transported
by the way he shot it.
1047
01:29:38,080 --> 01:29:41,789
And I was intimately and secretly...
1048
01:29:44,000 --> 01:29:48,471
...very happy to find in the film...
1049
01:29:50,400 --> 01:29:55,030
...all the quotations
1050
01:29:55,160 --> 01:30:03,511
that I sneaked into the treatment
without Sergio knowing it.
1051
01:30:05,400 --> 01:30:10,952
It was extraordinary,
because I was coming from this...
1052
01:30:12,640 --> 01:30:17,873
...French nouvelle vague
kind of ideology.
1053
01:30:18,000 --> 01:30:25,554
In our movies, quotations were there
just to prove our love for cinema,
1054
01:30:25,680 --> 01:30:30,993
and also what kind of love
we had for cinema.
1055
01:30:31,120 --> 01:30:36,319
Now things were becoming
much more complicated.
1056
01:30:36,440 --> 01:30:43,437
Now, here we are, you have a great
director of commercial cinema...
1057
01:30:44,720 --> 01:30:47,109
...who does a beautiful film.
1058
01:30:49,280 --> 01:30:53,114
And he's filming quotations,
1059
01:30:53,240 --> 01:30:59,190
which means sequences similar
to sequences of other movies,
1060
01:30:59,320 --> 01:31:01,231
without knowing he is doing it,
1061
01:31:01,360 --> 01:31:09,040
without the perversion that we young
experimental directors used to have.
1062
01:31:09,160 --> 01:31:16,589
So, again, Sergio's innocence, which
I hope everybody has understood,
1063
01:31:16,720 --> 01:31:20,998
was the innocence of the great ones,
1064
01:31:21,120 --> 01:31:24,192
not the innocence of somebody
who was just innocent.
1065
01:31:24,320 --> 01:31:29,394
He was an extraordinary brain, mind,
1066
01:31:29,520 --> 01:31:34,469
but with this childish part.
1067
01:31:34,600 --> 01:31:40,516
Now, I was seeing in the film
a moment of The Searchers,
1068
01:31:40,640 --> 01:31:45,589
a moment of Johnny Guitar,
without Sergio knowing.
1069
01:31:45,720 --> 01:31:48,280
Of course, when I told him,
Sergio denied this.
1070
01:31:48,400 --> 01:31:50,630
He said,
"I knew exactly what I was doing".
1071
01:31:50,760 --> 01:31:52,830
Anyway, I remain with my doubt.
1072
01:31:52,960 --> 01:31:58,717
That was one of the great moments
of the '60s for me.
1073
01:32:01,680 --> 01:32:04,319
Writer and director Alex Cox
made his first film,
1074
01:32:04,440 --> 01:32:08,911
the science fiction satire Repo Man,
in 1984.
1075
01:32:09,040 --> 01:32:11,793
Here
Alex Cox talks us through a scene
1076
01:32:11,920 --> 01:32:14,559
cut from the initial US release.
1077
01:32:14,680 --> 01:32:21,119
This is a scene which was cut out
of the shorter American version.
1078
01:32:21,240 --> 01:32:24,118
Obviously shot in the United States,
1079
01:32:24,240 --> 01:32:29,598
I think in a place called
Mesa Verde in Colorado.
1080
01:32:29,720 --> 01:32:34,157
Old Native American dwellings
in the side of a mountain.
1081
01:32:36,360 --> 01:32:38,920
There's Gabriele Ferzetti
on his crutches,
1082
01:32:39,040 --> 01:32:42,828
which, indeed, could be another
reference to Duel In The Sun
1083
01:32:42,960 --> 01:32:47,033
or The Violent Men
with their crippled ranchers.
1084
01:32:47,160 --> 01:32:50,630
But there's something odd
about this scene in its placement.
1085
01:32:50,760 --> 01:32:56,312
Even though we are watching
the official version of the film,
1086
01:32:56,440 --> 01:33:00,433
in so far as we are aware it exists,
1087
01:33:00,560 --> 01:33:06,032
we've cut out of what's about
to become the love scene
1088
01:33:06,160 --> 01:33:10,312
between Claudia Cardinale
and Henry Fonda,
1089
01:33:10,440 --> 01:33:14,558
into this interaction
between Frank and his boss,
1090
01:33:14,680 --> 01:33:16,910
where essentially
the tables are turned
1091
01:33:17,040 --> 01:33:20,635
and Frank really becomes
the leader of the villains.
1092
01:33:27,240 --> 01:33:30,755
But why do we cut
from the McBain ranch,
1093
01:33:30,880 --> 01:33:32,871
where Jill and Frank are together,
1094
01:33:33,000 --> 01:33:36,151
to Mesa Verde
to see Morton and Frank,
1095
01:33:36,280 --> 01:33:40,432
only to cut back a few minutes later
to the ranch again?
1096
01:33:42,840 --> 01:33:45,832
Is it a flashback?
It can't be, that would offend
1097
01:33:45,960 --> 01:33:50,272
the tripartite flashback structure
of the film which is so sound
1098
01:33:50,400 --> 01:33:53,472
and is so like the tripartite
flashback structure
1099
01:33:53,600 --> 01:33:56,114
of For A Few Dollars More.
1100
01:33:57,760 --> 01:34:01,992
Mesa Verde,
they didn't build that in Almeria.
1101
01:34:10,560 --> 01:34:14,553
And now a daytime scene,
back in Almeria...
1102
01:34:16,680 --> 01:34:22,277
...where Robards and his lot are
trying to figure out what's going on.
1103
01:34:22,400 --> 01:34:25,472
But it's daytime here.
1104
01:34:25,600 --> 01:34:30,151
Are Frank and Jill
still in the house?
1105
01:34:32,080 --> 01:34:34,674
How did the structure of the film
get like this?
1106
01:34:34,800 --> 01:34:39,351
I can't explain it, but it does
seem like at a certain point
1107
01:34:39,480 --> 01:34:42,631
everybody lost track
of where the characters were
1108
01:34:42,760 --> 01:34:45,194
and what time of day it was.
1109
01:34:46,160 --> 01:34:49,197
It doesn't matter really.
1110
01:34:49,320 --> 01:34:50,878
Sir Christopher Frayling.
1111
01:34:51,000 --> 01:34:54,549
This idea of a town
being made up of a kit of parts
1112
01:34:54,680 --> 01:34:58,275
is actually a reference
to the Glenn Ford film Cimarron,
1113
01:34:58,400 --> 01:35:01,517
where you get
an entire set of frontages laid out,
1114
01:35:01,640 --> 01:35:04,108
which is the town in the making.
1115
01:35:05,440 --> 01:35:09,877
And here comes
an explicit reference to John Ford.
1116
01:35:26,280 --> 01:35:28,510
So, an Irishman who has a dream
1117
01:35:28,640 --> 01:35:31,234
to build this town
in the middle of nowhere.
1118
01:35:31,360 --> 01:35:34,511
And Cheyenne thinks he's going
to make millions out of it,
1119
01:35:34,640 --> 01:35:39,111
to which Bronson replies, "You don't
sell the dream of a lifetime".
1120
01:35:39,240 --> 01:35:41,231
In a way, that summarises this movie.
1121
01:35:41,360 --> 01:35:44,796
Leone's making the film he's wanted
to make since he was a kid,
1122
01:35:44,920 --> 01:35:48,276
and it never really sold,
but it was the dream of a lifetime.
1123
01:35:48,400 --> 01:35:52,996
It's the most explicit reference to
John Ford's movies in any Leone film.
1124
01:35:53,120 --> 01:35:56,271
It takes a lot to believe
the McBain family is Irish,
1125
01:35:56,400 --> 01:36:00,632
but it doesn't matter, this is John
Ford's utopian dream of the West,
1126
01:36:00,760 --> 01:36:05,038
which in more cynical hands
means something completely different.
1127
01:36:22,160 --> 01:36:27,234
And, at last, the basic lever
of the entire plot is revealed.
1128
01:36:27,360 --> 01:36:31,956
There's water. That well which
Claudia Cardinale got the water from,
1129
01:36:32,080 --> 01:36:36,073
that's the point, because the
locomotives have to come this way
1130
01:36:36,200 --> 01:36:41,115
because of the geology.
The trains won't run without water.
1131
01:36:41,240 --> 01:36:45,028
So Sweetwater will turn
into a booming rail town
1132
01:36:45,160 --> 01:36:48,630
and the West will move on,
Once Upon a Time in the West.
1133
01:36:48,760 --> 01:36:50,478
So in a way it was a corny story,
1134
01:36:50,600 --> 01:36:53,239
the story
of many Westerns in the past,
1135
01:36:53,360 --> 01:36:55,794
but this is
where the secret is revealed.
1136
01:36:55,920 --> 01:36:59,356
We've been looking at the water
without realising what it is.
1137
01:36:59,480 --> 01:37:01,914
It's why Brett McBain built here.
1138
01:37:24,240 --> 01:37:26,959
Cheyenne's still convinced
that money is the point,
1139
01:37:27,080 --> 01:37:29,389
rather than Irish idealism.
1140
01:37:29,520 --> 01:37:33,911
"You could earn thousands
and thousands of dollars."
1141
01:37:34,040 --> 01:37:39,239
So Harmonica replies,
"They call them millions".
1142
01:37:39,360 --> 01:37:42,830
Brett McBain could be
a multimillionaire if he'd lived.
1143
01:38:00,800 --> 01:38:02,472
A native of Tunisia,
1144
01:38:02,600 --> 01:38:07,720
Claudia Cardinale's breakthrough role
was in Senilit� in 1961.
1145
01:38:07,840 --> 01:38:10,479
Her subsequent busy career
included appearances
1146
01:38:10,600 --> 01:38:14,354
in Fellini's 81/2
and Visconti's The Leopard.
1147
01:38:14,480 --> 01:38:18,758
Her English language roles included
The Pink Panther, The Professionals,
1148
01:38:18,880 --> 01:38:21,633
Circus World, and, of course,
Once Upon a Time in the West.
1149
01:38:22,920 --> 01:38:27,436
Here she remembers her first day
of shooting with Henry Fonda.
1150
01:38:27,560 --> 01:38:32,759
Well, what I can say?
1151
01:38:32,880 --> 01:38:36,793
He did something terrible to me
the first day of shooting.
1152
01:38:36,920 --> 01:38:39,275
The first day of shooting,
1153
01:38:39,400 --> 01:38:44,952
we start with a love scene
in Cinecitt�.
1154
01:38:45,080 --> 01:38:49,631
And for Henry Fonda it was the first
time he was doing a love scene.
1155
01:38:49,760 --> 01:38:55,835
And all the press was there
around us for this scene.
1156
01:38:55,960 --> 01:39:01,239
From everywhere,
England, America, Italian, French,
1157
01:39:01,360 --> 01:39:07,037
and the wife of Henry Fonda
was sitting next to the camera,
1158
01:39:07,160 --> 01:39:09,549
and that was really terrible.
1159
01:39:09,680 --> 01:39:14,515
But, anyway, he said to me,
"You have to take off..."
1160
01:39:14,640 --> 01:39:18,394
I said, "I'm not going to do that".
1161
01:39:18,520 --> 01:39:24,356
I never did it. But the scene
was very sexy, I think.
1162
01:39:24,480 --> 01:39:27,313
The love scene,
it was very beautiful.
1163
01:39:27,440 --> 01:39:31,035
But for Henry and for me
it was a lot of tension,
1164
01:39:31,160 --> 01:39:32,718
because we were surrounded
1165
01:39:32,840 --> 01:39:36,958
by all of the journalists
looking at us during the scene.
1166
01:39:37,080 --> 01:39:42,552
Not only the technicians,
but also all the journalists.
1167
01:39:42,680 --> 01:39:45,831
And this
was the first day of shooting.
1168
01:39:45,960 --> 01:39:52,672
But it's a good scene. And maybe
the tension was good for that.
1169
01:40:20,680 --> 01:40:25,117
Well, with Fellini,
when I was working with Fellini,
1170
01:40:25,240 --> 01:40:30,951
we had no script,
it was all improvisation.
1171
01:40:31,080 --> 01:40:38,077
When I was acting with Marcello
Mastroianni, he wasn't there.
1172
01:40:38,200 --> 01:40:41,590
Federico Fellini was there
sitting next to me.
1173
01:40:41,720 --> 01:40:46,316
And it was improvisation
all the time, no script.
1174
01:40:46,440 --> 01:40:51,070
It wasn't the way
Sergio Leone was shooting.
1175
01:40:51,200 --> 01:40:56,479
With Sergio Leone you had a script
and you had to be very clear.
1176
01:40:56,600 --> 01:40:58,556
Everything was precise.
1177
01:40:58,680 --> 01:41:05,438
With Luchino Visconti it was totally
different, it was like theatre.
1178
01:41:05,560 --> 01:41:10,156
Usually,
the technicians weren't there.
1179
01:41:10,280 --> 01:41:15,400
We were reading the script
around the table, like in theatre,
1180
01:41:15,520 --> 01:41:19,069
and everything was precise.
1181
01:41:19,200 --> 01:41:23,910
Even if I was taking a glass of wine,
it has to be very precise.
1182
01:41:24,040 --> 01:41:28,477
Here, here. But everything
was decided with the director.
1183
01:41:29,640 --> 01:41:31,551
With Sergio Leone also,
1184
01:41:31,680 --> 01:41:36,674
the cut was very important
on the close-ups, etc.
1185
01:41:36,800 --> 01:41:42,875
But it was another way of shooting.
Which I like, of course.
1186
01:41:43,000 --> 01:41:49,792
I mean, Federico Fellini was...
81/2, it's magnificent.
1187
01:41:49,920 --> 01:41:56,268
And Luchino Visconti was the one
who gave me the success
1188
01:41:56,400 --> 01:42:00,359
because I start with him
when I arrived from Tunisia.
1189
01:42:00,480 --> 01:42:04,871
I wasn't speaking any Italian at
the time of Rocco And His Brothers.
1190
01:42:05,000 --> 01:42:06,558
Then I did The Leopard.
1191
01:42:06,680 --> 01:42:10,434
I did four movies
with Luchino Visconti.
1192
01:42:10,560 --> 01:42:13,757
And we had a marvellous relationship.
1193
01:42:13,880 --> 01:42:17,998
He loved me very much
and I had lots of presents from him.
1194
01:42:18,120 --> 01:42:24,468
And we had... It was fantastic.
We'd been to London many times.
1195
01:42:24,600 --> 01:42:29,958
I remember, I was with Visconti
in London to see Marlene Dietrich,
1196
01:42:30,080 --> 01:42:33,356
the last concert she did in London.
1197
01:42:33,480 --> 01:42:36,153
It was magnificent.
I remember that day.
1198
01:42:36,280 --> 01:42:40,796
But I have been with Luchino
many, many times to London.
1199
01:42:40,920 --> 01:42:46,358
Also to see theatre. Lots of times.
1200
01:43:02,320 --> 01:43:03,389
We return
1201
01:43:04,000 --> 01:43:05,513
to Sir Christopher Frayling.
1202
01:43:05,640 --> 01:43:07,631
So Bronson
looks through the net curtains
1203
01:43:07,760 --> 01:43:11,275
as though he's looking
at Fonda and Cardinale like a voyeur,
1204
01:43:11,400 --> 01:43:12,992
but, in fact...
1205
01:43:14,480 --> 01:43:19,315
...he's looking at an auction scene
with the sheriff and Claudia,
1206
01:43:19,440 --> 01:43:22,716
who's now in the town of Flagstone
selling the property.
1207
01:43:22,840 --> 01:43:25,877
This is our introduction
to the sheriff of Flagstone,
1208
01:43:26,000 --> 01:43:27,638
played by Keenan Wynn,
1209
01:43:27,760 --> 01:43:32,356
a part that was originally
to be played by Robert Ryan.
1210
01:43:32,480 --> 01:43:36,439
And he's one of the few not-corrupt
sheriffs in Leone's films.
1211
01:43:36,560 --> 01:43:38,869
Usually, the sheriff is on the take
1212
01:43:39,000 --> 01:43:41,309
or in some way
in the pay of the baddies.
1213
01:43:41,440 --> 01:43:44,876
Well, here he's not a very strong
man, but he's not a corrupt man,
1214
01:43:45,000 --> 01:43:48,231
and he's trying to chair
an auction scene.
1215
01:43:50,200 --> 01:43:55,718
The scene itself is a reference
to Leone's favourite John Ford movie,
1216
01:43:55,840 --> 01:43:58,513
The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance.
In that film,
1217
01:43:58,640 --> 01:44:01,313
which had been made
in the early 1960s,
1218
01:44:01,440 --> 01:44:05,149
there's a town-meeting scene
where the various political parties
1219
01:44:05,280 --> 01:44:08,113
are jockeying for position
in the town of Shinbone.
1220
01:44:08,240 --> 01:44:11,357
There's all sorts of corrupt
goings-on in the audience,
1221
01:44:11,480 --> 01:44:15,314
hands being held up for artificial
votes and rigging of the votes,
1222
01:44:15,440 --> 01:44:17,635
but it's a sort of comedy scene,
in a way,
1223
01:44:17,760 --> 01:44:21,309
of how a town meeting can go wrong,
but in the end, it goes right
1224
01:44:21,440 --> 01:44:25,399
and Shinbone becomes a town
and so progress happens.
1225
01:44:25,520 --> 01:44:29,195
This auction scene is his reference
to the town-meeting scenes
1226
01:44:29,320 --> 01:44:34,235
in Liberty Valance. And, in fact,
Leone once told me that it was,
1227
01:44:34,360 --> 01:44:38,751
"The Ford film I like most of all,
as we're nearer to shared values."
1228
01:44:38,880 --> 01:44:42,998
It's the least sentimental of Ford's
films. It's about the conflict
1229
01:44:43,120 --> 01:44:46,590
between political and economic forces
and the hero of the West.
1230
01:44:46,720 --> 01:44:49,439
That behind the hero of the West
is capitalism,
1231
01:44:49,560 --> 01:44:52,597
the buying and selling of property,
all these things.
1232
01:44:52,720 --> 01:44:56,713
He's making a similar point to
the one Ford made in Liberty Valance.
1233
01:45:02,960 --> 01:45:06,714
Leone said that in the town meetings
of Liberty Valance,
1234
01:45:06,840 --> 01:45:10,196
Ford, finally,
at the age of almost 65,
1235
01:45:10,320 --> 01:45:13,835
finally understood
what pessimism is all about.
1236
01:45:13,960 --> 01:45:16,713
This also resembles
The Good, the Bad and the Ugly,
1237
01:45:16,840 --> 01:45:21,436
where Tuco, played by Eli Wallach,
is bargaining with the arms salesman.
1238
01:45:21,560 --> 01:45:25,235
You think that he's deciding
how much to pay for a gun.
1239
01:45:25,360 --> 01:45:27,271
In fact, he's holding up the shop
1240
01:45:27,880 --> 01:45:29,916
and asking how much money
is in the till.
1241
01:45:30,040 --> 01:45:31,917
It has that kind of ambiguity.
1242
01:45:32,040 --> 01:45:35,191
And then we cut back
to the train with Mr Morton,
1243
01:45:35,320 --> 01:45:37,151
where there's another version
1244
01:45:37,280 --> 01:45:42,070
of the business in relation
to the individual Western hero story.
1245
01:45:42,200 --> 01:45:45,988
Because Morton is beginning
to realise, as he's shown earlier,
1246
01:45:46,120 --> 01:45:50,875
that the only thing more powerful
than a gun is the dollar.
1247
01:45:51,000 --> 01:45:55,596
And he's about to prove this
by buying off Frank's men.
1248
01:45:55,720 --> 01:45:59,713
They may have a residual loyalty
to Frank, they've ridden with him,
1249
01:45:59,840 --> 01:46:04,516
but the most important thing is for
the railroad to get to the Pacific.
1250
01:46:04,640 --> 01:46:09,031
Hence this painting.
Hence the Pacific theme by Morricone.
1251
01:46:09,160 --> 01:46:14,154
And that's the sole obsession
in Mr Morton's life.
1252
01:46:14,280 --> 01:46:18,353
So what he's got to do
is turn Frank's men against him.
1253
01:46:18,480 --> 01:46:21,438
And how he does that
is the almighty dollar.
1254
01:46:39,440 --> 01:46:41,908
Frank's henchmen
are in the railway carriage
1255
01:46:42,040 --> 01:46:45,510
playing cards,
in time-honoured fashion.
1256
01:46:51,720 --> 01:46:55,315
And there's a very interesting
moment here. Morton is very powerful,
1257
01:46:55,440 --> 01:47:00,116
he ultimately employs them all,
but for a moment they ignore him.
1258
01:47:00,240 --> 01:47:02,037
They continue playing.
1259
01:47:02,160 --> 01:47:05,357
You think they're not
going to pay any attention to him.
1260
01:47:07,720 --> 01:47:09,676
And he's not sure.
1261
01:47:16,440 --> 01:47:20,319
So, "Let's complete the hand.
Yeah, come and sit down."
1262
01:47:20,440 --> 01:47:23,238
And we think
he's about to play cards with them,
1263
01:47:23,360 --> 01:47:27,990
and they presumably think that
as well, but he's got another plan.
1264
01:47:29,840 --> 01:47:32,070
And this sound effect
in the background
1265
01:47:32,200 --> 01:47:35,317
of the locomotive
wheezing and puffing,
1266
01:47:35,440 --> 01:47:38,318
like a kind of wheezing person
in the desert.
1267
01:47:38,440 --> 01:47:41,432
You constantly get
that huffing and puffing sound,
1268
01:47:41,560 --> 01:47:44,120
which is very distinctive
in Leone's films.
1269
01:47:49,520 --> 01:47:52,273
Like some asthmatic person
in the desert.
1270
01:48:06,680 --> 01:48:09,035
And they're not quite sure
what's going on.
1271
01:48:10,160 --> 01:48:14,312
Why is Mr Morton wanting to play
cards? He doesn't usually play cards.
1272
01:48:14,440 --> 01:48:18,228
But they'll humour him
as they count their money.
1273
01:48:33,280 --> 01:48:36,989
Now they're getting interested
because he's not dealing cards...
1274
01:48:38,160 --> 01:48:40,435
...he's dealing banknotes.
1275
01:48:47,120 --> 01:48:49,509
Several hundred dollars each.
1276
01:48:57,760 --> 01:49:02,470
Again, the amplified locomotive
wheezing away to create the tension.
1277
01:49:15,440 --> 01:49:17,795
$500 each.
1278
01:49:36,920 --> 01:49:39,798
"As long as you use your head."
Be logical about it.
1279
01:49:41,120 --> 01:49:44,829
Watch which side your bread's
buttered on and don't go with Frank.
1280
01:49:44,960 --> 01:49:49,795
Then back to the other version
of capitalism at work, the auction.
1281
01:49:49,920 --> 01:49:52,354
The sale of Sweetwater
should be wonderful.
1282
01:49:52,480 --> 01:49:58,794
We've heard it's worth millions,
the crucible of a new railroad town,
1283
01:49:58,920 --> 01:50:00,558
but it isn't like that.
1284
01:50:00,680 --> 01:50:03,752
Frank's people
stop the auction from getting going,
1285
01:50:03,880 --> 01:50:06,553
because they don't want
to spend very much on it.
1286
01:50:24,200 --> 01:50:27,875
The same amount of money Morton's
given the people at the railroad.
1287
01:50:28,000 --> 01:50:29,991
It's being sold for $500,
1288
01:50:30,120 --> 01:50:33,157
the same as the blood money
that he's just given Frank's men.
1289
01:50:33,280 --> 01:50:39,389
And just at that moment, Harmonica
comes in with a real bid, $5,000.
1290
01:50:41,800 --> 01:50:46,715
But he's not paying cash,
he's paying with something else.
1291
01:51:02,520 --> 01:51:06,433
The music tells us who it is,
the music and the footwear.
1292
01:51:06,560 --> 01:51:10,348
We don't even need to know
the man's face, it's Cheyenne.
1293
01:51:11,600 --> 01:51:16,230
Now, has Bronson captured Cheyenne?
Is Cheyenne coming unwillingly?
1294
01:51:16,360 --> 01:51:19,432
Or is this a scam? Just like
The Good, the Bad and the Ugly,
1295
01:51:19,560 --> 01:51:23,951
where Eastwood and Eli Wallach turn
each other in for the reward money,
1296
01:51:24,080 --> 01:51:26,992
and then rescue each other.
It isn't clear.
1297
01:51:39,840 --> 01:51:43,150
"There were no dollars in them days.
But sons-of-bitches, yeah."
1298
01:51:43,280 --> 01:51:47,034
One of the great exchanges
of almost parody Leone dialogue,
1299
01:51:47,160 --> 01:51:49,799
translated into American
by Mickey Knox.
1300
01:51:49,920 --> 01:51:52,070
It's one of the great lines
in the movie.
1301
01:51:52,200 --> 01:51:54,760
Meanwhile,
what's happened back at the train?
1302
01:51:54,880 --> 01:51:57,997
Someone's riding
with news of the card game.
1303
01:52:02,960 --> 01:52:06,555
And here's yet another reference
to a classic American Western,
1304
01:52:06,680 --> 01:52:10,958
3: 10 To Yuma, all about
a prisoner being taken to Yuma Jail,
1305
01:52:11,080 --> 01:52:14,993
the new jail built in the West
for really hard cases.
1306
01:52:17,680 --> 01:52:20,877
It's a Glenn Ford movie.
A classic movie by Delmer Daves,
1307
01:52:21,000 --> 01:52:25,551
with Van Heflin and reference
to this new modern jail in Yuma.
1308
01:52:25,680 --> 01:52:27,989
Cheyenne's taking the journey
to Yuma,
1309
01:52:28,120 --> 01:52:30,509
just as the characters do
in that film.
1310
01:52:42,400 --> 01:52:46,359
One of the rare cattle drives in
an Italian Western in the background.
1311
01:52:46,480 --> 01:52:50,996
You don't get many cows in Italian
Westerns, or many Native Americans.
1312
01:52:51,120 --> 01:52:53,839
But there's a cattle drive
just as background.
1313
01:52:55,240 --> 01:52:57,470
And here's one of Cheyenne's men.
1314
01:53:03,200 --> 01:53:05,668
This is a Spanish actor
called Aldo Sambrell,
1315
01:53:05,800 --> 01:53:09,110
who had a supporting role
in a lot of Italian Westerns,
1316
01:53:09,240 --> 01:53:13,119
usually as a Mexican baddie, who had
a wonderful time making the movie.
1317
01:53:13,240 --> 01:53:16,755
I interviewed him about it
and he said that they all had a ball.
1318
01:53:27,080 --> 01:53:32,074
Now we're in the bar, a huge piece of
architecture designed by Carlo Simi,
1319
01:53:32,200 --> 01:53:36,432
just as the saloon is the centre
of the town of Flagstone.
1320
01:53:36,560 --> 01:53:40,678
It's brick built, probably the most
solid structure in the entire town.
1321
01:53:40,800 --> 01:53:45,794
So this vast Victorian interior
is much larger than we're used to,
1322
01:53:45,920 --> 01:53:49,879
much more solid and substantial than
we're used to for a Western saloon,
1323
01:53:50,000 --> 01:53:53,959
which is usually wood built
and much more temporary looking.
1324
01:54:31,200 --> 01:54:34,954
And then we hear the footsteps
and the music to connote Frank,
1325
01:54:35,080 --> 01:54:36,672
played by Henry Fonda.
1326
01:54:36,800 --> 01:54:39,792
His hair is well-groomed
and he's had a shave,
1327
01:54:39,920 --> 01:54:43,515
that's because a scene
in a tonsorial parlour,
1328
01:54:43,640 --> 01:54:46,950
originally shot in between
the auction scene and this,
1329
01:54:47,080 --> 01:54:51,710
is, in fact, missing. You'll notice
Frank is particularly well-groomed.
1330
01:54:51,840 --> 01:54:57,153
The parlour being a reference to
My Darling Clementine by John Ford.
1331
01:55:04,680 --> 01:55:06,193
John Carpenter.
1332
01:55:06,320 --> 01:55:09,949
This was shot on location,
the depth of background there.
1333
01:55:10,080 --> 01:55:13,436
I'm sure this was an uncomfortable
set with the light in it,
1334
01:55:13,560 --> 01:55:16,870
because that's
a white-hot day out there,
1335
01:55:17,000 --> 01:55:18,638
at least in this master shot.
1336
01:55:18,760 --> 01:55:24,278
He cuts in from a wide shot of the
room to these two big head close-ups.
1337
01:55:24,400 --> 01:55:26,118
And then reverse.
1338
01:55:33,480 --> 01:55:36,358
Everything's very deliberate
in this film
1339
01:55:36,480 --> 01:55:39,199
and in a lot
of Leone's early Westerns.
1340
01:55:39,320 --> 01:55:42,630
The actor walks all the way over,
pauses, gives a line,
1341
01:55:42,760 --> 01:55:48,517
walks on, camera keeps moving,
dollies around. Nothing is rushed.
1342
01:55:52,760 --> 01:55:57,788
We're watching, in a sense,
this mythical history being made.
1343
01:55:57,920 --> 01:56:01,799
Trying to focus on Bronson
and the background at the same time.
1344
01:56:01,920 --> 01:56:04,275
A little tricky there.
1345
01:56:12,040 --> 01:56:15,237
See the light change.
They've opened up on the inside
1346
01:56:15,360 --> 01:56:19,751
to try to match. They didn't have to
in the other close-up.
1347
01:56:28,520 --> 01:56:31,512
Cut around, zoom in.
1348
01:56:32,280 --> 01:56:35,670
And then we're back
to our flashback sequence
1349
01:56:35,800 --> 01:56:40,590
of the evil walking across the desert
on his way.
1350
01:56:41,720 --> 01:56:45,235
We eventually find out
what this is all about.
1351
01:57:09,080 --> 01:57:13,073
Once again, in this sequence,
Bronson is the audience.
1352
01:57:13,200 --> 01:57:21,153
What he's seeing outside defies what
he's saying to Henry Fonda. He is us.
1353
01:57:21,280 --> 01:57:23,271
He's observing things going on.
1354
01:57:23,400 --> 01:57:28,235
And it's through him our feelings
about the scene are crystallised.
1355
01:57:28,360 --> 01:57:33,798
There's obviously something happening
outside Fonda doesn't know about.
1356
01:57:33,920 --> 01:57:36,559
Bronson's taking it in.
He is the observer.
1357
01:57:38,640 --> 01:57:42,599
Typical Leone, an empty frame, then
an actor turns into it very quickly,
1358
01:57:42,720 --> 01:57:44,517
like Fonda just did.
1359
01:57:44,640 --> 01:57:50,158
That's a technique that
Leone used in the spaghetti Westerns,
1360
01:57:50,280 --> 01:57:53,033
in the Eastwood films.
It's a lot of fun.
1361
01:57:53,160 --> 01:57:56,118
You can't use it all the time,
it becomes too humorous,
1362
01:57:56,240 --> 01:57:58,356
but it's a nice punctuation.
1363
01:58:13,840 --> 01:58:16,798
Everything very slow and deliberate.
1364
01:58:47,240 --> 01:58:50,198
What kind of money is that?
Phoney money.
1365
01:58:56,600 --> 01:58:59,478
I don't think we ever had
blue money in this country.
1366
01:59:04,000 --> 01:59:08,357
So now Fonda goes out and confronts
what Bronson has already seen.
1367
01:59:08,480 --> 01:59:15,238
That's his trap for...
It's kinda gone now.
1368
01:59:15,360 --> 01:59:17,510
Now he may be the hunted.
1369
01:59:26,120 --> 01:59:28,315
Once again Bronson is us.
1370
01:59:29,600 --> 01:59:34,549
Almost like in Hitchcock films,
where he looks our attention goes.
1371
01:59:35,120 --> 01:59:37,588
This is one of my favourite
sequences here.
1372
01:59:37,720 --> 01:59:41,952
We got... Claudia in the bathtub.
There we go.
1373
01:59:46,600 --> 01:59:48,830
Shooting through the steam.
1374
01:59:54,560 --> 01:59:59,839
There's almost surrealistic images
coming up in this sequence.
1375
01:59:59,960 --> 02:00:05,956
One doesn't know quite
why it's there, but it sure is fun.
1376
02:00:36,880 --> 02:00:38,598
A lot of point of views here.
1377
02:00:38,720 --> 02:00:42,918
Without the entire film to go by,
the audience may be totally confused.
1378
02:00:43,040 --> 02:00:46,191
And even if you have seen it,
you also may be totally confused.
1379
02:00:46,320 --> 02:00:48,436
But it doesn't seem to matter.
1380
02:00:48,560 --> 02:00:55,272
We get the sense
that now Fonda's... being stalked.
1381
02:00:55,400 --> 02:00:59,678
We don't quite know yet
why Bronson wants him alive.
1382
02:01:01,360 --> 02:01:06,480
We get a little bit of surrealism
here. It's a really strange business.
1383
02:01:06,600 --> 02:01:11,469
There's the clock, the empty clock
that hasn't been painted in yet,
1384
02:01:11,600 --> 02:01:13,909
because the town
is under construction.
1385
02:01:16,040 --> 02:01:18,600
Is this a timeless quality?
Is that it?
1386
02:01:18,720 --> 02:01:24,113
We're kind of in a West that
never existed, only in our own minds.
1387
02:01:25,440 --> 02:01:29,115
I'm not quite sure what that meant.
I'm sure he didn't know either.
1388
02:01:53,720 --> 02:01:59,317
There is tension in the scene,
but everything is played so slowly.
1389
02:02:01,640 --> 02:02:04,200
At the moment,
we don't know why he's done that.
1390
02:02:04,320 --> 02:02:06,515
Uh-oh. Stunt man. Bang!
1391
02:02:17,320 --> 02:02:19,914
We return
to Sir Christopher Frayling.
1392
02:02:20,040 --> 02:02:24,113
So you've got Bronson on the balcony
like some supernatural presence,
1393
02:02:24,240 --> 02:02:28,028
pulling the strings, a puppeteer
while all this is going on below him,
1394
02:02:28,160 --> 02:02:32,119
contemplating the difference between
being a businessman and a gunman.
1395
02:02:32,240 --> 02:02:35,755
And a muddled Frank, who's seen
all his own men turned against him,
1396
02:02:35,880 --> 02:02:38,075
because Morton
pays better than he does.
1397
02:02:38,200 --> 02:02:41,237
A wonderful worried expression
on Fonda's face.
1398
02:02:41,360 --> 02:02:46,229
And crosscut with Bronson
sliding into the frame as usual,
1399
02:02:46,360 --> 02:02:50,114
with this supernatural control
of time and space.
1400
02:02:50,240 --> 02:02:52,196
But Fonda doesn't shoot him,
1401
02:02:52,320 --> 02:02:55,630
he knows this is a curtain-raiser
to the big event,
1402
02:02:55,760 --> 02:02:59,116
the two of them meeting when
all this noise is out of the way,
1403
02:02:59,240 --> 02:03:02,676
when all these subplots have gone,
they'll be face to face.
1404
02:03:30,320 --> 02:03:32,880
All the paraphernalia
of the burgeoning town,
1405
02:03:33,000 --> 02:03:36,993
with these props and shop fronts
lying around, and an unpainted clock,
1406
02:03:37,120 --> 02:03:39,793
and there's a wonderful
High Noon gag here. Look.
1407
02:03:39,920 --> 02:03:43,754
The clock is striking noon,
only it's the shadow of the rifle.
1408
02:03:43,880 --> 02:03:46,952
The film begins with High Noon,
and here's a gag about it.
1409
02:03:47,080 --> 02:03:49,310
"Time sure flies."
1410
02:03:52,840 --> 02:03:55,593
It makes him look at the clock.
It's after high noon.
1411
02:03:55,720 --> 02:03:57,711
Just in time, he realises,
1412
02:03:57,840 --> 02:04:02,550
and another stuntman bites the dust.
That one looked as though it hurt.
1413
02:04:11,560 --> 02:04:14,518
Constantly,
these stares between them.
1414
02:04:16,240 --> 02:04:20,950
Fonda's trying to puzzle out
what's on Bronson's mind.
1415
02:04:21,080 --> 02:04:24,072
Why is he setting up
all these situations
1416
02:04:24,200 --> 02:04:28,318
and watching without actually
doing anything about it?
1417
02:04:29,000 --> 02:04:33,437
And he won't really discover that
until he dies at the end of the duel.
1418
02:04:33,560 --> 02:04:35,949
But that's going to come later.
1419
02:05:12,920 --> 02:05:15,354
She begins to realise
what it's about.
1420
02:05:22,160 --> 02:05:26,950
She begins to understand the rules
of how these Western heroes work.
1421
02:05:32,880 --> 02:05:35,110
And then Fonda
riding back to the train.
1422
02:05:35,240 --> 02:05:40,951
The horse is trotting in time with
Morricone's music. A funeral dirge.
1423
02:05:41,080 --> 02:05:45,596
And the cords of this music
are based on Mozart's Don Giovanni.
1424
02:05:45,720 --> 02:05:48,598
The Commandatore, the rider,
the statue of the rider.
1425
02:05:48,720 --> 02:05:51,234
So this great monument
rides back to the train
1426
02:05:51,360 --> 02:05:54,352
in time
to Morricone's prewritten score.
1427
02:05:54,480 --> 02:05:57,597
We hear once more from Alex Cox.
1428
02:05:57,720 --> 02:06:01,395
And now a scene which is partially in
and partially out.
1429
02:06:01,520 --> 02:06:03,829
The exterior,
which we're looking at now,
1430
02:06:03,960 --> 02:06:09,114
where Frank rides through the desert
in Almeria and comes to the train.
1431
02:06:09,240 --> 02:06:13,438
This is all in the long
and the short version of the film,
1432
02:06:13,560 --> 02:06:18,793
but as he gets closer to the train,
the two versions diverge.
1433
02:06:18,920 --> 02:06:24,631
This part of the scene
is in the abbreviated version.
1434
02:06:24,760 --> 02:06:27,797
As far as we know,
they never shot the battle.
1435
02:06:27,920 --> 02:06:31,959
It's like Yojimbo, you just see
the aftermath, not the fight itself.
1436
02:06:35,360 --> 02:06:39,399
This, too, I think,
was kept in the shortened version.
1437
02:06:39,520 --> 02:06:44,548
What we didn't see in the
shortened version was an interior.
1438
02:07:04,360 --> 02:07:06,510
And so this was missing.
1439
02:07:18,560 --> 02:07:21,472
You can see the point of view
of the studio people,
1440
02:07:21,600 --> 02:07:24,797
who were trying to cut the film
because it was so long.
1441
02:07:24,920 --> 02:07:27,559
"Why do we need to see
these henchmen dead?"
1442
02:07:27,680 --> 02:07:31,116
But part of the fun of a Leone film
is identifying the henchmen,
1443
02:07:31,240 --> 02:07:34,437
seeing the dead body
of Aldo Sambrell,
1444
02:07:34,560 --> 02:07:39,873
or seeing the dead body of Benito
Stefanelli, and recognising them.
1445
02:07:43,560 --> 02:07:46,393
And of course, this,
the death of Morton,
1446
02:07:46,520 --> 02:07:51,719
was in the abbreviated version,
although it was a little shorter.
1447
02:09:18,800 --> 02:09:22,110
Sir Christopher now guides us
through the climactic showdown
1448
02:09:22,240 --> 02:09:23,958
between Harmonica and Frank.
1449
02:09:25,080 --> 02:09:27,196
And so we're back at Sweetwater.
1450
02:09:27,320 --> 02:09:31,393
And a series of sequences
based on the end-of-track segment
1451
02:09:31,520 --> 02:09:34,159
of John Ford's
The Iron Horse in 1924,
1452
02:09:34,280 --> 02:09:38,432
and equivalent scenes from Union
Pacific or How the West Was Won,
1453
02:09:38,560 --> 02:09:41,757
or any of the epics
of the laying of the railroad.
1454
02:09:41,880 --> 02:09:47,000
A classic series of shots
done in exactly the John Ford way.
1455
02:09:49,600 --> 02:09:52,558
And Bronson's
waiting for the protagonists
1456
02:09:52,680 --> 02:09:55,831
to come to him for the final climax.
1457
02:09:55,960 --> 02:10:00,192
And the first to arrive is Cheyenne,
with Cheyenne's theme as he arrives,
1458
02:10:00,320 --> 02:10:02,788
hunched in the saddle,
looking not very well,
1459
02:10:02,920 --> 02:10:05,593
for reasons
which we will discover shortly.
1460
02:10:10,240 --> 02:10:13,949
He's managed to escape. We thought
he was on his was to Yuma Jail,
1461
02:10:14,080 --> 02:10:18,949
but he's escaped and come back
to Sweetwater to settle things up.
1462
02:10:24,680 --> 02:10:27,592
Jill now
is dressed in a domestic way
1463
02:10:27,720 --> 02:10:32,510
to suit her role as the water bearer
to the tired railroad gang.
1464
02:10:32,640 --> 02:10:38,556
So instead of her New Orleans finery,
she's dressed in her ranch outfit.
1465
02:10:38,680 --> 02:10:40,716
She's stripped for action.
1466
02:10:40,840 --> 02:10:46,392
The actual change of costume was
based on the film Man Of The West,
1467
02:10:46,520 --> 02:10:51,514
the Gary Cooper Western where Julie
London is prepared in the same way.
1468
02:10:53,040 --> 02:10:57,477
Robards has developed this strange
relationship with Claudia Cardinale,
1469
02:10:57,600 --> 02:11:01,957
where he treats her as a potential
lover, as his mother. He says,
1470
02:11:02,080 --> 02:11:05,675
"My mother used to make coffee
this way, hot and strong and good."
1471
02:11:05,800 --> 02:11:10,635
He's the romantic bandit who wants
to settle down, but can't admit it.
1472
02:11:10,760 --> 02:11:15,470
And, again, that was a theme from one
of the movies that they talked about,
1473
02:11:15,600 --> 02:11:19,149
the film Warlock by Edward Dmytryk,
where there's a lot of reference
1474
02:11:19,280 --> 02:11:22,078
to that sort
of psychosexual relationship
1475
02:11:22,200 --> 02:11:26,352
between the baddie and the mother
figure played by Dorothy Malone,
1476
02:11:26,480 --> 02:11:29,278
and, indeed,
Henry Fonda as the gunfighter.
1477
02:11:29,400 --> 02:11:32,631
That was picked up on by Bertolucci
and Leone at an early stage.
1478
02:11:32,760 --> 02:11:38,357
Warlock was a favourite movie,
much neglected in critical writing.
1479
02:11:40,040 --> 02:11:43,874
"What's going on out there?
He's whittling on a piece of wood."
1480
02:11:44,000 --> 02:11:48,278
"And when he stops whittling, I have
the feeling something will happen."
1481
02:11:48,400 --> 02:11:51,472
That was dialogue that originally
came earlier in the script,
1482
02:11:51,600 --> 02:11:58,870
but was transposed during some of the
cuts that happened during shooting.
1483
02:12:00,880 --> 02:12:05,795
Robards introduces the final scenes,
looking at us like a chorus.
1484
02:12:05,920 --> 02:12:07,797
"Something's gonna happen"
1485
02:12:09,760 --> 02:12:13,389
Fonda and Bronson
have got to settle this score.
1486
02:12:13,520 --> 02:12:17,195
The next to arrive at this place
for the final settling of accounts,
1487
02:12:17,320 --> 02:12:22,269
like the third act of a play with
all the actors gathering, is Frank.
1488
02:12:22,400 --> 02:12:26,188
And we get his theme
played like a trumpet dirge,
1489
02:12:26,320 --> 02:12:30,552
like a Mexican mariachi band
playing his entry.
1490
02:12:30,680 --> 02:12:34,195
There'd been a similar theme
in all Leone's films up to now,
1491
02:12:34,320 --> 02:12:37,995
the funeral dirge which signals
that there's going to be a duel.
1492
02:12:38,120 --> 02:12:40,998
So Frank arrives
and Bronson sits still,
1493
02:12:41,120 --> 02:12:45,636
waiting for the second great
protagonist to introduce himself.
1494
02:12:46,880 --> 02:12:49,952
While the railroad gangs
reach Sweetwater
1495
02:12:50,080 --> 02:12:53,550
and the Transcontinental Railroad,
which started in the East
1496
02:12:53,680 --> 02:12:56,990
and ends up in the West,
reaches Arizona.
1497
02:12:58,480 --> 02:13:01,790
Note Bronson's gun, always at the
ready in case something happens.
1498
02:13:01,920 --> 02:13:06,311
In this case, resting on
a tree stump. You never know.
1499
02:13:12,640 --> 02:13:16,189
A very important piece of dialogue
now between Fonda and Bronson
1500
02:13:16,320 --> 02:13:19,630
about the ancient race of heroes
1501
02:13:19,760 --> 02:13:23,912
that'll be squeezed out of the West
by new technology, by the railroad.
1502
02:13:24,040 --> 02:13:30,354
A deep nostalgia for the heroes
of the old West, for the old Western,
1503
02:13:30,480 --> 02:13:35,156
a nostalgia for the films of Leone's
childhood comes out in this exchange.
1504
02:13:35,280 --> 02:13:38,955
And, in fact, it's indirectly based
on a piece of dialogue
1505
02:13:39,080 --> 02:13:42,117
from Lampedusa's novel The Leopard,
1506
02:13:42,240 --> 02:13:46,199
where the great Prince of Sicily,
Don Fabrizio talks about,
1507
02:13:46,320 --> 02:13:51,110
"We were the lions, jackals,
leopards, the great heroic figures,
1508
02:13:51,240 --> 02:13:54,915
and there's no room for us in this
modern world of smaller people,
1509
02:13:55,040 --> 02:13:59,556
and the technology and capitalism.
There's no room for heroes."
1510
02:13:59,680 --> 02:14:02,717
And this is precisely
the dialogue in different terms
1511
02:14:02,840 --> 02:14:05,718
that's going on
between Harmonica and Frank here.
1512
02:14:05,840 --> 02:14:08,912
But they realise that all
the other stuff has been noise.
1513
02:14:09,040 --> 02:14:11,952
What matters
is that they settle their account.
1514
02:14:12,080 --> 02:14:15,390
That flashback that keeps trying
to break through in the movie
1515
02:14:15,520 --> 02:14:21,595
has got to be resolved in la resa
dei conti, the settling of accounts.
1516
02:14:21,720 --> 02:14:24,757
So we're going to have
a Leone-style duel.
1517
02:14:30,520 --> 02:14:33,990
Frank has wanted to become
a businessman throughout the movie,
1518
02:14:34,120 --> 02:14:37,351
just as his boss
behaved sometimes like a gunfighter.
1519
02:14:37,480 --> 02:14:40,597
But Frank realises now,
he can't become a businessman.
1520
02:14:40,720 --> 02:14:45,350
He's a gunfighter, he's a guy that
settles things by shooting people.
1521
02:14:45,480 --> 02:14:48,836
There's no point pretending
he has a place in the modern world.
1522
02:14:51,680 --> 02:14:55,070
This is one of the key pieces
of dialogue in the entire movie,
1523
02:14:55,200 --> 02:14:57,191
and is unusually wordy in a film
1524
02:14:57,320 --> 02:14:59,959
which consists
of acres of stage directions
1525
02:15:00,080 --> 02:15:01,911
with the odd one line of dialogue.
1526
02:15:02,040 --> 02:15:06,511
This is sustained dialogue and
we're supposed to concentrate on it.
1527
02:15:09,680 --> 02:15:12,592
He puts his gun
back in the holster by the barrel
1528
02:15:12,720 --> 02:15:15,234
just in case Frank thinks,
1529
02:15:15,360 --> 02:15:17,715
because they're
very sensitive men these,
1530
02:15:17,840 --> 02:15:20,149
in case he thinks
he's going to shoot him.
1531
02:15:20,280 --> 02:15:24,273
But no, they must wait
for the proper ritual way to do it.
1532
02:15:32,040 --> 02:15:34,634
It's almost like
a proscenium arch in a theatre.
1533
02:15:34,760 --> 02:15:36,751
They walk through the arch,
1534
02:15:36,880 --> 02:15:41,078
the curtain
comes across for this last act.
1535
02:15:41,200 --> 02:15:45,830
Robards, meanwhile, is shaving
to make himself look respectable.
1536
02:15:45,960 --> 02:15:49,714
Jill, as ever, is pouring the water.
She's always associated
1537
02:15:49,840 --> 02:15:53,628
with the well, the water, the bath,
the bringing of water to the West.
1538
02:15:53,760 --> 02:15:58,834
The role she played in Fellini's 81/2
as the water bearer is writ large.
1539
02:15:58,960 --> 02:16:04,398
She's the future, she nourishes
the West for future generations.
1540
02:16:04,520 --> 02:16:09,355
The future is Jill. Everyone else
is doomed in this dance of death.
1541
02:16:12,840 --> 02:16:16,799
People like that have something
inside, something to do with death.
1542
02:16:18,240 --> 02:16:21,391
I called my biography of Leone
Something to Do With Death.
1543
02:16:21,520 --> 02:16:25,399
That seems to me to be the line
that sums up his entire career.
1544
02:16:25,520 --> 02:16:27,875
The death of the movies,
of the characters.
1545
02:16:28,000 --> 02:16:31,117
But they go out in style.
It's a real celebration
1546
02:16:31,240 --> 02:16:34,357
of once upon a time
there was a certain kind of cinema,
1547
02:16:34,480 --> 02:16:36,277
and it meant a lot
to a lot of people,
1548
02:16:37,320 --> 02:16:39,390
and they don't make movies
like that any more.
1549
02:16:39,520 --> 02:16:41,272
So Something to Do With Death.
1550
02:16:41,400 --> 02:16:46,076
And now the final duel. A reprise
of the music Like a Judgement,
1551
02:16:46,200 --> 02:16:48,794
the Henry Fonda theme.
1552
02:16:49,960 --> 02:16:54,351
And it's cut very like the duel
at the end of Robert Aldrich's film
1553
02:16:54,480 --> 02:16:57,517
The Last Sunset,
a favourite film with Bertolucci.
1554
02:16:57,640 --> 02:17:01,315
In fact, he had a reference to it
in his film The Spider's Stratagem,
1555
02:17:01,440 --> 02:17:05,638
where in a cinema there's a placard
outside for The Last Sunset.
1556
02:17:05,760 --> 02:17:09,514
It's cut like the duel between
Kirk Douglas and Rock Hudson
1557
02:17:09,640 --> 02:17:14,555
in The Last Sunset.
So we've had matching shots.
1558
02:17:14,680 --> 02:17:18,036
Bronson, Fonda, different hats,
different physiognomies,
1559
02:17:18,160 --> 02:17:20,674
and now the crane goes up
to show both of them.
1560
02:17:20,800 --> 02:17:24,475
They're positioning themselves
behind the Sweetwater ranch
1561
02:17:24,600 --> 02:17:27,239
for this final settling of accounts
1562
02:17:27,360 --> 02:17:30,955
with the geology
of Spain just behind them,
1563
02:17:31,080 --> 02:17:34,516
a completely different colour
and texture to Monument Valley.
1564
02:17:34,640 --> 02:17:37,712
An almost fetishistic emphasis
on the details of this.
1565
02:17:37,840 --> 02:17:41,469
The boots, the way they walk,
the costumes they wear.
1566
02:17:41,600 --> 02:17:44,273
It's like a military two-step,
it's like a dance.
1567
02:17:44,400 --> 02:17:47,472
Or like a chessboard
with the pieces being put in place
1568
02:17:47,600 --> 02:17:51,070
as the myth plays itself out.
1569
02:17:51,200 --> 02:17:56,228
So now Fonda's view as he
walks around Bronson in the middle,
1570
02:17:56,360 --> 02:17:58,874
and positions himself
so the light is right,
1571
02:17:59,000 --> 02:18:02,959
and he hasn't got the sun in his eyes
for this final duel.
1572
02:18:06,560 --> 02:18:09,233
Bronson's face
has never been better filmed.
1573
02:18:09,360 --> 02:18:13,114
He'd appeared in The Magnificent
Seven and as Native Americans,
1574
02:18:13,240 --> 02:18:16,676
but he had never registered
in the way that he did in this film
1575
02:18:16,800 --> 02:18:21,078
with these astonishing close-ups
of that physiognomy.
1576
02:18:27,680 --> 02:18:32,356
So Fonda finds his position, looks up
to make sure the sun's alright.
1577
02:18:32,480 --> 02:18:34,311
He stands there.
1578
02:18:38,480 --> 02:18:40,869
It's Bronson's turn to move.
1579
02:18:49,520 --> 02:18:51,556
No dialogue, just music again.
1580
02:18:51,680 --> 02:18:55,719
Just as the film begins with natural
sounds amplified for the action,
1581
02:18:55,840 --> 02:19:00,755
it ends with a sequence
that's entirely musical and gestural.
1582
02:19:02,480 --> 02:19:05,472
And so they stand facing each other
and the music stops
1583
02:19:05,600 --> 02:19:07,670
and you get silence.
1584
02:19:07,800 --> 02:19:10,394
This is the moment
that everyone's been waiting for.
1585
02:19:10,520 --> 02:19:15,275
This is the Cup Final. This is the
two football teams facing each other.
1586
02:19:21,560 --> 02:19:25,439
By Hollywood standards, incredibly
slow and dragged out and distended.
1587
02:19:27,200 --> 02:19:29,031
Nothing to do with real time,
1588
02:19:29,160 --> 02:19:31,879
this is the time of rhetoric,
the time of opera.
1589
02:19:32,000 --> 02:19:34,275
This is a very artificial
kind of time.
1590
02:19:34,400 --> 02:19:37,358
The camera slowly goes in
because behind Bronson's eyes
1591
02:19:37,480 --> 02:19:41,553
is the memory of why he wants
to meet Frank in the first place.
1592
02:19:42,440 --> 02:19:46,399
Buried deep in his unconscious
as the music swells up,
1593
02:19:46,520 --> 02:19:50,115
what we're supposed to think is
this is what Bronson is thinking.
1594
02:19:50,240 --> 02:19:55,872
The young Henry Fonda in Monument
Valley is walking towards him.
1595
02:19:58,800 --> 02:20:02,315
At last it comes into focus.
We haven't seen it as Fonda before,
1596
02:20:02,440 --> 02:20:06,956
he's just been a stickman out of
focus, now we can actually see him.
1597
02:20:21,240 --> 02:20:24,789
And Fonda
takes from his pocket a harmonica.
1598
02:20:24,920 --> 02:20:28,879
The harmonica that Bronson's
been playing throughout the film.
1599
02:20:29,000 --> 02:20:33,312
So the secret of where that
came from is about to be revealed.
1600
02:20:33,440 --> 02:20:35,237
He pushes it towards the camera.
1601
02:20:35,360 --> 02:20:37,999
And back to Bronson
as he remembers that moment,
1602
02:20:38,120 --> 02:20:41,556
because he's pushing it
towards Bronson when he was a child.
1603
02:20:42,400 --> 02:20:45,836
And the camera goes even closer
into those eyes.
1604
02:20:45,960 --> 02:20:47,916
An astonishing close-up
1605
02:20:48,040 --> 02:20:51,555
across the bridge of his nose
with his eyes.
1606
02:20:53,800 --> 02:20:57,554
The closest close-up
that Leone had ever filmed yet.
1607
02:20:57,680 --> 02:21:00,353
"Keep your loving brother happy."
1608
02:21:00,480 --> 02:21:03,358
So, something to do
with Bronson's brother.
1609
02:21:05,880 --> 02:21:08,155
Into the mouth of the young Bronson,
1610
02:21:08,280 --> 02:21:11,636
who, it transpires,
is a Native American boy.
1611
02:21:12,720 --> 02:21:17,475
He has to blow the harmonica while
his brother stands on his shoulders.
1612
02:21:18,800 --> 02:21:21,598
There's Monument Valley
in the background.
1613
02:21:21,720 --> 02:21:25,508
And as the camera goes back, he's
not just standing on his shoulders,
1614
02:21:25,640 --> 02:21:27,232
he has a rope around his neck.
1615
02:21:27,360 --> 02:21:31,353
The brother is played by the
production manager Claudio Mancini.
1616
02:21:31,480 --> 02:21:36,235
The rope is attached to a bell,
attached to a very Roman arch
1617
02:21:36,360 --> 02:21:38,999
made of red brick
in the middle of Monument Valley.
1618
02:21:39,120 --> 02:21:43,033
An astonishing piece of design
by Carlo Simi.
1619
02:21:43,160 --> 02:21:45,515
Yes, it could be Mexican
or Mediterranean.
1620
02:21:45,640 --> 02:21:48,154
A Roman arch
in the middle of Monument Valley
1621
02:21:48,280 --> 02:21:50,316
is how this guy's gonna die.
1622
02:21:51,160 --> 02:21:53,594
So, the young Bronson
plays the harmonica,
1623
02:21:53,720 --> 02:21:57,872
and, of course, when Bronson runs out
of breath, when Bronson gets tired,
1624
02:21:58,000 --> 02:21:59,638
his brother is going to die.
1625
02:22:00,080 --> 02:22:03,914
An unbelievably sadistic and
elaborate way to kill somebody.
1626
02:22:04,040 --> 02:22:06,918
Rather like the elaborate
Machiavellian tortures
1627
02:22:07,040 --> 02:22:09,838
you find in
The Good, the Bad and the Ugly.
1628
02:22:12,920 --> 02:22:17,835
A Renaissance, Roman approach
to killing an enemy.
1629
02:22:18,960 --> 02:22:22,714
Lots of smiling faces
cut like an Eisenstein movie.
1630
02:22:22,840 --> 02:22:25,912
Big physiognomies coming at you.
The apple being ate.
1631
02:22:26,040 --> 02:22:28,270
The music swelling up.
Bronson's eyes.
1632
02:22:28,400 --> 02:22:30,550
How long will he keep going?
1633
02:22:30,680 --> 02:22:35,993
"Son of a bitch," says the brother,
and kicks Bronson away.
1634
02:22:36,120 --> 02:22:39,556
So Bronson doesn't fall over,
he's kicked away deliberately
1635
02:22:39,680 --> 02:22:43,719
and falls to the ground.
The harmonica falls out of his mouth.
1636
02:22:43,840 --> 02:22:45,796
You get the dust.
1637
02:22:48,000 --> 02:22:52,630
And then just at that moment,
the moment of the duel.
1638
02:22:52,760 --> 02:22:56,912
That's the reason
Bronson has to kill Henry Fonda.
1639
02:22:57,040 --> 02:23:00,316
A reaction shot
of Claudia Cardinale and of Robards,
1640
02:23:00,440 --> 02:23:02,829
who's cut himself
because of the gunshot
1641
02:23:02,960 --> 02:23:04,632
and the tension of who's won.
1642
02:23:04,760 --> 02:23:07,752
They're indoors.
They don't go out to see.
1643
02:23:07,880 --> 02:23:11,316
They want someone to walk in
and tell them what's happened.
1644
02:23:15,200 --> 02:23:18,636
But Fonda hasn't fallen over,
he's turned his back on Bronson.
1645
02:23:18,760 --> 02:23:21,832
He tries to put his gun
back in the holster, it falls.
1646
02:23:21,960 --> 02:23:24,315
He staggers away.
1647
02:23:25,760 --> 02:23:30,231
You can only just see the wound
through his dark shirt.
1648
02:23:42,680 --> 02:23:48,710
He looks shocked, surprised, amazed.
Someone's beaten him to the draw.
1649
02:23:48,840 --> 02:23:50,910
And he's thinking hard.
1650
02:23:53,240 --> 02:23:56,789
"Who the hell is this guy?
Why has he been trying to shoot me?"
1651
02:23:56,920 --> 02:23:59,275
"Why has he been
postponing this moment
1652
02:23:59,400 --> 02:24:03,359
to reach this settling of accounts?
Who is this guy?"
1653
02:24:04,120 --> 02:24:09,148
So Bronson, again hardly any
dialogue, comes over to him.
1654
02:24:09,840 --> 02:24:13,719
"Who are you?" says Fonda.
1655
02:24:13,840 --> 02:24:17,753
He must know before he dies.
What has this all been about?
1656
02:24:22,800 --> 02:24:25,951
Bronson simply takes the harmonica
from around his neck,
1657
02:24:26,080 --> 02:24:29,516
he's got no further purpose for it,
no further need for it,
1658
02:24:29,640 --> 02:24:31,710
and puts it in Fonda's mouth,
1659
02:24:31,840 --> 02:24:35,150
just as Fonda had put it in his mouth
when he was a child.
1660
02:24:35,280 --> 02:24:37,555
That's all he needs to show him.
1661
02:24:37,680 --> 02:24:42,231
And Fonda nods his head.
"So that's who you are."
1662
02:24:42,360 --> 02:24:45,113
"After all these years."
1663
02:24:46,440 --> 02:24:49,750
And Fonda plays his death rattle
on the harmonica.
1664
02:24:51,520 --> 02:24:54,796
At this moment,
they share the flashback.
1665
02:24:54,920 --> 02:24:58,879
You're looking at Fonda's eyes.
He's thinking that as well. He nods.
1666
02:24:59,000 --> 02:25:01,753
These men share the same memory
at that moment.
1667
02:25:01,880 --> 02:25:06,192
It's expressed visually.
That's all the explanation you need.
1668
02:25:06,320 --> 02:25:07,673
And Fonda bites the dust.
1669
02:25:14,200 --> 02:25:16,839
Cardinale inspects
the new-model Jason Robards,
1670
02:25:16,960 --> 02:25:21,397
now he's shaved and washed
and made himself more respectable.
1671
02:25:23,280 --> 02:25:25,748
But he's not the right man for her.
1672
02:25:26,480 --> 02:25:30,996
The man with the harmonica is,
but he's not likely to settle down.
1673
02:25:33,520 --> 02:25:37,399
They don't know what's happened yet,
who's going to walk through the door?
1674
02:25:37,520 --> 02:25:40,512
Amazingly, they haven't
looked out of the window.
1675
02:25:40,640 --> 02:25:45,555
It's what will be will be.
Fate takes care of these things.
1676
02:25:46,600 --> 02:25:48,431
And now we get the line.
1677
02:25:48,560 --> 02:25:52,838
"People like that have something
inside. Something to do with death."
1678
02:26:01,400 --> 02:26:04,790
The checked tablecloth again,
this symbol of domesticity.
1679
02:26:04,920 --> 02:26:08,754
She's settling down, making this
place her own, at home in the West.
1680
02:26:08,880 --> 02:26:12,236
She's adjusted to her role
as the water bearer.
1681
02:26:13,280 --> 02:26:17,319
Just as Maureen laid the table at the
beginning with the red tablecloth,
1682
02:26:17,440 --> 02:26:19,476
only then it ended in massacre.
1683
02:26:22,320 --> 02:26:27,235
Bronson may seem to be the right guy,
she may think he'll settle down,
1684
02:26:27,360 --> 02:26:31,797
but if he has won the duel,
he ain't going to settle,
1685
02:26:31,920 --> 02:26:34,229
he's got something
gnawing away at him.
1686
02:26:34,360 --> 02:26:37,750
But we still don't know who's won,
so Cheyenne gets his gun ready
1687
02:26:37,880 --> 02:26:39,791
in case it's the wrong guy.
1688
02:26:39,920 --> 02:26:43,549
And we get a classic Bronson entrance
again. The light as the door opens.
1689
02:26:43,680 --> 02:26:50,438
The creak of the door.
Jill smiles. The right guy is home.
1690
02:26:52,160 --> 02:26:56,392
And he sees her smile and just slides
into the frame from the right
1691
02:26:56,520 --> 02:26:58,875
from behind the piece of wood.
1692
02:26:59,000 --> 02:27:02,913
And Robards realises at that moment
he doesn't stand a chance.
1693
02:27:03,040 --> 02:27:08,751
And rather a complex set of reactions
from Jill as she looks at him.
1694
02:27:08,880 --> 02:27:10,598
Smiling, pleased that he's won,
1695
02:27:10,720 --> 02:27:15,396
but she can tell from his face
that he ain't gonna stay.
1696
02:27:15,520 --> 02:27:18,273
This isn't gonna work out.
He's gonna move on.
1697
02:27:18,400 --> 02:27:21,392
He's the sort of guy
with something still on his mind.
1698
02:27:21,520 --> 02:27:24,671
And all that is expressed
without her saying a thing.
1699
02:27:32,880 --> 02:27:35,792
Ah, well,
she's going to have to go it alone.
1700
02:27:35,920 --> 02:27:39,276
She's going to have to take up
Brett McBain's legacy
1701
02:27:39,400 --> 02:27:42,710
and operate Sweetwater herself.
1702
02:27:51,840 --> 02:27:54,400
"Someday." Great line.
1703
02:27:54,520 --> 02:27:57,239
It's from Shane,
it's from so many Westerns.
1704
02:27:57,360 --> 02:28:00,079
"Are you going to stay
and settle down?"
1705
02:28:00,200 --> 02:28:04,079
"I'll be back someday."
But you know that he won't be.
1706
02:28:04,200 --> 02:28:07,192
This guy's riding off
and he's never gonna come back.
1707
02:28:15,080 --> 02:28:18,629
The relationship between these three
is subtle in Leone's cinema.
1708
02:28:18,760 --> 02:28:21,832
It revolves around the woman
as the central character,
1709
02:28:21,960 --> 02:28:26,476
the only movie he made where the
action revolves around the woman.
1710
02:28:26,600 --> 02:28:31,037
All the characters are circulating
round this central hub.
1711
02:28:35,120 --> 02:28:37,395
"Gonna be a beautiful town,
Sweetwater".
1712
02:28:37,520 --> 02:28:41,115
"So take on your responsibilities."
1713
02:28:41,240 --> 02:28:45,518
"You are responsible for looking
after it now. It's on your patch."
1714
02:28:45,640 --> 02:28:48,677
"It's your back garden.
McBain's dream has come true,
1715
02:28:48,800 --> 02:28:51,439
but I won't to be around
because I don't like towns
1716
02:28:51,560 --> 02:28:55,599
and I don't like civilisation,
and I don't like progress."
1717
02:28:55,720 --> 02:28:58,075
"So I'm afraid I've got to move on."
1718
02:28:58,840 --> 02:29:00,831
"Someday."
1719
02:29:13,240 --> 02:29:16,835
And Robards reluctantly says,
"Yeah, I've gotta move on, too".
1720
02:29:16,960 --> 02:29:21,192
He wants to hang around.
Maybe it's time to settle down,
1721
02:29:21,320 --> 02:29:24,756
but for all sorts of reasons,
he's got to go, too.
1722
02:29:25,720 --> 02:29:27,995
Not least because he's dying.
1723
02:29:31,440 --> 02:29:37,834
There's been a running gag about the
workmen patting Jill on the bottom.
1724
02:29:37,960 --> 02:29:42,829
"Make believe it's nothing".
That's what happens in life.
1725
02:29:42,960 --> 02:29:45,918
Just try and cope.
Don't get too sensitive about it.
1726
02:29:46,040 --> 02:29:47,598
"Make believe it's nothing."
1727
02:29:47,720 --> 02:29:50,871
And in a way that could be
the subtitle of the whole film.
1728
02:29:51,000 --> 02:29:54,959
It's a huge fantasy, a huge piece
of ritual, a huge piece of opera,
1729
02:29:55,080 --> 02:29:59,631
but it amounts
to this fairy tale about the Western.
1730
02:29:59,760 --> 02:30:01,830
"Make believe it's nothing."
1731
02:30:01,960 --> 02:30:04,554
So out she goes
to take on her responsibilities
1732
02:30:04,680 --> 02:30:09,435
as the water bearer to the rail gangs
as they lay the track at Sweetwater.
1733
02:30:16,360 --> 02:30:18,271
And the two men ride away.
1734
02:30:18,400 --> 02:30:20,436
And, in effect,
that was the last we saw of them
1735
02:30:20,560 --> 02:30:23,279
in the original
American-release print of the movie.
1736
02:30:24,960 --> 02:30:29,750
But this sequence,
a key sequence, was put back
1737
02:30:29,880 --> 02:30:33,555
when the film was re-released
in the 1970s. They've ridden away.
1738
02:30:33,680 --> 02:30:38,071
They go over the hill and down
into the valley by Sweetwater.
1739
02:30:38,200 --> 02:30:41,510
The one time we see Harmonica
on a horse in the entire film.
1740
02:30:41,640 --> 02:30:46,509
Usually, he's just walking into frame
as if he's been standing waiting,
1741
02:30:46,640 --> 02:30:49,029
but now he's gonna ride off.
1742
02:30:49,160 --> 02:30:52,391
And Cheyenne
falls off his horse behind him.
1743
02:30:52,520 --> 02:30:56,752
And Bronson sort of realises that
that's happened without being told.
1744
02:30:56,880 --> 02:31:03,797
He intuits it. Because it transpires
that Robards has been shot
1745
02:31:03,920 --> 02:31:08,152
by Mr Morton of the railroad
when he made his last escape.
1746
02:31:10,000 --> 02:31:15,313
Leone says that each character,
except Jill, knows they're dying.
1747
02:31:15,440 --> 02:31:21,709
And the whole film is like a sort of
last gasp of the Western as cinema
1748
02:31:21,840 --> 02:31:24,479
and the last gasp
of the heroes of the West.
1749
02:31:24,600 --> 02:31:27,239
There won't be room for them
in the modern world.
1750
02:31:27,360 --> 02:31:32,150
Frank died in the duel with honour,
he realised why he was dying.
1751
02:31:32,280 --> 02:31:34,077
Now Robards dies.
1752
02:31:34,200 --> 02:31:38,239
He's killed actually and symbolically
by the head of the railroad.
1753
02:31:38,360 --> 02:31:42,353
There's no place for people
like Cheyenne in the modern world.
1754
02:31:44,440 --> 02:31:46,510
He's been messily killed as well.
1755
02:31:46,640 --> 02:31:50,349
He's been gut shot,
so it's gonna take a little while.
1756
02:32:10,320 --> 02:32:13,312
This is why he's been looking
so pale and so hunched
1757
02:32:13,440 --> 02:32:17,035
in the final sequences. And in the
original American-release print,
1758
02:32:17,160 --> 02:32:20,914
you just thought,
"Why does Robards look so strange?"
1759
02:32:21,040 --> 02:32:25,192
There was no explanation at all
of why he was so languid and pale
1760
02:32:25,320 --> 02:32:27,675
and behaving
as if it was his last gasp.
1761
02:32:27,800 --> 02:32:29,950
We had no idea this was happening.
1762
02:32:30,080 --> 02:32:32,469
It's a key piece
of the jigsaw puzzle.
1763
02:32:32,600 --> 02:32:34,636
The culmination
of one of the themes
1764
02:32:34,760 --> 02:32:38,116
of the implications
of the railroad as it arrives.
1765
02:32:38,240 --> 02:32:39,958
A deep vein of nostalgia here,
1766
02:32:40,080 --> 02:32:44,790
just as there is in The Leopard,
both Visconti's film and the novel,
1767
02:32:44,920 --> 02:32:47,036
for the world we have lost.
1768
02:32:47,160 --> 02:32:52,188
For the old world which can't adjust
to the new world, or try to adjust.
1769
02:32:52,320 --> 02:32:54,276
Some people are good at adjusting.
1770
02:32:54,400 --> 02:32:57,517
Jill is good at adjusting,
these people aren't.
1771
02:32:57,640 --> 02:33:02,839
Unfortunately, they'll be the victims
of the coming economic boom.
1772
02:33:02,960 --> 02:33:05,349
It's a deeply pessimistic vision
of the West,
1773
02:33:05,480 --> 02:33:08,358
but, at the same time,
a deeply nostalgic one.
1774
02:33:23,600 --> 02:33:28,913
And just as Cheyenne has had his
theme on a banjo and electric piano,
1775
02:33:29,040 --> 02:33:30,871
a theme written by Morricone,
1776
02:33:31,000 --> 02:33:34,117
and, in fact, when it was written,
Leone said to Morricone,
1777
02:33:34,240 --> 02:33:37,869
"Think about Disney's Lady and
the Tramp. Think about the Tramp."
1778
02:33:38,000 --> 02:33:44,758
This charming, but ruffianish dog,
the sort of antihero of the cartoon.
1779
02:33:44,880 --> 02:33:48,555
"Think of a piece of music that
would be suitable for the Tramp."
1780
02:33:48,680 --> 02:33:52,514
It's sort of up-tempo, and jokey,
and jolly, and Wild Westy,
1781
02:33:52,640 --> 02:33:56,553
and the theme is about to stop
and there will be silence.
1782
02:33:57,760 --> 02:34:00,877
As Cheyenne
breathes his last breath.
1783
02:34:01,000 --> 02:34:05,312
And then a chord
and that leitmotif has finished.
1784
02:34:05,440 --> 02:34:09,831
He didn't want Harmonica to watch him
die, so Harmonica turns his back.
1785
02:34:09,960 --> 02:34:13,748
Very ritualised,
Japanesey approach to death.
1786
02:34:15,360 --> 02:34:18,158
It's like a samurai moment,
not a Wild West moment.
1787
02:34:18,280 --> 02:34:21,909
The great warrior dies and you turn
your back and pay homage to him.
1788
02:34:22,040 --> 02:34:25,032
Harmonica looks up to the sky,
the camera goes up
1789
02:34:25,160 --> 02:34:27,549
and we get the end of track again.
1790
02:34:28,880 --> 02:34:32,589
And the train arrives.
The train arrives at Sweetwater.
1791
02:34:33,440 --> 02:34:36,512
This is the moment the entire film
has been building up to.
1792
02:34:36,640 --> 02:34:41,714
It needs the water. It's going to be
a stop on the main railroad line,
1793
02:34:41,840 --> 02:34:45,037
so it had to come to Sweetwater,
and at last it's arrived,
1794
02:34:45,160 --> 02:34:47,754
with the rail gangs
all over the locomotive.
1795
02:34:50,880 --> 02:34:54,111
Leone had to alter the geology
of Spain to do this sequence.
1796
02:34:54,240 --> 02:34:58,711
He moved part of a sand mountain,
with permission, to lay the tracks,
1797
02:34:58,840 --> 02:35:01,354
so that the train could
come round the corner
1798
02:35:01,480 --> 02:35:05,837
and end up in front of Sweetwater.
And the authorities gave permission.
1799
02:35:05,960 --> 02:35:13,469
It's wilderness now, but the train
was brought on a flat-bed truck
1800
02:35:13,600 --> 02:35:19,914
from Guadix and was craned onto the
railway lines just for this sequence
1801
02:35:20,040 --> 02:35:22,838
as the train arrives at Sweetwater
for the climax.
1802
02:35:22,960 --> 02:35:26,714
Once upon a time in the West,
the railroad arrived
1803
02:35:26,840 --> 02:35:30,230
and brought all sorts of mayhem
in its wake.
1804
02:35:30,360 --> 02:35:34,956
And it made modern America possible,
but ancient America died as a result.
1805
02:35:35,080 --> 02:35:38,277
So the rail gangs jump off,
it's the new shift arriving,
1806
02:35:38,400 --> 02:35:42,791
and they're going to take over
the building of Sweetwater Station
1807
02:35:42,920 --> 02:35:44,717
and the railroad.
1808
02:35:49,400 --> 02:35:53,996
No place for Bronson in this world.
So he rides off with Cheyenne's body
1809
02:35:54,120 --> 02:35:56,953
slumped over the saddle of the horse
following him.
1810
02:35:57,080 --> 02:36:00,959
So we don't see him die, we simply
see him ride off into the wilderness.
1811
02:36:01,080 --> 02:36:06,200
And, finally,
Cardinale takes on her responsibility
1812
02:36:06,320 --> 02:36:11,474
as running the McBain spread.
She has finally become Jill McBain.
1813
02:36:11,600 --> 02:36:14,068
She has finally become
a frontiers woman.
1814
02:36:14,200 --> 02:36:17,476
And the final shot of the film
is her distributing the water
1815
02:36:17,600 --> 02:36:19,955
to the thirsty railroad men.
1816
02:36:20,080 --> 02:36:24,039
And they all surround her
and she can hold her own.
1817
02:36:26,160 --> 02:36:29,948
She is the grandmother of a great
politician of the 20th century,
1818
02:36:30,080 --> 02:36:32,799
she's the origins of modern America.
1819
02:36:32,920 --> 02:36:36,799
And the camera pulls back.
All the workmen crowded around her,
1820
02:36:36,920 --> 02:36:40,708
the train letting off steam,
the wilderness, Sweetwater.
1821
02:36:40,840 --> 02:36:43,229
Once Upon a Time in the West.
1822
02:36:51,720 --> 02:36:55,315
This audio commentary track
was recorded in Los Angeles,
1823
02:36:55,440 --> 02:36:56,919
Paris and London.
1824
02:36:57,040 --> 02:37:00,669
And I would like to thank
Sir Christopher Frayling, Alex Cox,
1825
02:37:00,800 --> 02:37:05,954
John Milius, John Carpenter,
Dr Sheldon Hall, Bernardo Bertolucci,
1826
02:37:06,080 --> 02:37:09,231
and Claudia Cardinale
for their contributions.
1827
02:37:09,360 --> 02:37:12,750
I'm Lancelot Narayan.
Thanks for listening.