Once Upon a Time in the West

Once Upon a Time in the West figured a significant changed in Sergio Leone’s approach, replacing the quirky and up-tempo ‘parody’ of his earlier westerns with a much slower pace and a certain sombreness and thematic seriousness, with Morricone following suit to perfection. Opening with the musique concrete of the astonishing, almost wordless first 15 minutes, through the recurring leitmotifs that relate to each of the main characters (in particular, Charles Bronson’s ‘Harmonica’), Morricone’s masterpiece (arguably) is as harsh, complex and violent as the film itself – a rough-hewn, end-of-the-world symphony that builds from ugly, dying harmonicas to full-blown opera. What’s all the more remarkable is that the music was written before the film was made and was played, by Leone’s design, to the actors, in the background, as it was being made.