Chapter 15 "Men, An Ancient Race": Once Upon a Time in the West, 1968

"Men, An Ancient Race": Once Upon a Time in the West, 1968 Italian-born director Sergio Leone (Sergioleone) is best known for his "Bounty Killer Trilogy" starring Colin Eastwood and "Once Upon a Time in America" ​​starring Robert De Niro .Although "Once upon a time in the west" (Once upon a time in the west) in 1969 was the first of its "Once upon a time in the west" (the other was "Once upon a time in the revolution" A Firstful of Dynamite), few people knew about it before the DVD was published.In terms of subject matter and style, it happens to be a mixture of "Bounty Killer" and "Once Upon a Time in America", with the temperament of the former and the rhythm of the latter.Leone was born in Rome in 1921, the son of the silent film director Vinicezo Leone.In the 1950s and 1960s, when American Westerns were gradually declining, the miracle of "Spaghetti Westerns" was created, and to a certain extent, "Westerns" was revived, which was called "born at the same time as movies" by André Bazin. Genre films", continuing the magical vitality of "Western films".And "Once Upon a Time in the West" is like a magnificent, beautiful and soothing "eulogy". From the style of the film, it can be seen that this is Leone's last attachment to "Western films". with timeless allure" genre of film.And the title "Once Upon a Time in the West" is a "pun". One means that its content is to look back at the rough history of the American pioneering of the West, and the other is the director's own secret thoughts. "Once upon a time in the west" literally translates as "once upon a time in the west". Works become legacy.

"Once Upon a Time in the West" has all the characteristics and elements of "Western movies": the exciting railway age, the endless desert yellow sand, knight-like hotshots, cowboys, gangsters, and a beautiful bride (whore).The story of the film is concise, without too many ups and downs, presenting a simple narrative aesthetics.A wandering unknown harmonica boy, a wanted gangster, a treacherous conspirator, and a woman entangled among the three, this classic relationship between characters is still in use until the 2003 Oscar-winning Chinese film "Heaven and Earth Heroes" .However, "Once Upon a Time in the West" has a sense of mystery in explaining the history of the four main characters. In addition, Leone is good at using close-ups and pushing shots to shape the characters' personalities, which makes the film reveal rich background connotations in simple events. .This background is integrated with the larger historical environment, just like the scenes that often appear in movies, the cowboy gunman appears in the corner of the screen, and behind it is the fiery scene of building a railway in the desert filled with yellow sand.

This three-hour western masterpiece, Leone specially gave it a unique soothing rhythm, which is reminiscent of Johnnie To's "PTU", which is similar to this film more than thirty years ago in terms of rhythm and atmosphere creation Old movies are in the same vein.It is a pity that when the film was released in the United States, it was greatly trimmed by the film studio due to its length, resulting in incomplete original appearance and ambiguous plot, which greatly affected word-of-mouth and box office. However, after the successful release of the full version in Europe , Immediately amazed European filmmakers, and is regarded as the representative work with the highest artistic achievement of "Spaghetti Westerns".At the beginning of the film, a large section is used to explain the appearance of the protagonist Harmonica Boy: three big men with guns waited intently for the arrival of a train. Slowly driving away, when the three big men breathed a sigh of relief, they used the harmonica to appear when they suddenly looked back. This paragraph lasted for fourteen minutes.The whole "Once Upon a Time in the West" almost has such a tone, and this tone even has a taste of Gu Long's martial arts.

Bazin once pointed out in the famous "Westerns and Typical American Movies" that the deep feature of "Westerns" is mythology. "Once Upon a Time in the West" is also a myth: the second long paragraph of the film explains that the farmer Mai Bai was shot and killed by the schemer and villain Frank on the day he married the bride from New Orleans.The reason is that Mai Bai had a dream (a typical American dream): he judged that the railway would pass through the "Sweet Water", a place that no one cares about, and when the train opened, it would be the day when "Sweet Water" prospered, so he bought The entire land was purchased, and countless firewood was ordered to build the railway station.Frank and the rich businessman Lame Morton want to take this land by force and plant it on the gangster Sai Yang, which arouses new and old hatred among Harmonica Boy, Frank and Sai Yang. "Once Upon a Time in the West" describes a man's dream - land, money, and women - against the historical background of killing, plundering, and pioneering.So although this film has the same epic ethics and female worship as other "Western films", in my opinion, the most exciting thing is the tragic spirit of men who face death helplessly and calmly.Just like the dialogue between Harmonica Boy and Frank in the final duel:

—You can't be a businessman, Frank. --yes.I'm just a man. —an ancient race. It was the soul-stirring nature of "Once Upon a Time in the West" that made "Once Upon a Time in America" ​​(Once Upon a Time In America) with the same temperament become a movie fan classic, which made "Once Upon a Time" be called "Once Upon a Time in China" in English when it was released overseas, and made Robert Rodriguez Goetz will shoot "Once Upon a Time In Mexico" (OnceUponATimeInMexico).Of course, the soul-stirring "Once Upon a Time in the West" is actually the result of "shaping is greater than narrative". His character modeling and screen composition all give people a "static beauty" that is rare in Western films.

In Unusual Relief, a musician who has worked side by side with Leone for decades plays a very important role.If there's a single shot in Once Upon a Time in the West that sticks in your mind, it's one with music—Music by Ennio Morricone.This Leone's primary school classmate made more contributions to the success of his western films than ordinary soundtracks.In "Once Upon a Time in the West", the three musical themes are extraordinary: "Man With A Harmonica", the theme of the unknown killer harmonica boy, when the harmonica sounds, the avenger comes from an unexpected place, this subject is desolate and bleak, with sadness Free and easy, even with some mysterious and treacherous murderousness; "Cheyenne", Sai Yang is the escaped gangster in the film. This piano theme not only describes his dark and violent side, but also a passionate, proud and gentle side , this smooth music makes the image of Celeron more three-dimensional; "LoveTheme", this is the most moving melody of Morricone, with a beautiful sadness and long-lasting, this theme is also the theme of "Once Upon a Time in America" prototype.The melancholic beauty of this piece of music even made it out of the movie itself, and it has been passed down to the world to this day.

Romanticism in the Face of Death: Tiger Leopard, 1969 Some people say that since the popularity of DVD with the director's commentary track, the pull class in film school can be eliminated.After looking at some of them, I think there is a big difference between the two.The commentary track (whoever narrates it) is mostly a behind-the-scenes look at filming, unofficial film history, side stories, and occasional serious background information and technical issues, but it's not too exhaustive.However, the audio-visual language explanations in the audio-visual language classes in the college are much more detailed and professional.The basic method used in DVD is to explain while playing, not to explain one by one and watch repeatedly; what's more, DVDs are aimed at movie fans who watch movies, not make movies.Even movie fans would rather watch some accompanying documentaries, sideshows, and cut clips, and seldom finish watching the main film, and then go back and watch the same picture from beginning to end, listening to the director or film critics rambling for two hours.

It took me a long time recently to read all the tidbits and reviews of a special edition of "The Tiger Cub" (also translated as "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid", Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid) released by Fox. There are two commentary tracks: one is the commentary track co-presented by director George Roy Hill, lyricist HalDavid, co-producer Robert Crawford and photographer Conrad L. Hall; One is a commentary track by screenwriter William Goldman.This is a classic, yet special Western.Clint Eastwood once said: After jazz, the western is the only art form produced in the United States.But this type of film has long since faded out of the Hollywood big screen. 1969 was the year of its mutation and end.The year before, Gio Leone filmed "Once Upon a Time in the West", writing a tribute to Western films with slow beats and bleak music. In 1969, when traditional western films were on the decline, directors and movie stars changed their shooting methods of western films one after another, and created the final glory of western films.Sam Peckinpah's standout 'Sunset', Eastwood stars in musical western 'Paint Your Wagon' and John Wayne finally wins an Oscar for 'True Grit' .And "Bad Boy," a briskly comedic Western, won four Oscars.

The film was rewritten by playwright William Goldman based on the true story of Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. He spent 8 years investigating and collecting data, and finally completed a very magical script.The screenwriter said in the commentary track that he was 33 years old when he first saw the script.At that time, he only wrote three books and was unknown. After the first draft of the script was completed, he sent it to all the film companies.Because the plot is too simple, the whole story is about the escape of two thieves, but it was rejected by most film companies.What impressed Goldman at first was the plot of the two thieves constantly fleeing.The team that hunts them down is portrayed in the film as omnipotent and composed of several legendary characters.This is undoubtedly shrouded in mythology by this escape.Although the film begins by claiming that it's a real movie, their escape is "a tale of myth and fact intertwined".A sense of humor in the face of death is the hallmark of this deeply romantic western.It is said that during the test screening, director Roy Hill was very disappointed because the audience watched too much.Because if it's too funny, the audience can't understand the sadness at the end.So he cut some more pieces.In the version we see now, the comedy color and the tragic ending complement each other.The subtle emotions of one woman and two men in the film are quite reminiscent of Truffaut's "Jul and Jim".

Paul Newman was initially cast as Butch Cassidy when his fame was already in full swing.The lead actor was initially determined to be another western film superstar, Steve McQueen. Before the filming started, the crew took great pains to arrange the names of the two stars in the title sequence, but finally failed to satisfy McQueen and left. , the producers successively found such big names as Marlon Brando, but in the end they decided to lend the role of Sundance Kid to the unknown Robert Redford.In order to show his equal weight in the film, he had 50 seconds to shoot his face in the opening scene.This film has long established Redford's status in the film industry. He named the film festival he founded after the character's name - Sundance (Sundance, Sundance), and now the Sundance Film Festival has become a global film festival. The mecca of independent film at its most captivating.

The film opens with Paul Newman surveying a bank, and director George Roy Hill does not tell a story but sets a style, a style that is different from the dusty atmosphere of traditional Westerns.The rhythm of the whole film is very slow, but it is always filled with romantic atmosphere.In addition to the script and stars, the most impressive thing about the film is the photography and music.Movies often have continuous shots from distant shots to close-ups, which can make the audience feel the position and distance of the two sides.Photographer Conrad L. Hall is the son of James Roman Hall, the original author of "Mutiny on the Ship". When Dali worked hard to find him, the executive producer was very angry, and everyone knew that inviting him was suffering.Indeed, when shooting some indoor night scenes, Conrad had to set the light for an hour and a half, so that Roy Hill said angrily, "We are not going to shoot Rembrandt's paintings."But it turns out the photographer shot a masterpiece.And a large number of night scenes in the film were shot in the way of "day as night" (shooting night scenes during the day).He also worked with Paul Newman on "Road to Perdition" in 2002, and he died before that film won him his third Oscar.Roy Hill is particularly good at reading his stories musically.Joplin’s music was used during the filming of “Sting”, and Vivaldi’s music was used when adapting the script for “Love on the Sunset Bridge”, and “Tiger and Leopard Little Overlord” also has many musical features .He even interrupted the narration with a song "Raindrops Keep Hitting My Head" and placed the song in the film like a MV.Many people may not have seen this movie, but they must have heard this song.It also marked the transition of Hollywood film music from large-scale orchestral soundtracks to the era of popular light music.