Once Upon a Time in the West: Camera Movement

Time: 03:40-04:27

  This film clip is towards the end of the film where Frank has the harmonica. The director shows a medium shot of Frank so the audience can see that Frank is looking at the harmonica in his hand. Then Frank looks straightforward at the harmonica guy with a smirk on his face, which the director wanted to add this element so the audience can see Frank’s facial expression of holding the harmonica. The sound of the harmonica is playing, which the director added it during this scene because it means something bad is about to happen soon. A shot/reverse shot shows the harmonica guy staring at Frank straight into his eyes. The director wanted the audience to see the harmonica guy’s reaction because we can tell he’s not thrilled that Frank is holding onto his harmonica. The camera does a close-up shot of Frank and zooms in to an extreme close-up of his eyes. The director wanted the audience to see how serious the harmonica guy was by not flitching his eyes at all. The sound of the harmonica was building up, as the camera was getting closer to the harmonica guy’s eyes. The director had the harmonica sound build up louder because he wanted the audience to know something was about to happen between these two characters. The last part of the clip is a shot/reverse shot that shows a medium shot of Frank still holding onto the harmonica with on hand. The last two seconds of the clip, Frank smiles at the harmonica guy. The director wanted Frank to smile to show that he won and had more power over the harmonica guy.