Random thoughts on the films I see

“You remind me of my mother. She was the biggest whore in Alameda and the finest woman that ever lived. Whoever my father was, for an hour or for a month - he must have been a happy man.”

This film is Leone’s masterwork, although The Good, The Bad and The Ugly and Once Upon a Time in America come close. It was his first film to have a strong female character. I’m actually in the process of creating an English audio track for the longer Italian version. Although 12 minutes are added, most of the extra footage is scene extensions here and there, there are no “extra” scenes or dialogue. Either version is just good as the other.

Charles Bronson plays Harmonica, a mysterious stranger who is after Frank Black (Henry Fonda). This turns out to be Bronson’s finest film role, suiting his stoney-faced tough guy look. The gorgeous Claudia Cardinale plays Jill McBain, recently married only to find the family have been massacred when she arrives. The reason being to make way for the new railroad crossing America. The blame gets falsely put on outlaw Cheyenne (Jason Robards) and his men. It was really Henry Fonda, who plays the devil himself in this movie. There’s a great scene where we think he might let a kid live, but one of his men uses his name and he replys “Now that you’ve called me by name?”. Very chilling. Frank Black works for the boss of the railroad, making sure nothing prevents its advance. Because Cheyenne is framed for the slaughter, he goes looking for the culprit, and eventually teams up with Harmonica. Jason Robards is excellent and provides odd moments of comic relief and sentimentality. Harmonica is just after pure revenge, but in the process falls in love with Jill (and who wouldn’t). In fact Cheyenne falls in love with her as well. Frank however takes what he can from her…

 There’s a great scene at the end where Cheyenne who is dying and keeping it secret, says to Jill “You know what? If I was you, I’d go down there and give those boys a drink. Can’t imagine how happy it makes a man to see a woman like you. Just to look at her. And if one of them should pat your behind, just make believe it’s nothing. They earned it.”
The Morricone music is fantastic in this one, from the sentimental theme for Jill to the mysterious Harmonica tunes.