Once+Upon+A+Time+In+America

1. For this assignment, think about some of the **thematic**, and **stylistic** motifs that you've seen in the four previous films by the director that you've watched. What do you notice in this film that fits in with this director's body of work?

//This answer should be about 200-300 words.//

1. The director I studied for this project was Sergio Leone. Leone specializes in making movies in the "spaghetti western" genre. In all five of Leone's films that I watched, I saw several overall themes. The first one of these is that Sergio Leone enjoys having the characters have a major change in their way of living. In other words, they learn a great moral lesson and decide to change afterwards. For instance, in //For a Few Dollars More//, one of the two main characters, Colonel Douglas Mortimer, goes through a huge moral change when he decides to give up all his reward money since he has already accomplished his revenge. Also, in //A Fistful of Dollars//, Manco is seen to make a decision to save a woman from slavery and risk losing all the money he has earned up to that point. Sergio Leone also follows a structure in his films where he has long spans of building up context and background, and then short bursts of actions. This succeeds in increasing tensions to uncontrollable levels as the setup of the conflict is well thought out and put together. The usage of suspense to make the conflicts bigger and more striking as in other movies is one of Leone's main techniques. For instance, in //The Good, the Bad and the Ugly// the whole storyline is near passive with no suspense, as it is a buildup for the final 3-way duel at the end between Blondie, Angel Eyes, and Tuco. Leone also likes to use a mix of long shots juxtaposed with extreme close-ups, and this helps create a sense of feeling and sentiment, the internal turmoil of the characters, which he wants the audience to see. This helps exemplify the connection of the audience to the characters, as their facial features express lots of their thoughts. Finally, I also noticed that at the beginning of each of his movies, Sergio Leone likes to include some sort of prequel or introduction to his movie, usually with a gunfight scene that sets the stage for the entrance of some of the main characters. This technique was used in all five of the films I watched.

2. What are some of the most iconic director's choices that you've seen in any of the five films you've watched? What directors choices stood out the most to you? These examples don't necessarily need to be repeated in multiple films, but have helped define the director's image. For example, Kubrick might be known for the iconic scene of Danny riding his bike in one continuous steady-cam shot, or the most famous match cut of all time in//2001: A Space Odyssey// (which we will talk about later). Both of these examples are inherently 'Kubrick' moments, even though they don't have 'echoes' in his other films.

//Please list 2-3 examples for each film. This can be a bulleted list but should incorporate complete sentences and explanations of what the choices were and why they were so effective. Screenshots would be appropriate but not required.//

2. Overall, Sergio Leone has several techniques that he specializes in filming, and he incorporates these into each one of his movies.

1. //A Fistful of Dollars//: One of the most suspenseful parts of this movie which exemplifies the theme of the film is when Joe goes and releases Marisol from imprisonment. To accomplish this, he devises a plan to lead the Rojos and Baxters away to a graveyard, where they fight each other while he sneaks there to rescue her, but they end up returning early. At this point in time, when Joe is returning to the Rojos' mansion, the audience believes that the action is over, but the music still stays uptight and suspenseful, which foreshadows Joe's capture by the Rojos when he returns. The sequence of events, where Joe is rescuing a maiden in distress in the middle of a bloodbath, juxtaposes the two events and along with the rest of the movie, exemplifies the theme of the moral triumph over greed.

2. //A Fistful of Dollars//: An interesting thing I saw in this film that was different from the rest was the gun duel at the end. When Joe dons his metal armor and approaches Ramon Rojo and his men, instead of getting close up and showing facial features, Leone chose to use long shots and wide shots to show the scene. I believe that this helped demonstrate that this was not the main conflict of the story, and that the freeing of Marisol and Joe's moral change is in fact the main plot of the story.

3. //For a Few Dollars More//: One of the most interesting factor of this film was that it is run with the representation of two main heroes. These two are Manco and Colonel Douglas Mortimer. The plot line is run following the actions of these two character, and develops from them meeting as complete strangers and then finding a way to work together. The Hero's Journey of these two characters is interesting, because different parts of the Journey are represented by these two characters at different points in time. For instance, Mortimer reaches a moral enlightenment and leaves with the Freedom to Live, while Manco receives the ultimate boon.

4. //For a Few Dollars More//: The lighting and setting of the scenes in this film had a large effect on the overall tone and mood of different scenes in the movie. Leone used lots of wide shots of isolated villages in the middle of a desert, which helps represent how cut off these characters are from the rest of the world. There are also several shots done in a nighttime scene, which occurs when the heroes are experiencing trouble in their journey. This dark atmosphere can represent the "belly of the whale" situation that these characters are facing at the time.

5. //For a Few Dollars More//: The shooting of the final duel in this movie is extremely similar to the one done in //The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly//, the third movie of the trilogy. All three characters are located in a "dueling" circle, all facing each other. However, this is somewhat different because Manco is standing off to the side and is being neutral in the situation, while it is a direct duel between Mortimer and El Indio. During this scene, this wide shot is also juxtaposed by extreme close-ups of all of their faces, the watch, and their guns and hands.

6. //For a Few Dollars More//: One of the most symbolic devices that repeatedly comes up in this movie is the golden watch. El Indio uses this to count down the time before he kills his victims. A small back story is shown where El Indio takes it from a woman that he raped, and later you find out that the woman was Mortimer's sister. This watch can be seen as a tool of revenge as it is what drives Mortimer to find and kill El Indio as revenge for what he did.

7. //The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly//: One important symbol that is used over and over again in this film is the noose. Tuco and Blondie have a little duel/game that they play, which is to capture the other and make them hang from a noose. This was set up when Blondie almost killed Tuco while he was trying to save him from hanging. This noose is a sign of captivity and resignation, as whenever a character is presented with this they decide to give in and do what is told to them. It is also a sign of resentment as this is repeatedly brought up as a tool of revenge, as seen until the final scene, where Tuco is hung up on the rope with his loot money by his feet.

8. //The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly//: One of the most iconic setting up of suspense in this movie is the layout of the shots during the final three-way duel scene. The shots were edited so that each character's reaction was shown: first from a medium shot, where you see their half-body and their positioning (with different backgrounds, mountains and graves). Then, there are three shots, each of a character from a shoulder shot. Then, close up shots are done to show each person's gun belt and pants, also showing their hands. Finally, right before it jumps back to a wide shot, there is an extreme close up on each character's face, and you get to see their final facial emotions before they start drawing their weapons. I believe that this sequence of shots, where it leads from long and wide shots to extreme close ups, is extremely critical in increasing the tension and suspense of the scene, as you are waiting for the next thing to happen. This is further emphasized by the juxtaposition of the final close-up shots with a long and wide shot of the whole scene. Music also comes to play within this scene because it helps rise the tension of the sequence, and abruptly stops when the duel begins.

9. //The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly//: Throughout this film, mainly at the beginning and the end, freeze frames are taken and text is entered in the screen, stating the names of the characters ("The Good" "The Bad" "The Ugly"). These shots are followed by the sound of gunshots, which helps create a sense of excitement and anticipation for the movie. I believe that these were used to make the movie seem more appealing and interesting, and could have possibly been part of a trailer made for it.

10. //Once Upon a Time in the West//: In this movie, one of the most stylistic motifs I saw was the duel in the beginning, when Harmonica faces off with the three men. In this scene, Leone used many variations of shots, of extreme face close ups, hip shots of the whole scene and the character's weapons, and also long and wide shots of the scenery and the whole showdown. These are thematic in Leone's movies, as many or most of his action duel scenes are shot in this way, with juxtapositions of long and close up shots.

11. //Once Upon a Time in the West//: In many of his movies, Leone likes to have a symbol that reappears through the movie, with an unknown purpose that is later revealed in the end. In //Once Upon a Time in the West,// this symbol or object is the harmonica that Harmonica carries around on his neck. Throughout the movie, the viewer does not know exactly what this object means, all they know is that the man is carrying it around and playing it, causing a rise of tension and suspense when he does that.

12. //Once Upon a Time in America//: One very interesting choice I saw in this movie was the match cut that occurs in the first 10 minutes of the film. This match cut is of the lamp next to the middle-aged Noodles, and then it zooms out to be a lamp in the middle of a street, where a scene showing the bodies of Noodle's old gang members. This match cut does not change the time period, as Noodles does not look different, but it changes the location, as Noodles is in a chinese relaxation shop before and on the street after. However, this match cut still has a significance on the movie as a whole: Noodles is no longer in his safe comfortable world, and has now entered the real world, which is full of death, darkness, and despair. This time-jumping and contrast of lighting is one of Leone's stylistic motifs, as he uses match cuts like this to change locations and/or change the time period of his movies.

13. //Once Upon a Time in America//: One symbol that repeatedly appeared in this film was the suitcase of money. This can be symbolic of their childhood goal to reach success and pull themselves out of the lower class. It is a symbol of pride, hard work, poverty, and richness at the same time. The briefcase can be seen as the final reward of their life, which is to be redeemed when they grow up. The money inside of it shows their effort in trying to get themselves out of the dirty and poor sector of new york, even if it is tainted due to their involvement in gangs.