“You know anything about a man goin’ around playin’ a
harmonica?” Jason Robards asks in Once Upon a Time in the West.
“He’s somebody you’d remember. Instead of talkin’, he plays—and
when he better play, he talks.”
Robards plays Cheyenne, one badass sonofabitch, and he’s referring
to an unnamed, even badder ass sonofabitch—who, appropriately
enough, is played by Charles Bronson. 1968’s Once Upon a Time in the
West isn’t Sergio Leone’s most famous film, most likely ’cause it
doesn’t star Clint Eastwood, but it’s a hell of a picture, with all of
the tough, melodramatic hallmarks of Leone’s great spaghetti westerns,
with a style that makes much of his other work look lesser in
comparison. But while West also features a great villain (Henry
Fonda) and a story by the dream team of Leone, Bernardo Bertolucci, and
Dario Argento, it’s being highlighted this week in the Northwest Film
Center’s Reel Music film festival for an entirely different reason:
Ennio Morricone’s music.
Also featured is what might be Leone’s most famous film, 1966’s
The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly, which does star Eastwood
(along with Eli Wallach and Lee Van Cleef), and also boasts an amazing
score from Morricone.
Which brings us back to that harmonica: In West, Bronson’s
plaintive harmonica is as much a character as any of the film’s
flesh-and-blood subjects. Which makes sense, really: It’s pretty much
impossible to think of a director/composer collaboration more
distinctive and natural than that of Leone and Morricone, who made six
films together. One can’t see Leone’s sun-baked images without hearing
Morricone’s stunning music, and one can’t hear Morricone’s distinctive
scores without thinking of Bronson or Eastwood, squinting their eyes
before sending bullets right where they need to go.
Crammed with lost treasure, grim heroes, smokin’ hot whores, and the
comforting sight of henchmen’s bodies tumbling from rooftops,
West and The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly aren’t just two
of the coolest movies ever made—they’re also some of the best
examples of exactly how gripping, fun, and impressive film can be when
sounds and images perfectly combine.
