Once upon a time in the west

Once upon a time in the west

This opening is very long and slow paced but the director has scripted everything down to a fly. There are lots of annoying sounds in this opening including the fly, dripping water, knuckles cracking and a rickety old wind mill. The director layers up all of these sounds to create tension. It seems like a long time of nothing really exciting happening for the audience but this makes you appreciate the waiting of the characters in this scene.

After this long wait a train arrives and only one passenger gets of at the station the audience are intrigued by this character as he says nothing just plays on a harmonica there is a fire fight and the tension does not end here as we do not know whether or not this man was actually killed

This opening scene is a good demonstration of careful planning and how to build tension without music or dialogue, for this reason it is very effective and makes the audience excited about the rest of the film.