ONCE UPON A TIME IN THE WEST萬里狂沙萬里仇
我的精選
OVER THE PAST year, My Choice has highlighted films that film experts love. For my final issue at Discovery, I’ve been given the chance to recommend a favourite of my own.
Popular opinion is that The Good, the Bad and the Ugly is Sergio Leone’s masterpiece, but I believe that Once Upon a Time in the West is not only the Italian director’s best work but one of the best films ever made. This epic about revenge, resilience and manifest destiny is essentially film school wrapped up in a single package.
The two extended sequences in the first 30 minutes – a train station ambush and a family massacre – are examples of great pacing and use of sound. Listen to how Leone uses continuous noises to create a sense of harmony, then study how the methodical pacing and silence subtly rack up tension to almost unbearable levels.
The harmonica refrain played by Charles Bronson’s nameless cowboy is the perfect example of leitmotif – a recurring theme that is tied to a certain character (think The Imperial March for Darth Vader in Star Wars). While composer Ennio Morricone’s Ecstasy of Gold from The Good, the Bad and the Ugly is a masterpiece, nothing beats the emotional impact of learning how the harmonica tune ties into the story.
That reveal happens in the sevenminute final duel. The entire sequence has only two lines of dialogue, but it’s able to convey the most important twist of the film. It also makes brilliant use of the Kuleshov effect, in which a second image gives meaning to a previous image. Leone cuts from Bronson’s cold gaze to a nearly silent flashback of the event that shaped his character. When the gaze reappears, the audience sees it as a reaction to the events in the flashback. Those eyes are now determined and full of fury.
Once Upon a Time in the West is also filled with the hallmarks of a great spaghetti western: amoral cowboys, snappy comebacks and extreme close-ups. It reminds me why I love films and why I wanted to make films in the first place.
過去一年，本欄邀來多位電影人介紹一部他們心愛的電影；適逢本期是我編輯的最後一期《Discovery》，就讓我趁此機會推介一部我喜愛的電影吧。坊間普遍認為《獨行俠決鬥地獄門》是Sergio Leone的經典傑作，但我認為《萬里狂沙萬里仇》才是這位意大利導演的畢生力作，更是電影史上數一數二的佳品。這部電影將復仇、重建家園、命運自主等題材交織成氣魄宏大的史詩式作品，堪稱西部片的典範。
影片開始是火車站內進行伏擊與滅門慘案，這兩場戲相當長，佔去影片頭半小時的篇幅，但已顯示對節奏的掌握及聲音運用的巧妙。Leone利用各種不同的環境聲音來營造尋常而和諧的感覺，然後又利用有條不紊的節奏與寂令張力不斷增加，達到令人幾近難以承受的地步。
由Charles Bronson飾演的無名牛仔，在片中一再吹奏的口琴調子，有如《星球大戰》內Darth Vader出現時就會響起的〈The Imperial March〉一樣，可說是將音樂主題與某個角色連在一起的上佳示範。雖然配樂大師 Ennio Morricone 為《獨行俠決鬥地獄門》所作的〈Ecstasy of Gold〉是令人難忘的經典，但是本片中以口琴吹奏的曲調卻與故事情節緊扣，因此牽動情緒的力量是無可比擬的。
口琴曲調與劇情的關係，於片中最後生死決戰的一場戲中揭露；這場戲長達七分鐘，只有兩句對白，但卻是全片劇情最重要的轉折點。這一場戲亦將「庫勒雪夫效應」用得非常出色，這種剪接技法將兩個畫面連接在一起之後，第二個畫面會為前面的畫面賦予意義。Leone 將 Bronson 冷冰冰的眼神接到一段幾乎完全寂無聲的倒敘場面去，揭露一件將 Bronson 性格改變的事件。然後這冷冰冰的眼神再次出現，現在這雙眼眼神堅定，而且充滿憤怒，讓觀眾意識到這是對倒敘中昔日事件的反應。
一部優秀的意式西部片應有的特色，《萬里狂沙萬里仇》可說幾乎齊備：是非不分的牛仔、意氣風發地東山再起的主角，以及距離極近的大特寫鏡頭等。這部電影再次提醒我為何我喜愛電影，以及為何生起拍電影的念頭。