Once upon a time in the west

This thriller film uses a lot of different things in order to make it seem tense, dangerous and exciting. For instance the characters that they use, the props they have/wear, the way some of them walk and sounds or music.

Within the first few seconds of the film their is no dialogue whatsoever but the scene is not quiet, you can hear a few things at the beginning of the opening. Some of them include:
The wind - which creates a kind of tension as it sounds like screaming and it also lets the audience know that the place is deserted.
Chalkboard - the chalk that scratches on the blackboard give an eeriness to the scene making you wonder whats going to happen.
A bird in a cage - there is a bird that keeps making a high pitch noise that almost sounds like a scream which could mean that he is trying to warn his owner due to the fact that it is scared.

Their are cowboys positioned at each door way which stops the audience from looking out of the cabin which makes them feel trapped and isolated. The old man behind the counter is weak, small and timid compared to the cowboys who are wearing strong clothes and a gun each, these show that the characters are quite powerful or dominant. As the cowboys walk slowly towards the man you can see only there feet which again shows you that they are strong characters.

The director also uses symbols in order to give you even more clues on the characters, these include:
-The cowboys have guns that are clearly shown to the audience this shows that they are powerful characters and that there may be danger coming up within the movie.
-The cowboys are wearing dark clothing this usually means that they are villains this is very symbolic because you know that black represents evil and white good so as soon as you see their clothing you can quickly identify who is the villain and who is the hero.
-The cowboys are both wearing cowboy hats this shows that they are actually cowboys and they are a well known symbol as soon as you spot you know exactly who that character is.

Diegetic sound means that it is natural to the film e.g. wind, voice etc. Non diegetic sound means that it has been added to the movie e.g. music etc.

This film is similar to another thriller western known as “no country for old men”. These are the fact that they are both set along the lines of the western genre, the characters are similar and the following:

The weapon that the cowboys wear, which are guns which shows that thy are powerful.
The lack of dialogue in both films.
The locations are both deserted and alone.
The feeling that you have when you watch the film, the fact that you feel scared, nervous, excited etc.

As you can see there are a few different ways that the director purposely shows the audience symbols etc in order to give clues to what may happen and to what the characters are like. He could also be using them to make you watch the clip a few times i order to identify what they are.