Sometimes in a movie, if you know what you're doing, you can accomplish a great deal with very little. Films like Star Wars, Jaws, and Halloween became blockbuster smashes despite touting very little in funding or big name stars, and with a talented director, a good crew, and competent actors, you can make fantastic films that resound with the audience better than all the CGI dick punching robots in the Transformers franchise can. Nowhere is this philosophy more apparent than in on particular scene from the Sergio Leone classic The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly: The Mexican Standoff.
This is literally a scene where three guys stand around doing nothing for almost five minutes and it's still one of the tensest, most exciting, and most brilliant scenes in the history of cinema. The subtle looks between Tuco and Blondie tell more of a story than all the dialogue in the world could ever accomplish, and the musical score conveys more power and exhilaration than most action scenes from any summer blockbuster can. Remember a few weeks ago when I said that a scene is 60% music, well this score proves how a good scene can really be amped up with some good, fitting music.
Here is an example of how proper film making can turn what is more or less an action-less scene and turn it into something thrilling and enthralling. If you were to try to describe this scene to someone who has never seen the actual film it would go something like "It's basically a scene where three guys stare at each other for about five minutes and then one of them shoots another one". It sounds awful, but in the proper context it comes across perfect because something so simple accomplishes so much in the long run of the film. It's an action that leads to something, and it harkens back to my first article on the new blog (http://gump-o-rama.blogspot.com/2011/08/my-thoughts-on-action.html) about how every action should have a purpose.
William Shakespeare once wrote that "Brevity is the soul of wit", and while he was actually talking about the written word, this philosophy can apply just as well to properly and simply directed scenes in movies. Keeping it simple can help accomplish miracles when it comes to conveying emotional associations in film, and it's about high time Hollywood begins to remember that.
I enjoy sending my readers to great movie review sites, so for anyone reading this you should give the Weekend Ronin a shot. They have been kind enough to feature this blog on the show, and their knowledge of film is second to none.
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https://www.facebook.com/pages/reeljunkies/83743065918
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