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Tear Jerker / Once Upon a Time in the West

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  • The famous "crane-on-a-crane" shot at the station when Jill arrives at Flagstone. Ennio Morricone flexes his italano melodrama muscles, and your eyes get a bit misty.
  • Frank killing off Jill's nice new family. Especially because she doesn't know, and is looking forward to her new life. She's understandably horrified when she arrives.
    • To make matters worse, she's clearly pining for Brett for the rest of the film. It's implied that she's looking for him a bit in Cheyenne and Harmonica, but the fact of the matter is that Brett is dead and he's not coming back. And she never even got to meet her stepkids.
  • The death of Cheyenne. The fact that he kept his composure the entire time he was with Jill and doesn't break it until she's out of sight, and that he tells Harmonica to look away so that he can die alone is really gut-wrenching.
    • And he didn't even get to say a proper goodbye to Jill. She's so busy serving the railway workers that she doesn't notice Harmonica riding away with Cheyenne's body on his horse. And she may never find out about his death.
    "Hey, Harmonica. When they do you in, pray it's somebody who knows where to shoot."
  • The death of Mr. Morton. The sight of it is tragic enough, even more so if you knew what he wanted to do before his death.
  • The flashback before the duel. A young Harmonica carries his older brother on his shoulders, who has a noose to his neck, and gets hanged the moment he kicks Harmonica away to spare him the guilt of letting him die. All orchestrated by Frank with a sadistic glee. It also makes Harmonica's theme much harsher upon re-watching. The sound of the harmonica on the soundtrack is basically Harmonica breathing through the harmonica fighting to keep his brother alive. And whenever he's shown playing the harmonica as an adult, he's basically reliving the worst moment of his life, keeping his hatred of Frank raw.
  • Right before Harmonica leaves, he tells Jill that someday Sweetwater will be a heck of a town. She then asks him if he'll come back, to which he gives her a look and the smile fades from her face. After a pause, he replies, "Someday". It's a beautifully underplayed scene and the look is an unspoken fact - he's probably never coming back, and they both know it.

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