The timelessness of Once Upon a Time in the West (1968)

Ennio Morricone’s death in July 2020 brought tears to my eyes and if my social media feeds were anything to go by, I wasn’t alone. The iconic Italian film composer left far too grand a legacy to go into in just a few words and his film scores are far too iconic to pick just the one as your favorite…

But if pressed, I would say Jill’s Theme from Once Upon a Time in the West (1968, dir. Sergio Leone) is probably, possibly, my favorite of all the scores Morricone blessed us with, along with that of The Untouchables (see, I can’t choose!). Sure, The Good, The Bad and The Ugly (1966, Leone) might be his most famous one, The Hateful Eight (2015, dir. Quentin Tarantino) is the only one he won an Oscar for, and the aforementioned The Untouchables (1987, dir. Brian De Palma) the most euphoric. But there is something so special about Jill’s Theme.

And if it’s true what they say about a film score complementing the film (Leone himself said Morricone was the best ‘script writer’ he’d ever worked with), then that’s certainly the case with Once Upon a Time in the West.

What’s it about?

With a plot not entirely clear until about forty-five minutes into it, Once Upon a Time in The West follows Harmonica (Charles Bronson), a mysterious man who is even more inscrutable than Clint…