This is my gun, Sergio Leone

Here’s the deal: Once Upon a Time in the West and The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly are two of the best films ever made. So, if you haven’t seen them, please, get yourself the Northwest Film Center’s Whitsell Auditorium (1219 S.W. Park Ave.) and feast on these cinematic delights from director Sergio Leone.

At the end of the era of great big American Westerns, it took an Italian director to perfect the genre. Leone contemplated the violence of history with an even, steady hand like few other filmmakers ever have, and his perfect craft only burnished his legend. Both of these films are beautiful, crucial pieces of work.

But enough fawning—here’s a comparison of two of the greatest Westerns ever committed to film.

Once Upon a Time in the West
Sunday, Feb. 1, 6:30 p.m.

Italian title: C’era una volta il West
Year of release: 1968
Running time: 165 minutes

Leading man: Charles Bronson. He of Deathwish fame gets his revenge on as hot-shit gunman with a penchant for playing a chilling harmonica melody. In a career made up of playing badasses, the quiet rage of this role suits Bronson best.

“He not only plays. He can shoot too.”

Villain: Playing wonderfully against type, Henry Fonda as the cold-blooded killer Frank is icy in his evil. Is it more painful when someone with a handsome face and blue eyes shoots you in the gut?

“My weapons might look simple to you … but they can still shoot holes big enough for our little problems.”

Music: Ennio Morricone was a longtime collaborator with Leone—and his work in this film especially raises his place in music history. That mournful harmonica sounds exactly like the raw expanse of a still-expanding West, and the bloody hand it entails.

Plot device: Standing in as a clear representation of Manifest Destiny, the railroad and its maniacal advancement is part and parcel killing machine and redemption. Stand in its way and be crushed, latch on for a ride and you might just survive.

The Good, The Bad, The Ugly
Tonight, 7 p.m.

Italian title: Buono, il brutto, il cattivo., Il
Year of release: 1967
Running time: 180 minutes

Leading man: As Blondie, The Man With No Name, and standing in for “the good” of the title, Clint Eastwood perfected his Western archetype here with an under-spoken menace. Gruff persona and all, his character has a confused moral compass and a gun, and uses them together.

“Every gun makes its own tune.”

Villain: Lee Van Cleef as Angel Eyes, a torturous Union Army sergeant who will stop at nothing to get his way; a classic sociopath who connives and schemes and fails.

“Oh I almost forgot. He paid me a thousand. I think his idea was that I kill you.”

Music: Again Ennio Morricone contributes a tune—and this one, a whistle-based number, has come to define the sound of Westerns. Even if you’ve never seen the movie, you’ve heard this score. It’s unfortunately become something of a cliché.

Plot device: Throughout the movie, each of the three character pillars are looking for a cache of Confederate gold buried in a graveyard, and are intertwined in their quest for riches. Turned on its head is the belief that the Union Army is always good—here, they are the evildoers.