Author(s)

Siyao Liu ¹

Affiliation(s)

¹ The University of Edinburgh (Edinburgh College of Art), Edinburgh, Scotland, United Kingdom

Corresponding Author

Siyao Liu

ABSTRACT

This study analyzes Sergio Leone's Once Upon a Time in the West (1968) to explore how deliberate audiovisual misalignment reshapes cinematic storytelling. Through close examination of diegetic sound design, research found that Leone subverts visual dominance by positioning sound as an autonomous narrative agent. Key sequences (e.g., the train station ambush and McBain massacre) demonstrate techniques such as anempathetic sound, synchresis, and repetitive musical themes that generate tension, foreshadow violence, and convey psychological depth independently of imagery. By dissynchronizing auditory and visual information, the film constructs a sonic architecture where dissonance redirects audience perception, challenges classical hierarchies, and enables sound to drive plot and build empathy. This redefines sound's role from subsidiary element to coequal narrative force in Western cinema.

KEYWORDS

Audiovisual Misalignment, Once Upon a Time in the West, Film Music, Soundscape, Sound Design

CITE THIS PAPER

Siyao Liu, Misaligned Audiovisual Relationship: Analysis Report of Once Upon a Time in the West (1968). Art and Performance Letters (2025) Vol. 6: 113-119. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.23977/artpl.2025.060217.

REFERENCES

[1] Once Upon a Time in the West, Sergio Leone, Italy, 1968.
[2] Brian Kane. (2014) Sound Unseen: Acousmatic Sound in Theory and Practice. New York: Oxford University Press. 1–15.
[3] Rick Altman. (1992) Sound Theory, Sound Practice. New York: Routledge. 252.
[4] Michel Chion. (2008) The Voice in Cinema. New York: Columbia University Press. 27.
[5] Mark Durrand. (2017) 'Hearing and Seeing with Sergio Leone's Once Upon a Time in the West (1968), Toward Dispelling Audio-Visual Hierarchy', Music and the Moving Image, 10, 2, 46–61. Doi: 10.5406/musimoviimag.10.2.0046.
[6] Nick Crossley. (1993) 'The Politics of the Gaze: Between Foucault and Merleau-Ponty', Human Studies, 16, 4, 399–419.
[7] Claudia Gorbman. (1980) 'Narrative Film Music', Yale French Studies, 60, 183–203. Doi:10.2307/2930011.
[8] 'Harmonica', composed by Ennio Morricone, arranged by Thibaut Trosset. (1968) Musicnotes. Available from: https://www.musicnotes.com/sheetmusic/mtd.asp?ppn=MN0262261 (Accessed: October 18 2024).
[9] Ennio Morricone. (1970) 'Man with a Harmonica'. Nashville: Sony Music Publishing, Available from: https://www.sheetmusicplus.com/en/product/man-with-the-harmonica-21758854.html?aff_id=728965 (Accessed: 18 October 2024). 
[10] 'Man with a Harmonica' [live concert], Ennio Morricone, The Metropole Orchestra. (2017) Netherlands. Available from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=udIY_3s4_XQ (Accessed: 18 October 2024).

Sponsors, Associates, and Links

---

• Journal of Language Testing & Assessment
  
  
• Information and Knowledge Management
  
  
• Military and Armament Science
  
  
• Media and Communication Research
  
  
• Journal of Human Movement Science
  
  
• Lecture Notes on History
  
  
• Lecture Notes on Language and Literature
  
  
• Philosophy Journal
  
  
• Science of Law Journal
  
  
• Journal of Political Science Research
  
  
• Journal of Sociology and Ethnology
  
  
• Advances in Broadcasting