Pain and Peace
Leone shows Angel Eyes slamming Tuco's fingers into Bill Carson's tabacco case and trapping him in chains to which Tuco screams. As he is beaten by one of Angel Eye's men we see soldiers playing peaceful music outside. The imagery creates a stark contrast as what is happening to Tuco is accompanied by the soft music which does not match the rage. Leone is able to create an atmosphere where beauty is destroyed for the soldiers because they know a man is being beaten while they play.
Shaky POV
After Angel Eyes kills a man and his son, we see the wife come in to see her husband and son murdered in their home. Leone uses his camera to create her emotional perspective as it begins to wobble before falling to the floor just like her. It's a camera movement that evokes emotion through the imagery.
Closed In
In the opening of the film, three men are walking into a town in order to kill Tuco. No words are spoken and Leone tracks the men towards the building Tuco is in. As they move towards it we see them framed between the tight spaces between the buildings. The imagery evokes a sense of claustrophbia and builds tension for what is about to happen as we the audience can feel what is about to happen through what is on the screen.
Lonely Nature of War
Tuco is taken aboard a Union train as a prisoner. Just before he is, we see soldiers lined up on both sides of the tracks and then Leone shows the train leaving the station with a canon on the back and all of the men now gone from the sides. The imagery reveals the loneliness of war, and how quickly men can be taken away. And Leone stays on the train just long enough to evoke the emotion of being alone and the price paid for war through the composition.
