Continuity mistake: In the train shoot-out Cheyenne shoots a man through his boot. When the boot appears first in the window it has a round tip, but when the gun goes off the tip is flat, as if it were pressed against the glass, only that the window has no glass. (01:28:50)
NancyFelix
21st Oct 2003
Once Upon a Time in the West (1968)
21st Oct 2003
Once Upon a Time in the West (1968)
Continuity mistake: During the last flashback that reveals Harmonica's issue with Frank and the significance of the harmonica, the harmonica in the boy's mouth is sometimes dented, sometimes not. (02:22:00)
21st Oct 2003
Once Upon a Time in the West (1968)
Continuity mistake: During the shoot-out between Harmonica and Frank lengths and directions of both opponents' shadows keep changing, e.g. when Frank drops his jacket. (02:17:40)
21st Oct 2003
Once Upon a Time in the West (1968)
Continuity mistake: When Harmonica shows up at Sweetwater, the bullet hole in his jacket that he received at the station is gone (gone, not mended.). (01:13:00)
21st Oct 2003
Once Upon a Time in the West (1968)
Other mistake: When Jill tries to leave Sweetwater in the morning after Cheyenne's visit, she runs into Harmonica. He has a very nasty, coarsely stitched injury in his cheek that is not accounted for, and for which there was no time to be received, stitched, and the stitches removed again. (Special Edition DVD has a deleted scene in which Harmonica is beaten up, which explains the injury, but it is a continuity mistake within the regular movie.) (01:12:25)
21st Oct 2003
Once Upon a Time in the West (1968)
Revealing mistake: In the morning after Cheyenne's visit Jill attempts to leave Sweetwater for the second time. She carries a lot of luggage to the stable, and it's very obvious that it's all empty. (01:11:30)
21st Oct 2003
Once Upon a Time in the West (1968)
Revealing mistake: When Jill offers herself to Cheyenne she puts down the kettle on the table so hard that the lid falls off. If you look closely (slow motion helps) you see the lid dangling by the knob between her fingers before she puts the kettle down. (01:03:10)
21st Oct 2003
Once Upon a Time in the West (1968)
Continuity mistake: When Frank's henchmen wait for Harmonica at the train station it's very windy. For example, you see the wires of the telegraph machine moving, and a string that's dangling in the window behind it is swaying wildly. Only in two shots, when the station agent gets locked up, the wires and the string are absolutely still, to start moving as before in the next shot. Desert wind wouldn't stop completely just for a few seconds. (00:02:40)
21st Oct 2003
Once Upon a Time in the West (1968)
Revealing mistake: Jack Elam gets bothered by a fly crawling over his face (nice stunt, actually). When the fly moves over the bench, just before he catches it with the muzzle of his gun, look at the hind legs. You'll notice that the fly is dead. (00:07:50)
21st Oct 2003
Once Upon a Time in the West (1968)
Continuity mistake: On the way to Sweetwater the cart goes through Monument Valley. There, the very long shadows of the cart and the rocks don't match the time Jill has left the station (some time after 10). A bit later, when they pass the construction site, the shadows are short and more fitting for the time of the day again. (00:29:00)
21st Oct 2003
Once Upon a Time in the West (1968)
Continuity mistake: After Jill's arrival at the train station she leaves by cart. The way the luggage is piled on back changes totally when they go through Monument Valley. There are reasons to believe that it's a different cart as also the horses seem to change (check the mane which changes colors and sometimes falls to the left, sometimes to the right). (00:29:00)
21st Oct 2003
Once Upon a Time in the West (1968)
Continuity mistake: Jill's arrival by train is quite badly edited: When she gets off, two porters carry her luggage to the station building. She looks at the station clock which shows 7:55, then down at her watch wich shows 10:10. This may indicate how the time has passed, but it looks strange. In the last shot her luggage is back at the tracks, and the porters pick it up again. (00:26:15)
21st Oct 2003
Once Upon a Time in the West (1968)
Continuity mistake: The whole scene in the post station takes about 12 minutes. During this time the bartender finishes his cigar almost completely, a task that takes at least 45 minutes if you smoke fast. In the very last shot the cigar is again much longer but half hidden in the hand, apparently to make it look shorter. (00:32:20 - 00:44:00)
21st Oct 2003
Once Upon a Time in the West (1968)
Revealing mistake: When Jill get's off the cart at the post station look how the light falls on the cart with the luggage and the rock in the background. It obviously comes from opposite directions. (00:31:05)
21st Oct 2003
Once Upon a Time in the West (1968)
Factual error: At the end of the post station scene Cheyenne advises Harmonica to "watch those false notes". Harmonica anwers this with a discordant chord that could not be produced on a harmonica like his. (00:43:35)
21st Oct 2003
Once Upon a Time in the West (1968)
Other mistake: At the end of the post station scene Cheyenne says to Harmonica: "Cheyenne's men don't get killed". The subtitles read "Cheyenne's, man, don't get killed", whatever that is supposed to mean. (00:42:30)
21st Oct 2003
Once Upon a Time in the West (1968)
Continuity mistake: The bullet hole in Harmonica's jacket changes size, shape, and degree of bloodiness during the scene at the post station. (00:36:35 - 00:42:45)
21st Oct 2003
Once Upon a Time in the West (1968)
Continuity mistake: When Jill arrives at the McBain killing scene a close-up shows her looking in shock at the corpses. There are long, untidy strands of hair hanging down from both temples. When she gets off the cart, only the hair on the right side is loose. (00:45:20)
21st Oct 2003
Once Upon a Time in the West (1968)
Continuity mistake: When Harmonica tells Cheyenne about the three men he killed at the train station, he is sipping from a cup. He is holding the cup in both hands with his fingertips touching, but in the last shot he is holding the cup by the handle. It's theoretically possible but looks wrong. (00:42:10)
21st Oct 2003
Once Upon a Time in the West (1968)
Plot hole: On her first night alone on the McBain farm, Jill hears someone playing a harmonica out there in the dark. She blows out a candle (but there is still plenty of light in the room), grabs a gun, positions herself at the brightly lit window, and shoots when the sees tha harmonica player lighting a match. This behavior is way too foolish for a women depicted as street-smart as Jill. (00:55:30)
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