The first time I’ve read the entire thread on my favourite SW.
Some people wondered why Cheyenne attacked Morton, and why he did’t kill him when he had the chance earlier in the film.
I think Once upon a time in the west is a film about transition, about the Old West that is dying and is about to be replaced by the New West. Note that the Italian title is C’era una volta il West (which means Once upon a time the West). ‘C’era una volta’ is the opening line of many fairy tales in italian: c’era una volta … long, long time ago … in a country far, far away … Only this time we’re not talking about kings, princes and princesses, but about people who populated the Old West: the outlaw, the avenger, the man who-had-to-do-what-he-had-to-do: thir time is over and they wll be replaced by a world they do not really understand, the world of the Mortons and … the Jills - after all Leone is an Italian and a catholic, a mail-dominated world is replaced by a matriarchate …
Like to Harmonica, the avenger, to Cheyenne the outlaw, conflicts are personal matters: when he has the chance to kill Morton for the first time, Morton is still a personal opponent to him, something like a gang leader: with his man killed, he’s no longer a threat to him - he is, after all, a handicapped man who can’t even walk.
But in the course of the movie Cheyenne learns what’s going on: he’s not sent to town jail but to Yuma, he has learnt about the stupid red-haired Irishman that wasn’t stupid after all and Harmonica (who’s a bit more educated than he is) has introduced him in matters of law and jurisdiction. He understands that he lives in a West that is no longer his West, that his time is over. Still thinking in terms of man-to-man he attacks the man who responsable for all this, so he - Morton - shall die with him, even though he knows instinctively that this is useless - Morton is no individual in Cheyenne’s sense, he’s mister Cho Cho, he represents the train, the New west: you can’t kill Morton, cause other Mortons wil come and wipe the men of the Old West out.
For this reason the more educated harmonica rides off (like a Shane would do) into the sunset when he has killed Frank. The revenge that has consumed all his thoughts, has been executed, he has become obsolete too.
This theme, the dying of the Old West and men becoming obsolete, is also the theme of two other great westerns, Peckinpah’s The Wild Bunch and John Ford’s The Searchers. The tragedy of John Wayne’s character in The Searchers is that he, the old indian fighter, has outlived his own time: the door is locked behind his back, he is doomed to wander forever between the winds.