Use of sound in Once Upon a Time in The West

No dialogue to emphasise ambience and to show that characters are strong silent types who are bored and waiting for something/someone. Also builds up tension

Ambience (eg: birds chirping, wind rolling over hills) shows that they are in a rural location, no human activity nearby, creates a tense atmosphere between characters. Ambience appears edited in much like Foley

Foley (eg: Fly, rocking chair etc.) shows how silent and desolate the scene really is, how concentrated the men are and how irritating the fly is. It is so quiet that you can hear the water dripping onto man's head. Dog whimpering is loud to emphasise empathy, also emphasises the heat/conditions it lives in

Sound Motif (eg: water movement, telegram, fly etc.) used to show significance in scene as they all get interacted with. Volume of train shows that that too is significant as they may be waiting for it

Establishing sound (eg: wind, creaking) shows emptiness, sets mood and atmosphere of scene, shows that they're the only moving things (humans are still)

Here is the clip in mention (Skip to 4:00):

We originally watched this with our eyes closed, trying to note down what sounds we could hear. This helped up focus on the audio, without the visuals for distraction. We then had to analyse how this represented characters in the second viewing, which we did with video. We then analysed the sound and it's use in Foley, ambience etc. and how that created meaning