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Claudia Cardinale: Characters
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Claudia Cardinale remembers her time working with Leone fondly and particularly likes her character's "grit, and her determination. She knows what she wants and she sticks to it until she gets it. You don't find many women's parts like that in Westerns".
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Later, in Leone's Once upon a Time in the West, Cardinale portrays Jill McBain, the new bride of murdered settler Brett McBain. Again, her character could be described as the object desired by the male figures in the film, but Jill McBain signifies much more within the context of the film's complex narrative, and within the genre of the Western itself. She represents the forces of civilization, as female characters often do in Westerns. The final scene depicts Jill providing water to the thirsty workers building the railroad (that other symbol of the taming of the west), implying that Jill will fulfill her husband's dream of running a railroad station. Her past life as a prostitute in New Orleans... recalls the less than desirable elements of civilization, which will inevitably follow the settlers. In this film, as in 8½, Cardinale's character carries symbolic, almost mythic connotations.
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In these movies Claudia showed more than adequate acting skills and always brought her characters to life. However, she was not a strong screen presence like Bette Davis or Barbara Stanwyck and was never able to dominate a film by the force of her screen personality. (On the other hand, she was always far better looking than Davis or Stanwyck, neither of whom would, when young, have been persuasive playing the kind of roles Claudia played.) Because Claudia was not a dominating screen presence and was willing to hide her own personality within a role, she was consistently underrated by a minority of critics who did not know the difference between acting talent and charisma.
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