Group Analysis

The scene begins with an extreme long shot to establish the vast environment. The camera zooms out as the character comes forward continuing to show how open the plains are. The character is very small here, which further highlights how large the area is. In the same long take, a cart, horse and then series of holes are shown. The long take joins them all together in the same landscape. The diegetic sound of the man's mumbling comes into shot before he does, telling us (along with the movement of the dirt) that there is somebody in the environment before we see him, bent over and digging. The scene then cuts to the horse and cart again, and the tiny spec of the rider comes into the shot on the left. The close up of the digger's face as he kneels up shows his panic as the rider gets closer. Non diegetic sound then hightens tension as he gets up and grabs his gun. There is a closer long shot of the rider as they get nearer. The digger stations himself behind the cart and aims. There is then an eyeline match as we get a POV of the gun, central to the shot, aiming at the oncoming rider. The horse veers off of the centre of the frame as the rider falls, signalling disorder. The screen is split in half in the next shot by the horizon, the rider in the foreground and the digger running up to them. The camera tilts and gets lower to the ground as the digger bends over, before the scene cuts to a high angle close up of the rider as they turn over and hit the digger. The action match as he falls in the direction of the hit makes it flow more.
The rider, now standing, then advances slowly on the digger. This is a low angle shot, exerting dominance in the shot as the digger looks up at her. They are also in a silhouette, which creates mystery and tension - we are unable to identify them. The sun behind her is important, as after the 'shot reverse shot' of the digger lying on the ground, it can be seen through the bullet hole in her hat, which is also visible in the shadow of the shot before. The rider then throws the hat down onto the camera in this POV shot, which covers the digger's face, creating darkness. The digger sits up, but is still on the ground, and we can see from his point of view the rider getting on their horse in a low angles shot. We are still unable to see their face. In a long shot as the digger gets up, we can see that he has been chained to the cart. As he is on a third, much of the background is visible, showing how alone he is. There is then a close up on the rider as she puts on his hat - a very casual reveal which introduces her attitude to gender roles - she doesn't care. The low angle shot of the horse rearing in the centre of the frame again shows dominance. She then rides off into the distance, as the camera stays (stuck) with the trapped man, which shows his isolation as the only other human anywhere close disappears into the landscape.
The shot then fades to black, and the new shot is introduced as the camera pans from  behind a gravestone. The rider is in a graveyard, and the long shot allows a lot of the scenery to be shown. Again, she is moving from left to right, showing some kind of journey. The music here is slow, with long notes, showing the calm in the area. Another gravestone covers the scene, and when we are able to see again, there is a hanged man. The gravestone transition is used again, this time to a fence which says 'Redemption' - presumably the name of the town, and in a typical cliché, probably what she is truly looking for on her journey. The name takes up the whole frame, highlighting its importance. The whole of this short section is typical iconography of the Western genre. After a close up of the rider's face, we see a long shot of the graveyard.  In the top right corner, a opening in the clouds shows a large mount of light, reminiscent of many biblical paintings. The path through the gravestones leads directly there, and again her being on the left signifies a journey towards this 'heavenly' destination - redemption?
A group of riders tears past the lone woman, yelling and kicking up dust. The cut to the trashed marshall's office indicates a lack of order, a lawless town, and the extreme close up to her eyes shows her figuring this out. The hanged man jumps to mind - was this the marshall? And was he lynched by a group of outlaws? The dust clears in a long shot, and she moves on. There is another long shot as she rides into the empty town, showing how desolate it is. A man is working on a coffin, adding more death imagery to the piece. As he lifts it up, it covers the rider as she carries on - possibly foreshadowing her own death.
As she rides through the street, we see a small girl looking out of the window. This image of innocence and purity is then contrasted with a balcony of sleaze, with a fat, richer looking man and a group of (probably) prostitutes. Both are staples of the Western genre - the innocent victim, and the corrupt businessman with his harem from the local saloon. The close ups of the rider that had interjected these shots become a mid shot, as she shows her gun to him as a warning.
A crane shot from above again shows the abandoned-looking town, another common feature of the genre.