Glynn Marshes writes:

“. . . when it’s telling no story at all.”

From the video essay The Art of Editing in The Good, the Bad and the Ugly, a professorial analysis of the Trio scene. (Very professorial. Be prepared to be annoyed by the tone :-))

But here’s my question: was any of this done consciously by Leone? My guess is “no.” Absolutely not.

Acknowledged btw by the narrator (Max Tohline) at the end of the lesson when he asks

What else can editing do? As with all aesthetic questions about film, we can never really be sure what else will be until artists discover it.