Eric’s Guide Through Sergio Leone Films
5.)”Once Upon A Time in the West
After having put everything he thought he had into “The Good, The Bad and The Ugly” Sergio Leone was ready to move on from westerns. He found a gangster book called “The Hoods” and fell in love with it. However, getting it made would take a long time. United Artist was only interested if he agreed to make one more western for them. “The Good, The Bad and The Ugly” had been such a huge hit for them that they wanted another even bigger film. So Leone set out to make his ultimate western. Still the man had basically created the spaghetti western where do you go from there? They decided they were going to do the ultimate tribute to the American westerns of John Ford. This is the first time Leone filmed in America. While much of it is still filmed in Spain and has that southwest vibe of spaghetti westerns it was filmed in the great Monument Valley and stuffed with all sorts of John Ford references.
Leone also finally got to fulfill his dream and hire Henry Fonda. It’s an all-star cast with one of the most famous nice guy actors, Henry Fonda playing the villain. Charles Bronson taking on the role I’m sure Eastwood would have played had he accepted. Jason Robards as our world-weary comedy relief. Lastly, we have Claudia Cardinale as our first major female lead of a Leone film. One the surface she may be the standard whore with a heart of gold trope, but they give her a lot of character. Now she’s already one of the great beauties, but you pair her with a visual master like Sergio Leone and man does she end up looking as gorgeous as the epic visuals of the landscape. He even does the same with Charles Bronson. Let’s just say he may not have been a pretty man, but boy did he have a unique looking face and we get the closest close-up ever.
For the last couple of films Leone and Morricone tried to record all the score before filming, but never could. Here, they were able to make it work. As a result each character has their own theme that follows them around. At first it may seem a bit lazy and repetitive, but give it time and I think you’ll find it works. Now I’ll say that I didn’t like the movie at first. It’s really long and can be a bit hard to follow with the inner workings of this mystery they’re trying to figure out. Multiple viewings make it clearer although I still feel some of it could have been filmed in ways to not make it drag. Other than that if you can get into the slower pace it’s a great western. This film marked a turning point for Sergio Leone as his films would get more mature. That’s fine, but personally I do prefer the more carefree style of storytelling from the Dollars Trilogy. That’s just personal tastes though.
Eric’s Advice: See it, but be warned it’s going to be a slow burn and may take another viewing or two to fully appreciate it.
6.)”Duck, You Sucker!
Now there are some who may take issue with this article as it is missing some films that it is claimed Sergio Leone directed either under a fake name or as a meddling producer. I decided I just wanted to discuss the films we know without a shadow of a doubt he directed as the main credited director. This film could have fallen into that, but it was released as a Sergio Leone film so it’s here. You see this was at time Leone was trying to get his passion project made. He was writing and producing this film, but it was always intended to be directed by Peter Bogdanovich. The exact reason varies according to whom you ask, but we do know Bogdanovich left and Leone took over.
Let’s go over that crazy title. “Duck, You Sucker!” is an Americanization of an Italian phrase Giu la Testa which literally translates to “keep your head down, balls.” I guess Leone believed in transitive property in language because he was CERTAIN this must be a phrase we say to each other in America. Despite all the American actors explaining to him that wasn’t the case. The best title of the film is the French one, “Once Upon A Time… The Revolution.” It fits in with the themes of the film itself and the film’s placement in Leone’s second trilogy the Once Upon a Time trilogy. Still the titles were too long or weird for United Artist so they released it as “A Fistful of Dynamite.” I think you can guess why. So with spaghetti westerns there’s a subset of films that especially deal with politics usually using the Mexican revolution as a backdrop. This is Leone’s take on this form of spaghetti western.
It may have a lot to say politically, but it can also be a bit overly long. The first half suffers from deleted scenes that make it a bit hard to follow. The actors Rod Steiger and James Coburn are great, but I can’t help but think of the other choices they had which were Eli Wallach and Jason Robards. Man those two would have been great together in these roles. There are still some amazing scenes. I think my favorite is when Rod Steiger’s character finds that his entire family has been killed in an ambush with some rebels. It’s a great shot of him walking through the grotto seeing all of his children’s dead bodies. Now similar to Tuco this character often obsessively does the sign of the cross all through the film. He goes to do it after seeing all the kids dead. Stops, then looks up at God with the cruelest expression possible. So well-done without any dialog.
Eric’s Advice: Not so much of a Skip it, but also not a must see either. Some issues may be too much, but if you’re a completionist like myself then there are far worse films out there to force on yourself.
7.)”Once Upon A Time in America
At first glance this may seem like a “The Godfather” ripoff. Sergio Leone was indeed offered the directing job on that film, but declined due to the similarities with this project. He later regretted it, but I think history worked itself out nicely. While they’re both gangster epics they aren’t terribly similar. The best way I can describe the film is that it’s like an in-between of the romantic depictions of old gangster life in “The Godfather” and grittier nastier depictions of the more lowlife mobsters in “Goodfellas.” Although even that cheapens it a bit because this film is still very much its own thing. The story is about the life of two best friends/gangsters played by Robert De Niro and James Woods. They’re both fantastic and really feel like old friends.
The first half of this film is basically seeing them grow up and become made men. It’s all to support the second half of the movie about the decline in their friendship and this very “Great Gatsby”-ish personal story. The city doesn’t provide Leone with as many chances for the sweeping visuals of the west like what we’re used to, but there are still plenty of damn impressive ones throughout. Because the film takes place in different times some of it is modern and it’s really weird to see Leone film modern locations with stuff like The Beatles playing. Now you may remember in “Once Upon A Time in the West” I said that film marked when Leone’s films got more grown-up. Well it was also the time where studios began ruining his films. His films from “West” to “Duck, You Sucker!” all had major changes forced on them in the editing. In the case of this film they ordered it in chronological order and cut out almost half of the movie. It of course flopped until they re-released Leone’s true cut that critics who originally panned the film later put this version on their top films of the decade lists.
This ended up being Leone’s final film and the ambiguous ending seems oddly appropriate. Despite starting his career which had itself led to a directing career, he and Clint Eastwood had a falling out. Leone had made some petty remarks comparing Eastwood unfavorably to De Niro. Eastwood is typically the kind to not engage with people coming after him. So they went their own ways. However, it is said that before Sergio Leone died Eastwood did come to see him and the two men managed to patch things up. Sergio Leone died as he had lived working on plans for this next film, a true filmmaker and storyteller.
Eric’s Advice: See it, but remember it is a LONG film. Use the break in the DVDs to maybe stretch your legs.
