Once Upon a Time in the West (1968)

ONCE UPON A TIME IN THE WEST

DIRECTED BY: SERGIO LEONE
WRITTEN BY: SERGIO LEONE AND SERGIO DONATI
REVIEWED FOR: 1001 MOVIES CLUB
OVERALL SCORE: 9.50/10

A strange gunman recognizable only by the harmonica he carries (Charles Bronson) teams up with a ruthless outlaw, Cheyenne (Jason Robards) to help Jill (Claudia Cardinale), a city girl prostitute who opts for a new life only to find her recent husband and his family dead at the hands of a well known killer, Frank (Henry Fonda).

If I were to go with a second director whose work I truly love after Kurosawa, Leone would likely hit right there at number 2. It's not that I think he's the greatest director of all time, it's rather that I've never seen a movie of his I would consider bad. And while Once Upon a Time in the West sits right on the outskirts of my top 100 films, have no fear it's about as close to a honorable mention as they come. I remember mostly the first time I watched it. Right off two things stood out to me: 1) It's about 15minutes longer than it needed to be and 2) I absolutely loved it. From Fonda as the evil murderer, to the social commentary on the transition of times, end of the west, and rise of the railroads. Once Upon a Time in the West is a narrative on revenge, new life, and the cost of a violent one.

Carried perfectly by 4 charismatic performances, it's safe to say I found little to complain about in the acting department. Fonda is a vision as the scruffy and violent Frank, a performance I'm sure few would expect from the seasoned veteran, and good guy character actor. While Robards is a hilarious echo of Tuco, with a bit more of a human flair, and Bronson is the perfect, Blondie-esque, quiet killer with his own motives... though not quite as much flair. Of course it would be a crime to not note that this is also the movie that introduced me to the vision that is Claudia Cardinale. She lights up every scene as the ex-prostitute seeking a new life only to be forced back into similar circumstances to save her life.

Though, like all his films, Leone's characters have more layers than you would imagine. Frank may be a mass murderer, but he dreams of being a business man, and a respectable man... within his own limits. Frank's boss, dreams of seeing the pacific ocean before he dies. Jill dreams of having a nice, pleasant, family oriented life. While our two heroes (or anti-heroes - depending on point of view) seem to want very little. Harmonica wants to kill Frank, for reasons we are not privy to, until the very end. While Cheyenne seems to just not like people taking advantage of others, or himself. There's a lot of layers to it all, and Leone handles it with that beautiful character love you'd come to expect from him. Sure there's some questionable points on morality, and men and women in the west, but it's really not about that. From his unique character introductory melody to the somber tales, and aspiring hopes, Once Upon a Time in the West is a film about the cost of following your dreams... and still having to pay for your past.

It may not be absolutely perfect, and it's a bit of a far stretch from The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly, but Leone's tale of the final days of the west is a beautiful, intriguing, and episodic look at the intersecting lives of gunmen.

Duck, You Sucker (1971)

DUCK, YOU SUCKER (a.k.a. A FISTFUL OF DYNAMITE)

DIRECTED BY: SERGIO LEONE
WRITTEN BY: SERGIO LEONE, LUCIANO VINCENZONI, & SERGIO DONATI
ORIGINALLY REVIEWED: APRIL 18, 2009
OVERALL SCORE: 7.50/10

Juan Miranda (Rod Steiger) is a low life scum who spends his days robbing stagecoaches, killing its rich inhabitants, and raping women with his many illegitimate children. After a successful robbery one day he comes across an Irish dynamite expert, John Malloy (James Coburn). The two get off to a very rocky start, but are quickly thrust into the middle of the Mexican Revolution, one by choice, the other by accident. Seeking out very different things in life, John and Juan become an unlikely but capable team in aiding the Revolution.

From the opening Mao Tse-Tung quote on the troubles of revolution, to the first shot of Juan urinating on group of beetles, it's clear right off the bat this western is not your typical Sergio Leone. Juan is a despicable character, using his family only for his own profit, and having raped a women no more than 15 minutes into the film. John on the other hand, keeps to himself, and only through extended flashbacks do we learn more about his dark past (ala Once Upon a Time in the West Style/Few Dollars More style).

Even for all Juan's faults, he maintains a quasi-Tuco style to life which makes him entertaining, and as the film moves, his character grows into the sympathetic character we find in the films finale. John on the other hand takes a very intriguing, Blondie-esque, trait as the always two steps ahead of the game intellectual character. With neither character we get a solid background, even John's backstory is quite complex, and ambiguous. Yet for all the films characters, it takes a long time to get where it's going. Much of the opening half of the film is spent developing the relationship between John and Juan. How they seek to use each other for personal gain, while Leone spends his time developing a series of gags and situations for them to fall victim too.

Sergio Leone delivers some great directing moments, combining a sort of comical flair for the first hour, while a darker, more painful use of camera work towards the later half. At the backdrop, Ennio Morricone's score is much more quirky than his previous Leone collaborations, but by the end of the film I was completely sold on it. The great weakness of Duck, You Sucker is that its opening hour is just spread far too thin. It's unable to sustain the greatest of interest, but once the PoW scene kicks in, Leone goes into overdrive and delivers a final 1 and a half as good as any I've ever witnessed. It's painful, epic, moving, allowing us to develop a strange connection to these oddball characters, while they themselves grow closer as a pair. A poignant tale on the tragedy of revolution.

The all too often overlooked, Duck, You Sucker, is a powerful and epic tale (despite its title) of two complete opposite characters, and a harsh look at Leone's personal perspective on revolutions.