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western #26, 'duck, you sucker.' [another day, another movie.]

By • On • In another day. another movie., scott • 1 min read

Duck, You Sucker, also known as, A Fistful of Dynamite, is more Leone. Sadly, it is the first time in my brief relationship with him when he completely let me down.

This movie was nonsensical. Rambling and at times incoherent, it was missing much of what I normally love about Leone.

Also, can anyone explain to me why two guys were watching as the other made out with the same girl? Those flashbacks were just inane, far too long, and mostly pointless since they never really explained how the girl played into the whole thing. I guess we are supposed to guess.

This one left Brian and myself scratching our heads that Leone could make something like this.

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western #22, 'once upon a time in the west.' [another day, another movie.]

By • On • In another day. another movie., scott • 1 min read

It is debated by many whether this or The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly should be considered Leone’s masterpiece. That all comes down to preference, because they are both masterpieces.

The opening scene is long, and brilliant, but after that there’s some time where it’s too slow and even a bit melodramatic. Fortunately, once it gets going, it’s pretty fantastic. More of the typical Leone artistry.

It’s long and epic, with multiple stories which interweave nicely. Yet, the visuals and score are where it’s really at. With so many absolutely stunning shots, and Morricone up to his old tricks, I could probably watch the movie without the dialogue track and be just fine (also, Claudia Cardinale doesn’t hurt in that regard).

Just Kurosawa and Leone are more than enough reason to be glad I did this!

Here is six minutes from the opening sequence.

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western #2, 'a fistful of dollars.' [another day, another movie.]

By • On • In Uncategorized • 1 min read

I wasn’t sure what I was going to think about A Fistful of Dollars. Directly adapting a brilliant film like Yojimbo without ever successfully getting the rights to do so is sketchy at best (Kurosawa sued and won, receiving 15% of the film’s take).

Yet, somehow, Sergio Leone is a good enough director that he made it work. There are certainly scenes and moments that just made me want to watch the original again (yes, already), but there was enough new delights thrown in that A Fistful of Dollars is a pretty good film in its own right.

There is a scene during the climax, where they use shots of only boots to set up the tension for the final gunfight. It’s been replicated and parodied so many times since that it has become cliché and is usually annoying. Yet it is done so well here that I was impressed and drawn in by it even though I live on the other side of the overuse. It was wonderful.

Eastwood really is a great Americanization of the wandering samurai character. When our nameless hero confronts the gang of douchebags in town, asking them to apologize to his horse for scaring it, he captured everything that was great about Mifune’s performance in Yojimbo. Basically, if you view it as an homage, it rocks, if you view it as ripping him off, it sucks. Eastwood’s personal character in the years since makes me lean toward homage, but I could just be blinding myself.

The one complaint about the actual filmmaking is that the dubbing was utterly terrible. I’m not sure if this was perhaps caused by the particular master used on the dvd, does anyone else know what I am talking about with the dubbing? It really was terrible, and  it would be surprising if it was released that way originally, especially in a film that is otherwise so meticulously crafted. Also, the day for night shots were a little silly as well, but they were limited by their era.

However, the rest of the film is pretty great;  the use of close-ups, Ennio Morricone’s score, Eastwood’s scowling mug being unleashed on the world at large.

It is still difficult to get past the fact that they totally ripped off Kurosawa, but it’s a great film otherwise.

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