Yeah. Since we’re talking politics in the ‘seventies threads, here’s a fine little piece of genre entertainment with its tongue in cheek, heart on sleeve, and hand on Mao’s little red book, from 1971. Opening with a quote from the Chairman about the necessity of violence in a revolution, Duck plays sincerely and with silly abandon (often at the same time) with the mythologies of the bandit and the revolutionary.
It’s been out of print for a long time (and originally called A Fistful of Dynamite, which is fine but a whole lot less fun than the intended title, now restored); I’d never seen it–but it ranks up there with Leone’s other great films, and is perhaps leaner (at an economical 2.5 hours!) and funnier, but maybe also less beautiful and commanding in its images. If you can manage to get past the horrible accents of leads Steiger and Coburn (Mexican and Irish, respectively, both dialect-coached it seems by some seedy out-of-work actor from Glendale), it’s (ahem) a blast. (You can see in the newer Yuma some of the same sly pleasure in the wit possible in good genre filmmaking… but Leone’s films–even this not-superlative one–are playing in another league.)
This is really is a remarkable film. It would have made a good summer movie club choice. It is too flawed to rank up there with a true masterpiece like ‘Once Upon a Time in the West’ but it plays out on a much wider tableau than Leone’s other films. The accents are horrible (Steiger appears to be channeling Pacino in ‘Scarface’) and there is an early rape that seems completely unnecessary (why is it that European directors seem to think that working class justice justifies gender oppression? — see ‘Swept Away’).
Still, the themes of revolutionary betrayal, idealism and loss are dealt with very powerfully, and this film has a handful of incredible scenes. One, of a tragedy, plays out on the faces of Steiger and Coburn before the audience even knows that a tragedy has occurred. And the scenes of mass retributive violence, mostly by the Mexican government, but also by the revolutionary forces, are chilling. One has platoons of soldiers massacring civilians trapped in pits. The final train explosion is worthy of far more recent special effects technology.
And it all plays out against the backdrop of a Morricone score. One refrain is an overly sweet 1960’s pop melody that plays over Coburn’s memories of happier times, but also moments of sudden, shocking violence. What a film maker Leone is!