Sergio Leone had come off four more or less brilliant westerns (the "Dollars Trilogy" and "Once Upon a Time in the West") and this looks like another, but it isn't. Set in 1913 we have motorcycles and automobiles alongside horse-drawn vehicles. In fact, if you take "The Good, the Bad and the Ugly" as chronologically (though not actually) his first western, one has a progression into the modern world. But while Leone's first four westerns were thoroughly groundbreaking; lyrical and both humorous and surpassingly brilliant in spots . . . this movie is a letdown. The stars, Rod Steiger an James Coburn, are nearly always watchable. Unfortunately, Coburn, while a fine actor, has problems with accents. Here he tries an Irish brogue (which is relatively more passable than his Australian accent in "The Great Escape"--barely on the good side of Dick van Dyke's cockney in "Mary Poppins"). Steiger's method acting conflicted with the director's requirements, but he got stuck with him (he wanted Eli Wallach but the studio thought Steiger more of a draw).What to make of this mess, which starts with a man urinating on ants (where is the SPCA--Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Ants?) and it's a roller-coaster ride of quality. Leone is still capable of great shots, such as when rifles burst in through a window on either side of Steiger's head. However, as with all Leone's flicks, unpleasant images abound. Not just urination, but rape, presented almost as a human need, and unnecessary nudity. I can't give a spoiler about the ending because, frankly, I didn't make it all the way through. I slept through lots of it and I doubt I'll revisit it.Leone could be a great director, but he often confused bloat with impressiveness. His smoothest movie was undoubtedly the equally unpleasant but also imminently watchable "Once Upon a Time in America"--more than ten years after this curious bit of confusion.I haven't seen "The Colossus of Rhodes"; but apart from that, of the movies where Leone is listed as sole director, "A Fistful of Dollars", "For Few Dollars More", "The Good, the Bad and the Ugly", "Once Upon a Time in the West" and "Once Upon a Time in America" are all pretty good films. And, as I said before, the "Dollars" movies were groundbreaking, forever changing our expectations from westerns."Duck, You Sucker" (aka "A Fistful of Dynamite"), the director's sometimes wacky, sometimes serious tour of the Mexican Revolution, is Leone's notable failure. Well, everyone is entitled to one. It has some great Leone signature images, but the characters are thoroughly despicable, the acting even from the headline stars is variable at best, and the story (such as it is) is not compelling. It's only for people who have to see all Leone's movies . . . or, like me, thought we did.

Sergio Leone sums up the entire Italian film industry by starting the film with a beautifully framed and composed shot of...Rod Steiger pissing on some ants. And thus starts his fifth and final Spaghetti Western that some people declare a classic while others declare it a failure. Sure, it's got virtually no plot and just sort of meanders along for two and a half hours, but it's got Rod Steiger as a Mexican and it's directed by Sergio Leone - it's great!Rod plays Juan, a bandit leader who tricks his way onto a lush carriage full of rich folk who treat him like he's some kind of disease (amazingly acted by Steiger as he plays up to their bigoted expectations), before turning the tables on them and robbing them of everything they have - including the carriage. It's not long after that Juan meets Sean (or John), who of course is an ex-member of the IRA and loves blowing everything up. Sean/John is played by James Coburn who is literally dressed from head to toe in dynamite, and Juan has a religious experience when he realises that Sean is the key to the bank that Juan has always wanted to break into. The problem these days is that the Mexican revolution is going on and there's soldiers everywhere...and Juan does not want anything to do with no revolution...Although Leone takes his sweet, sweet time digging a plot out of this one, it's such a delight to watch Rod Steiger being Mexican. He slides from wide eyed peasant innocence to rage and his interactions with Coburn are hilarious (usually because Coburn tells him to shut up most of the time). And the cursing! Eeh - the language!Speaking of Coburn, he's having a problem with flashbacks throughout the film - Irish flashbacks involving David Warbreck! Warbreck would go on to be a leading man in Italian films shortly but here he just seems to be involved on some confusing romantic love triangle mixed with paramilitary business. Were they sharing that woman or were they all into each other?There's no iconic gunfights here but there are some large scale battles and a lot of epic tracking shots that depict the carnage of the revolution. Italian minatures master and awesome director in his own right Antonio Margheriti provides the tiny train special effects.I haven't mentioned a story because there isn't one.

Made after the success of the 'The Dollars trilogy', (1964's A Fistful of Dollars, 1965's For a Few Dollars More and 1966'sThe Good, the Bad and the Ugly) and a few years after one- off success of 1968's 'Once Upon a Time in the West', 'Duck! You Sucker!' was director Sergio Leone's last Spaghetti western. It was, as well, one of his most overlooked films. I think, one of the reasons why this movie didn't really shine and became an overnight success, was because, of the odd title. Known as 'Giu La Testa'(Keep your head down') in Italy, the title didn't really translate well with the American audience. For me, 'Duck! You Sucker!' sounds more like a Blaxploitation movie, than a Spaghetti Western. It's sound too cartoony. Because of that, I really didn't like the title. I'm one of those critics; that agrees with the studio. They should had retitling the film. They should had changed it to 'A Fistful of Dynamite'. That title works so much better, because how much this story, remind us, of Leone's older films, while, also giving us, something new. Better yet, I would rather see the movie be call, by its French title, 'Once Upon a Time in a Revolution', because it match so well with Sergio Leone's other 'Once Upon a Time' films. Though, all of those 'Once' films, widely differ in location, character and time periods, the recurrent themes of time and memory, plays a big part of these films. Not only that, Leone's style alters sharply here. It's here, where you see his bitter metamorphosis from Spaghetti Western to gritty post-modern Polizieschi crime drama. In scope, Sergio knew, times were indeed changing. Audience weren't as interested in Westerns, anymore. Sergio was able to show, with this Zapata film, in a metaphor way. He shows that the 19th century, primitive frontier life was indeed dying, to make way, for the 20th century, complex, and post-industrial revolution life. The way, he use weapons like dynamite, trains, machine guns, and tanks as a metaphor to bring the end of western is haunting. It's scary, when you think, deep around it. After all, a lot of his dark imagery here, remind us, way too much of massive World Wars imagery that later would come alive. Still, it wasn't that dark, there were a lot of cool, bloodless action moments, extreme close-ups, semi smart dialogue, great epic scope in cinematography, and funny moments to make it, a more rounded picture. Also, the moody soundtrack by composter Ennio Morricone was beautiful and simply wonderful to listen to. It match the film, so well. Set during the Mexico Revolution of the 1910s, the film tells the story of Juan Miranda (Rod Steiger), an amoral Mexican outlaw, and John Mallory (James Coburn), an ex-Irish Republican revolutionary, trying to rob a bank, only to find themselves, accidentally and involuntarily becoming heroes of the Revolution. I love the allegory that Leone is using with these two main protagonists. Miranda is the old, Mexican bandit unaware that his era is almost over. And then we have Mallory as the 20th Century bandit, unaware where his love for technology is going to take him. While, it's might be hard to cheer, for two main characters who are technically murderers, rapist, and terrorists. At least, the movie gives them, enough positive depth and character development to overlook their dark side and faults. However, it's hard to understand what motivates them to do what, they do, since both Mallory and Miranda hates revolutions. Despite that, both actors in this movie were amazing in their roles. James Coburn is able to show how haunted, his character was, with his past, while also dreaming of living the American Dream. I love the scene where he was in the pub, looking at the mirror at his betrayer. Very moving. Then you got Rod Steiger, who pretty much seem like a real-life Mexican bandit. Despite the fact that he is playing off, a carbon copy of the Tuco's buffoon type character from 1966's 'The Good, the Bad and the Ugly'. He was still able to pull this off with his strict method acting. After all, the character was originally written for actor, Eli Wallach, instead of him. Lucky for him, Eli Wallach drop out, during the early stages of production. That wasn't the only time, he got lucky. The studio save him, a second time, when Leone wanted to replace him, with Wallach, after they butt-heads over Steiger demands on Leone to film his scenes with natural sound. Once again, Steiger won out, and Wallach was cause to subsequently sued, when Wallach had to dropped out of the other project when Leone promise him, the role. While, Steiger and Leone didn't get along, I thought, personally, that he had great screen chemistry with his co-star, James Coburn. Both, seem to work best with each other. However, other than them. Most of the supporting characters were very bland and underdeveloped. Another conflict, I had with the movie is the pacing. Like, any other of Sergio Leone's movies, this movie also suffers from a long seat. It was slow and tedious, at parts. 157 is a lot of minutes sit through. I know, not all U.S versions of this movie has that long of a run-time, but most modern DVDs has this same copy, in which I watch this film. All, I know, about the other copies, is that it's 22 minutes, shorter with awkward editing. The ending is also disappointing. Without spoiling it, it's bittersweet, at best, but also a bit anti-climax. Overall: I wouldn't call this my favorite Leone film, but it's still worth checking out. There's just something very appealing about it. Check it out, if you want. Just note, it does have problems.

Sergio Leone's best film, in my opinion. That doesn't say much, though to some it might. In my opinion the four movies he is most famous for - Once Upon a Time in the West, The Good, The Bad and The Ugly, A Fistful of Dollars and For a Few Dollars More - are okay but are vastly over-rated. Slow, badly produced, with holey plots, ridiculous dialogue and hammy acting, especially by the supporting cast. The only things preventing those from being total failures was the action scenes and, in three of them, the acting of Clint Eastwood.A Fistful of Dynamite is better in all those respects, without compromising on the action. Decent plot, though not entirely watertight. There's even a few nice themes running through it. Themes of patriotism, family, loyalty and camaraderie.Dialogue is OK. Has some silly moments but mostly fine.Performances are fine. Rod Steiger and James Coburn put in solid performances in the lead roles and the supporting cast don't embarrass themselves.Production is still reasonably cheap though. You get the usual effect of it appearing as if the actors voices have been dubbed in, rather than being recorded live.This is also shorter than those four, which is a blessing. There are still some pointless and/or drawn out scenes but these are more limited in number than the other four. Helps the pacing of the movie too.The main issue with this one is the fact that the soundtrack consists of one song and that seems to be on an infinite loop...Ultimately a very engaging and entertaining western.