Directed by Sergio Leone
Written by Luciano Vincenzoni, Sergio Leone, and Sergio Donati
1971/Italy
IMDb page
First viewing/Netflix rental
John H. Mallory: Where there’s revolution there’s confusion, and when there’s confusion, a man who knows what he wants stands a good chance of getting it.
Sergio Leone has done much better than this, his last Western.
The story takes place in turn of the 20th Century Mexico. Rod Steiger plays Juan Morales, a rough-hewn, low-life bandido with a large family and many hangers-on. Imagine Tucco in The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (1966) with less manners and a lot of mugging. Juan has long had dreams about robbing a bank in Mesa Verde. John Mallory (Charles Coburn) is a far more sophisticated ex-IRA operative and explosives expert. When they meet, Juan thinks he has it made and he can force John to help him rob the bank. Juan is not too smart.
John has no intention of doing anything with his skills and supplies except aid in the Mexican Revolution. After much wrangling, Juan begins to see things John’s way, necessitating many explosions over the course of the film.
This is an OK Western but doesn’t hold a candle to Leone’s others. First off, Rod Steiger was apparently told to let it all hang out and that’s always a mistake. He overdoes it painfully here. Coburn is very good though his accent sort of meanders around Britain and the USA. It lacks the grandeur of the previous movies and substitutes explosions and lots of lingering close-ups and slow-mo which got on my nerves eventually. Your mileage may vary.
A real looney tunes of a movie and I have to admit I really like it. And what’s with Coburn’s WW2 German machine gun? Crazy action scenes and typical whacky Morricone music score. Stieger must have got serious case of indigestion after chewing on all the scenery. This was originally going the be a Sam Peckinpah project. I guess he was too busy killing English punks in “Straw Dogs” besides he got his quota of Mexicans in “The Wild Bunch.” Still it would have been interesting to what he would have done with the story. I’m certain you may not agree.
I am quite sure I prefer the Leone version to Peckinpah’s sight unseen. It would be hard for any director to live up to Leone’s best and perhaps unfair to expect him to hit it every time.