A Fistful of Dynamite
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| A Fistful of Dynamite | |
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 Original version poster |
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| Directed by | Sergio Leone |
| Produced by | Claudio Mancini Fulvio Torsella Ugo Tucci |
| Written by | Luciano Vincenzoni Sergio Leone Sergio Donati |
| Starring | James Coburn Rod Steiger Romolo Valli |
| Music by | Ennio Morricone |
| Cinematography | Giuseppe Ruzzolini |
| Distributed by | United Artists (USA) |
| Release date(s) | 1971 (Italy) |
| Running time | 162 min. (Italian version) |
| Language | Italian |
| IMDb profile | |
A Fistful of Dynamite is a 1971 film by Sergio Leone (original Italian title: Giù la testa; also known as Duck, You Sucker and Once Upon a Time … The Revolution). Its plot is centered on two individuals, a poor Mexican bandit (played by Rod Steiger) and an ex-IRA revolutionary (James Coburn), who meet during the turbulent Mexican Revolution. The movie was written by Luciano Vincenzoni, Sergio Donati, and Sergio Leone. Peter Bogdanovich was the original intended director, but the film ended up in Leone's hands. Because of this switch, some fans of the film contend that A Fistful of Dynamite is actually two films in one (the first part dealing with Mesa Verde whereas the second deals with the revolution).
Compared to Leone's previous film, Once Upon a Time in the West, A Fistful of Dynamite didn't gain much popularity. One reason for this could be Leone's insistence on using the Duck, You Sucker title, which gave potential movie-goers the impression that the film was a comic western (Duck, You Sucker is a fairly direct translation from the Italian title, Giù la testa).
A close relative of Lawrence of Arabia in terms of scenery, A Fistful of Dynamite boasts awesome color cinematography and beautiful, rich shots of the desert landscape.
Arguably, A Fistful of Dynamite contains more social commentary than any other Leone film. The film opens with a quote from Mao Zedong about the nature of revolutions and class struggle.[1] Throughout the course of the film Leone delves deep into the class differences that shaped Mexico during its bloody revolution. The main villain, Gunter Ruiz (Antoine Saint-John), is presented as a Nazi-like tank commander, complete with an armored car. Throughout the movie there are numerous scenes of execution of revolutionaries by Mexican Federales. These touches were intended by Leone - who grew up in Benito Mussolini's Italy during World War II - to represent a parallel with fascism. The movie was also, despite Leone's left-wing sympathies, meant as a sort of criticism of other left-wing "revolutionary" film makers such as Jean-Luc Godard, and the recent spate of so-called "Zapata Westerns" which had hijacked the Spaghetti Western genre. For this, the film suffered a great many edits and cuts. To date, many versions of the film have been released, each one offering previously unseen material.
Running times of the film range from 121 minutes (1972 version), 138 min. (1989), and 154 min. (1994) to more recent and more complete versions of 160 and 162 minutes (the latter version being available only in Italian). Much to the disappointment of fans, a number of the aforementioned versions have omitted pivotal scenes, most notably that of the final flashback (some films only list the shortened flashback, if at all).
A Fistful of Dynamite features a number of Leone trademarks, including close-ups on eyes and mouths and a hauntingly beautiful soundtrack by Ennio Morricone.
[edit] Names of the film
Here is a list of the various titles for this film:
- Giù la testa
- Duck, You Sucker
- A Fistful of Dynamite
- Once Upon a Time... The Revolution
- C'era una volta la rivoluzione
- Todesmelodie (German title)
[edit] References
- ^ Mao Zedong (March 1927), "Report on an investigation of the peasant movement in Hunan". Selected Works of Mao Tse-tung, vol. I, pp. 23–29. Beijing: Foreign Languages Press, 3rd printing, 1975. The quoted passage is: "[A] revolution is not a dinner party, or writing an essay, or painting a picture, or doing embroidery; it cannot be so refined, so leisurely and gentle, so temperate, kind, courteous, restrained and magnanimous. A revolution is an insurrection, an act of violence by which one class overthrows another."
[edit] External links
- Article on the many versions of A Fistful of Dynamite
- Sergio Leone messageboard
- A Fistful of Dynamite at the Internet Movie Database
- www.spaghetti-western.net The Spaghetti Western Database
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Films by Sergio Leone
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| Il Colosso di Rodi •A Fistful of Dollars • For a Few Dollars More • The Good, the Bad and the Ugly Once Upon a Time in the West • A Fistful of Dynamite • Once Upon a Time in America |
