Easily the most overlooked film in Leone’s filmography, this epic Zapata western is undeniably worthy of more love and can definitely benefit from a broader viewership. “The Dollars Trilogy” (1964-1966). But for people who know of the genre and aren't necessarily fans, the one name that comes to mind is... you guessed it, Sergio Leone. WatchMojo: Top 10 Film Scores by Ennio Morricone. There’s plenty of class commentary in this one, of course, along with Leone’s trademark character close-ups and wide-open vistas. What are Spaghetti Westerns? This time, Eastwood’s iconic character seeks $200,000 in Confederate gold that was buried in a cemetery during the American Civil War, but the bandit Tuco and a Union sergeant are on the trail of the treasure too. A Fistful Of Locations. Sergio Leone, (born January 3, 1929, Rome, Italy —died April 30, 1989, Rome), Italian motion-picture director who was known primarily for his popularization of the “spaghetti western,” a subgenre of movies that were made in Italy but set in the 19th-century American West. There is a section for each of the five westerns that Leone shot in … “The man with no name” returned, albeit technically as a different character because of a lawsuit by a producer on the previous film, and this time he finds himself reluctantly working with a military veteran as both of them chase the bounty on a gang leader who has broken out of prison and is planning a bank heist. After making and writing several sword and sandal epics Leone decided to adapt Yojimbo, a samurai film by Akira Kurosawa. Guess he did so, in order to laugh rather than cry while contemplating the inadequate budget of 20 million Pesetas (some 120,000 Euros). This is a film that’s arguably the most romantic of the five movies in this collection, with a strong female lead and a wistful look at the pioneering spirit that accompanied the move west in the late 1800s. Take a look back at these Hollywood icons in their early days to see how far they've come in their careers—and how little they've visibly aged. He manages to turn even a scene of seven minutes, where three men are merely waiting for a train, into an epic storyline. A Fistful Of Dollars (1964) – 8.0. By the end, Juan may end up a revolutionary even though he didn’t plan on it. Heavily influenced by Akira Kurosawa’s Yojimbo, the plot involves the nameless protagonist playing both sides against each other to achieve his own ends. A character that you'd like to slap in the face, but one you feel pity for as well. Find out more about the best Western film from the year you were born. Cardinale playing Jill is both an erotic marvel and a woman you wouldn't want to cross.They are all opposed by Frank (Henry Fonda): the local gang leader with a heart of stone and a business proposal at the ready at all times. Perhaps he’s been the same guy with different names the whole time, or maybe he’s a distinctly different character in each movie – either interpretation is true. Many of Leone’s signature touches from his classic Man with No Name trilogy become norms in the Western genre. A wandering gunfighter plays two rival families against each other in a town torn apart by greed, pride, and revenge. She is a strong-willed woman, someone very different from the one-note female roles in Leone’s earlier films, although some patriarchal attitudes still come through here, particularly during an intimate scene with Jill and Frank. Sergio Leone's last Western in this collection is A Fistful of Dynamite - more of a ACTION comedy THAN a Western, however now is regarded as a Cult favourite by many, there's not much plot here as James Co Burn and Rod Steiger team up and the body count rises. Jill McBain travels to the wild frontier; Utah - where she and her new husband planned to settle down. A U.S. Army officer serving in Vietnam is tasked with assassinating a renegade Special Forces Colonel who sees himself as a god. Geek Culture | Movies, TV, Comic Books & Video Games, Sergio Leone Westerns: Five Film Collection. Which is your favorite of Charles Bronson's 60's movies? View production, box office, & company info. Leone is famous in the genre because he is the one who gave it it's style. The original two-disc edition of the film included the theatrical cut as well as an extended 179-minute version that was housed on a second platter, along with more bonus features. Written by You can read all about it in my review. Henry Fonda joined this production and went against type as Frank, a criminal who has established ties with the railroad baron Morton. The melancholic main theme that is brought with a heavenly choir draws tears from your eyes after hearing only a couple of chords. Then this movie is probably not for you. A former Prohibition-era Jewish gangster returns to the Lower East Side of Manhattan over thirty years later, where he once again must confront the ghosts and regrets of his old life. I believe the last two films are restored too. Jill McBain travels to the wild frontier; Utah - where she and her new husband planned to settle down. There's a lot of land, and potential, but there's those who want to take it - at any cost. With already greying hair, he takes on the situation that arises in the area, trying his part to be the hero that saves the day. Finally, we have A Fistful of Dynamite, also known as Duck, You Sucker, which is often seen as an awkward entry in Leone’s pantheon. Spaghetti western filmmaker Sergio Leone directed Charles Bronson as the Old West hero and Henry Fonda as the enemy in this film. So when all pieces of the puzzle fall into place to the score of Ennio Morricone, how can one not be moved by it?For Leone, there was no better way to reach the top of the Western genre. Leone's peculiar style also inspired a hybrid stream in Western film-making —an intermediate between the old Western genre and Leone's Spaghetti Western — best exemplified by Sam Peckinpah's classic Anti-Western, The Wild Bunch (1969) and Clint Eastwood's epic Western, Unforgiven (1992). If you have KL’s “man with no name” trilogy films released during the past few years, these are the same versions found there. Kino Lorber rounds up Sergio Leone’s westerns in a five-film Blu-ray collection that includes a copious amount of bonus features, except the second disc found in their The Good, the Bad and the Ugly Special Edition. Can't you wait for the tension to resolve? Once Upon A Time in the West. A cyborg, identical to the one who failed to kill Sarah Connor, must now protect her teenage son, John Connor, from a more advanced and powerful cyborg. Referred to as a political western, the story takes place during the 1913 Mexican revolution. Stacker compiled this list based on IMDb user rankings and included films dating from 1920 to 2019. 36 of 37 people found this review helpful. In the end, it’s an uneven effort, but it’s still worth a viewing. Movie titles, images, etc. Capturing the essence of political revolution in its raw, messy, crude & conflicted form, Sergio Leone’s final western comes thoroughly recommended. The theatrical version, which you’ll find in this five-film collection, has a commentary track along with deleted scenes, an alternate scene, and more. Fonda gives you the creeps with just one gaze at the camera and every sentence leaves the bitter taste of malfeasance.And finally, Gabriele Ferzetti finishes the line of main characters with his deliciously sickening portrayal of the crippled railroad baron Morton. Was this review helpful to you? The story follows the pair as each one schemes to not only cut the other out of the bounty when the time comes but also get a piece of the haul from the bank robbery. Both of them have their reasons to move against Frank and Morton, and Jill wants to protect her dead husband’s estate from those who want to forcibly take it from her. In full silence, three mysterious men in long trench coats wait in a remote train station. A criminal pleads insanity and is admitted to a mental institution, where he rebels against the oppressive nurse and rallies up the scared patients. A Phoenix secretary embezzles $40,000 from her employer's client, goes on the run, and checks into a remote motel run by a young man under the domination of his mother. ... Western film director Sam Peckinpah helmed this film about a group of elderly outlaws still trying to … A character with no name roaming the endless fields under the sun, announcing his presence at all times with the same melody he plays on his harmonica that echo's in an unsettling way. The theme of the man with the harmonica is as unsettling as it is epic and Cheyennes' theme creates the lighter counter points in the movie. The result is a fun and entertaining movie … A mysterious stranger with a harmonica joins forces with a notorious desperado to protect a beautiful widow from a ruthless assassin working for the railroad. See more ideas about Western film, Movie stars, Sergio leone. Bronson does this brilliantly, with a face that overflows with held back emotions and a determination that is downright scary.In a tavern the man meets Manuel 'Cheyenne' Gutiérrez (Jason Robards), a bandit that recently escaped being hung by the neck, re-joining his band of outlaws. The trio of films Morricone made with Leone and Clint Eastwood … While A Fistful of Dollars, one of the best Westerns of all time,was an instant smash hit overseas, American audiences had largely grown tired of the Western genre. With a fistful of dollars Sergio Leone and Ennio Morricone had a unique film-making partnership The director and composer reshaped the Western, and drew up … Are you bored yet? A good bit of western fun, A Fistful of Dollars is the first movie in famous Sergio Leone’s Man With No Name trilogy, and whilst it didn’t wow me, I found it entertaining, and a good deviation from the typical, idealistic cowboy movie. Like in Leone’s previous films, the central relationship is one in which the characters can mutually benefit from working together, but they’re not sure they can trust each other. What are the differences between the international DVD cut and the Italian DVD cut. Even if it means killing a man and his kids. The windmill squeaks. Their faces have anticipation written all over them, even while the most interesting things they can find to do are toying with a fly, drinking water from a hat and cracking their fingers. Before encountering Frank, however, Jill meets a stranger who comes to be called Harmonica (Charles Bronson) and another outlaw gang leader known as Cheyenne (Jason Robards). Even the film’s poster puts her in a submissive position, as if to say that there are limits to what a woman should be allowed to do. He and his gang kill every member of the McBain family except Jill, the father’s new bride who is on her way from New Orleans to their ranch in Sweetwater. Without any warning she gets involved in something quite over her head, but she handles it masterfully; she refuses to return to New Orleans with her tail between her legs and stays to face the difficulties put before her. 's board "Western film" on Pinterest. It’s a handy way to own the films from Leone’s most fertile period in one set. The other Eastwood films were single-disc releases from KL – I’m not sure about the last two films, since I’ve never had them on home video before. Two bounty hunters with the same intentions team up to track down a Western outlaw. The reproduction, modification, distribution, or republication of the content (including RSS feeds) without permission is strictly prohibited. Italian director Sergio Leone's cinematic style was so powerful and influential that it paved the way for a whole new Western subgenre, the Spaghetti Western. That finale chilled me to the bone! Two image galleries, six radio ads, and trailers for all of the movies in this set round out the disc. Joe Kidd. His genius lies in the creation of themes and melodies that will haunt your dreams forever for better or worse. This website is dedicated to the filming locations of Sergio Leone's spaghetti westerns. A Fistful of Dynamite has more tongue-in-cheek humorous moments than his other films, although some of them fall flat. It includes Leone’s classic “man with no name” trilogy starring Clint Eastwood as well as Once Upon a Time in the West and Fistful of Dynamite (aka Duck You Sucker). That finale! However, since this is a five-disc set, the second-disc content from KL’s The Good, the Bad and the Ugly Special Edition isn’t found here. Each of them is willing to make a temporary alliance with one or both of the others, but each is also just as likely to break that alliance to get all the money for themselves. There's a lot of land, and potential, but there's those who want to take it - at any cost. Upon arrival, she finds him and his children dead. Once Upon a Time in the West In late 1965, A Fistful of Dollars and its … (1968). Warner Bros. views Zack Snyder’s Justice League as “a street that leads nowhere”, Why Creed needs to leave Rocky Balboa behind, Looking Back at the Lethal Weapon Franchise, Gorr the God Butcher: An introduction to Christian Bale’s Thor: Love and Thunder villain, Horror-thriller Bright Hill Road gets a poster and trailer, The Best Marvel Movie You Haven’t Seen: The Punisher, The tragic story behind the death of Brandon Lee on the set of The Crow, First round of titles for Disney+ Star brand include The X-Files, Lost, Prison Break, Die Hard and more, Zombie thriller Paradise Z gets a poster, trailer and images. Keep track of everything you watch; tell your friends. What does Frank mean when he says "keep your loving brother happy" to the young Harmonica before he puts the harmonica into his mouth? Steiger and Coburn are also a bit inconsistent with their accents and mannerisms. Top 10 Sergio Leone (1929 – 1989) directed movies ... Best Picture Winners Best Picture Winners Golden Globes Emmys STARmeter Awards San Diego Comic-Con New York Comic-Con Sundance Film Festival Toronto Int'l Film Festival Awards Central ... Two bounty hunters with the same intentions team up to track down a Western outlaw. The bonus features on this disc, which were ported from an earlier Paramount Blu-ray that in turn took them from a 2003 DVD, include: A production gallery and the theatrical trailer round out the platter. The men sweat. Juan wants to rob a bank and realizes he can use John’s help with it, while John sees an opportunity to further the revolution’s cause, since political prisoners have been detained there. Jul 17, 2020 - Explore shaggy30 . Ultimately, his tragically short filmography leaves one wanting more. A mysterious stranger with a harmonica joins forces with a notorious desperado to protect a beautiful widow from a ruthless assassin working for the railroad. Directed by Sergio LeoneStarring Clint Eastwood, Charles Bronson, Henry Fonda, Lee Van Cleef, James Coburn, Rod Steiger, Eli Wallach, Gian Maria Volonte, Claudia Cardinale, Jason Robards, Mario Brega, Marianne Koch, Luigi Pistilli, Aldo Giuffre, Al Mulock, Jack Elam, Woody Strode, Gabriele Ferzetti, Keenan Wynn, Frank Wolff, Lionel Stander, Romolo Valli. Directed by Sergio Leone. Sergio Leone was by far the most significant figure in the development of the Spaghetti Western in the 1960s, a film genre which simultaneously paid tribute to and subverted many of the conventions established by American film-makers in the preceding decades. A filmmaker recalls his childhood when falling in love with the pictures at the cinema of his home village and forms a deep friendship with the cinema's projectionist. This film also made Clint Eastwood’s mark. Writer/director John Milius and others discuss his early career in one of the Once Upon a Time in the West bonus features and note the ways in which Leone upended conventional wisdom about westerns – there’s even a comment about how the director ushered in the age of “making movies about movies.” (Did that age peak with Robert Altman’s The Player? If I could give twelve out of ten stars for the score, I'd do it.Sergio Leone was a masterful director, no need to prove that. A wheelchair-bound photographer spies on his neighbors from his apartment window and becomes convinced one of them has committed murder. His performance is outstanding; we want to grab a drink with Cheyenne, but we also get the feeling that being on your guard around him wouldn't be an overrated luxury.The 'damsel in distress' (although she isn't in the original meaning of the word) Jill McBain (played by Claudia Cardinale) turns into a toy of Fate itself. The impact of Sergio Leone’s filmography is colossal. Kino Lorber rounds up Sergio Leone’s westerns in a five-film Blu-ray collection that includes a copious amount of bonus features, except the second disc found in … Director Sergio Leone, whose widely imitated films spawned the "spaghetti Western" genre and made Clint Eastwood an international celebrity, died of a heart attack Sunday in Rome. He is the one who set the pace and tone. “Once Upon a Time” features a screenplay by Sergio Donati and Leone, from a story by three of the Italian industry’s biggest names: Leone, Bernardo Bertolucci and … But are you dying to know what the three men are waiting for? As in Leone’s other films, there’s a certain amount of moral ambiguity here, as Harmonica, Cheyenne and Frank follow the trail of their own ambitions while clashing with each other and deciding how they want to deal with Jill. Title: A Fistful of Dollars is the movie that made Leone’s mark on the world. The bonus features include two commentary tracks, various interviews, the ill-conceived prologue that was added when the film aired on ABC in 1975, and more. The Good, the Bad and the Ugly rounded out the trilogy with both a literal and a figurative bang, and Kino Lorber celebrated its 50th anniversary with a two-disc Blu-ray edition. Leone wanted to move beyond westerns after The Good, the Bad and the Ugly and focus on a project that would become Once Upon a Time in America, but Paramount made him an offer he couldn’t refuse and he returned to the genre once more for Once Upon a Time in the West. Read our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy / Cookie Disclaimer. Outstandingly brought!The soundtrack is composed by the never beaten maestro of film scoring himself: Ennio Morricone. The pair in question are a Mexican bandit named Juan (Rod Steiger) and John, an Irish demolitions expert (James Coburn). The creator of the silent stranger in westerns. Though there was the occasional standout production – see John Ford's The Man Who Shot Liberty Valence in 1962, John Sturges' The Magnificent Seven in 1960, or Howard Hawk's Rio Br… Morricone uses these motifs ingeniously, hinting at plot points, character motifs and feelings and giving you a sense of the world the movie takes place in. With his ruthless blue eyes and his gun at the ready he keeps the town quiet. Filed Under: Brad Cook, Movies, Reviews Tagged With: A Fistful of Dollars, A Fistful of Dynamite, Al Mulock, Aldo Giuffre, Charles Bronson, Claudia Cardinale, Clint Eastwood, Eli Wallach, For a Few Dollars More, Frank Wolff, Gabriele Ferzetti, Gian Maria Volonte, Henry Fonda, Jack Elam, James Coburn, Jason Robards, Keenan Wynn, Lee Van Cleef, Lionel Stander, Luigi Pistilli, Marianne Koch, Mario Brega, Once Upon a Time in the West, Rod Steiger, Romolo Valli, Sergio Leone, The Good The Bad and the Ugly, Woody Strode. And that finale! A Fistful of Dollars paved the way for an entire generation of Italian … All of the movies have been restored, although none of those restorations are new to this set. ★★★½ You must be a registered user to use the IMDb rating plugin. Leone quickly followed up that success with For a Few Dollars More, bringing back Eastwood in the title role. Comic Book Preview – Stephen King and Owen King’s Sleeping Beauties #5, Comic Book Preview – Star Trek: Voyager – Seven’s Reckoning #3, Season 13 premiere of RuPaul’s Drag Race is the most watched in the show’s history, Comic Book Preview – Future State: The Next Batman #1, The 90s VR Movie: The Lawnmower Man had a lot to answer for. Use the HTML below. The ticket vendor is locked away. The Dollars Trilogy is the unofficial, overarching name assigned to Leone's trio of films. The Spaghetti Western is a movie about the American West, made in Europe typically by Italian filmmakers. Sergio Leone Western Movie Locations 'For a fistful of dollars', what a splendid idea Sergio Leone had, to name his movie, shot in 1964 in the Desert of Tabernas (Almeria). A dog runs past. Perhaps.). Rated PG-13 for western violence and brief sensuality, New to Streaming: Mangrove, The Nest, Collective, Gone Girl & More, The Criterion Channel’s November 2020 Lineup Features Claire Denis, The Film Foundation, The Elephant Man & More, Gialloween 2020: Drive-In Dust Offs: The Bird With The Crystal Plumage (1970), Best Charles Bronson Movies as Rated by IMDb Users. It’s not often that a director can lay claim to creating a subgenre on his own, yet Sergio Leone enjoyed exactly that, creating the ‘Spaghetti Western’, a down and dirty European take on the distinctly American genre, brash and loose with the tropes … Then this movie is all you ever wanted.The almost lawless world where outlaws and bandits roam the country with ease that is the setting of the story, is shown by Tonino Delli Colli (director of photography) in all its splendorous grandeur and it's uncountable little details. A cynical expatriate American cafe owner struggles to decide whether or not to help his former lover and her fugitive husband escape the Nazis in French Morocco. “The man with no name” is back for his final outing. Robards portrays a character that, by only one look at him, we can see how the years have shaped him. All rights reserved. Two hours and three quarters the tension builds and then resolves... partially, always building towards the end. And for us, there never will be a film that is more Western than 'Once Upon a Time in the West'. THE FILM’S STORY WAS IMPROVISED IN A MEETING. And together with the characters and figurants, everything creates a vibrant and utterly believable Western civilisation.Charles Bronson plays the man with the harmonica: a lone wolf looking for something that he chooses not to reveal to anyone until he gets it. See more ideas about sergio leone, spaghetti western, cinema. DrGoodBeat. He plays “the man with no name,” a wanderer who stumbles into the middle of a conflict between two families for control of the town of San Miguel. Want to share IMDb's rating on your own site? His films and their themes continue to resonate deeply in the popular consciousness. The bonus features are on par with the ones on A Fistful of Dollars – you can read more about that in my review. The heath bounces off the wooden platform. That extra disc isn’t found here, so completists may want to double-dip so they have everything. © 2009-2020 Flickering Myth Limited. Sergio Leone, born in 1929 in Rome, son of silent film director Vincenzo Leone, is best known for the creation of the spaghetti westerns. You can read all about it in my review. With Henry Fonda, Charles Bronson, Claudia Cardinale, Jason Robards. Does a light anxiety creep onto you whilst reading that description? A poor village under attack by bandits recruits seven unemployed samurai to help them defend themselves. Upon arrival, she finds him and his children dead. The set pieces, the costumes and the real life locations in Arizona and Utah make everything believable. The Wire: What’s Happened To the Gangsters That We Grew To Love? According to Frayling, Leone would have produced the film, rather than directed, but … A bounty hunting scam joins two men in an uneasy alliance against a third in a race to find a fortune in gold buried in a remote cemetery. are registered trademarks / copyright their respective rights holders. Throughout the film, question after question is raised, and when one question is answered, another one pops up. McBain set up shop in the middle of nowhere because of the underlying water rights and the foresight that the new railroad would eventually arrive there. If you’re homebound and looking for a big bundle of entertainment that will last a while, you can’t go wrong with Kino Lorber’s new Sergio Leone Westerns: Five Film Collection Blu-ray release. Jul 10, 2012 - Explore Love Film Festivals's board "Sergio Leone Cinema", followed by 438 people on Pinterest. Even if it means killing a man and his kids.