Unbelievable characters; Music for the wrong movie; Too long.

Rating: 2/10 (18 January 2009)

Well, I just watched most of a well rated Sergio Leone film, "A Fistful of Dynamite" (American title.) I do not believe I have ever watched more than a few minutes of any of his films, even though I have really enjoyed Crint Eastworld in most films, especially the ones that "make my day." But the Spaghetti Westerns really do not make my day. The acting seems like it is from another planet, apparently due to the direction and script. One cannot even imagine real humans behaving the way Leone portrays them.
But, this one promised to be a bit different. James Coburn, a favorite, is an Irish revolutionary, and Rod Steiger, is a Mexican bandido, "perfectly cast," until he breaks into "Joey Doyle," in the middle of the Mexican desert. I assume Leone uses a dart board in casting. Again, in this movie, the people act in a manner that is way beyond the extent of my imagination. The mayhem is without concern or remorse, and wholly gratuitous. There is no humor in the film.
But, worst of all, Leone must send someone to the record store, to pick out a music score, without telling them what kind of movie it is. The music is so intensively and continuously inappropriate that it is too much to have occurred by accident. The music in the other spaghettis was bad; but, this one is awful--so awful as to be a complete distraction.
I always check the duration of a movie; but, tonight I forgot. I was sure it was two hours. But when an additional half hour almost flew by, I checked. This monstrosity appears to have left nothing on the cutting room floor, and it runs, with voluminous AMC commercials, to 3 hours and 15 minutes.
As a consequence, I will never know the ending; but, it will be tragic, for the characters and the audience. Why this is sold as entertainment "Is something I don't know," to quote a now politically incorrect refrain from Peggy Lee in the Forties.
Worse than being water boarded.
~~Robert