Good, but disappointing by Leone's standards **spoilers to the basic plot**

Rating: 8/10 (20 July 2002)

When I first bought "A Fistful of Dynamite" last fall, I expected an exciting, action-packed film, with great shootouts and great battle scenes. While the film itself was very good, it disappointed in the last aspect. Sure, the opening scene is pure brilliance (the shots of the wealthy passenger's mouths as they insult Juan and the Mexican peasantry and the storming of the stagecoach), and there are other exciting action scenes, like the storming of the bank in Mesa Verde, and Sean's introduction, but as a whole the film lacked.
Sergio Leone didn't even want to do this film (or "Once Upon A Time In The West" for that matter); he had become disillusioned to the Western by 1968; but after the international (though mostly Italian and American) successes of his Dollars Trilogy, the studios forced him to make OUATITW, which bombed in America (though this could be explained perhaps by the fact that nearly half an hour of the film was butchered by the editors for American release), though extremely successful in Europe. He wanted to start "Once Upon A Time In America", but the studios forced him to make this. Again, this bombed in America, but again was a hit abroad. After this, Leone wasn't quite as big stuff as he had been when he had made his simple, beautiful, almost whimisical Dollars Trilogy, or even OUATITW.
There is occasional brilliance, but as a Leone film, this is pretty bad. The flashback scenes in particular are quite plodding, and certainly below Leone. In this film, there are five-six flashbacks, but none of them are really effective as far as I'm concerned. Take OUATITW. It had a single flashback, and it was arguably the best scene of the movie (even though it lasted maybe forty seconds). "For A Few Dollars More" featured flashbacks that weren't classic, but were at least somewhat effective. Here, they appear to be little more than filler.
Despite these complaints, "A Fistful of Dynamite" contains many great scenes, good acting (esp. the absurd Rod Steiger), and a great, odd score by Ennio Morricone. I would kill myself to get my hands on an unedited copy, but this will do fine for now.
Seven stars.