Plenty of explosions, but none of them will blow you away

Rating: 5/10 (26 October 2003)

I've seen quite a number of Sergio Leone's films by now and I must say that I found this one to be the worst yet. I admit that I've seen worse films in general, but in no way can I recommend this one to you. If you want to see good Leone catch one of his films from The Man With No Name Trilogy or maybe even Once upon a Time in the West. I found the latter to be quite disappointing to be honest, but it was still better than A Fistful of Dynamite. There is almost no excitement, no coolness and the west is somehow robbed of it's roughness and interesting nature by motorized vehicles. Now I know that this is not supposed to be a film about gunslingers, but one about revolution and even in that aspect the film fails. First of all, the four flashbacks, which are supposed to give the film more depth, are misplaced, with the exception of the last two. They do not add anything to the film, or the preceding events and only make sense when (or if) you watch the movie until the end. Secondly, the film is just too long and not exciting enough to make you want to see the whole 158 minutes of it. Thirdly, I found it a bit strange that Coburn's Irish accent is apparent at one time and absent the next. Fourthly and maybe most sadly, the music of Ennio Morricone did not (as in many other movies) add anything to the experience, except maybe that it showed that the film is of mediocre quality in each end every aspect. No wonder scores from this film are likely to miss on any of Morricone's Best of records. Last but not least, I felt that as the film went on (or better dragged on), twists occur that made absolutely no sense to me. Concluding this comment I must say that this is a film I could have easily left off my list, but Leone is just too catchy a name for me. This one tumbles into oblivion rapidly after seeing and is not likely to be seen on any list, not even biggest disappointments. Films that have more famous names, though perhaps got better ratings by me, will have places on that list, like Once upon a time in the West (6 out of 10). The verdict for this one:

5 out of 10