The best of Sergio Leone

Rating: 8/10 (24 January 2015)

Sergio Leone's best film, in my opinion. That doesn't say much, though to some it might. In my opinion the four movies he is most famous for - Once Upon a Time in the West, The Good, The Bad and The Ugly, A Fistful of Dollars and For a Few Dollars More - are okay but are vastly over-rated. Slow, badly produced, with holey plots, ridiculous dialogue and hammy acting, especially by the supporting cast. The only things preventing those from being total failures was the action scenes and, in three of them, the acting of Clint Eastwood.
A Fistful of Dynamite is better in all those respects, without compromising on the action. Decent plot, though not entirely watertight. There's even a few nice themes running through it. Themes of patriotism, family, loyalty and camaraderie.
Dialogue is OK. Has some silly moments but mostly fine.
Performances are fine. Rod Steiger and James Coburn put in solid performances in the lead roles and the supporting cast don't embarrass themselves.
Production is still reasonably cheap though. You get the usual effect of it appearing as if the actors voices have been dubbed in, rather than being recorded live.
This is also shorter than those four, which is a blessing. There are still some pointless and/or drawn out scenes but these are more limited in number than the other four. Helps the pacing of the movie too.
The main issue with this one is the fact that the soundtrack consists of one song and that seems to be on an infinite loop...
Ultimately a very engaging and entertaining western.