Hmm

Rating: 5/10 (1 December 2008)

This movie totally confused me.
It had one of the best critical summaries of revolutions and politics delivered by any film, in a couple of sentences from Juan about half way through the film.
But it also seemed to make a hero out of a rapist and a guy who blows people up and who both mow people down with machine guns from a km away.
It was made at a time when the IRA where blowing (often innocent) people up in England and in Ireland and it SEEMS to sympathise with the idea that it is alright by placing the hero, with a ludicrous Irish accent (why not just get a funking Irishman to play the part) in the context of extreme fascism.
Say what you like about the British but the film's attempt to compare the conduct of the British with a regime that killed hundreds of prisoners with machine guns and wandered around shooting victims in the head to be on the safe side, made me a little annoyed.
But, as i say, the film confused me, because it was extremely unclear whether it was a critique of revolutions (as well as the obvious disdain for fascism), a critique of the violent methods of revolutionaries or a critique of the violence used by the two leads. Or all three.
And Juan never seems to complain to Sean Sean Sean for convincing him, in an extremely underhanded way, to become involved in a conflict that leads to the death of his whole family (A family containing a son who kills unarmed people (who are duckheads but nevertheless, we don't normally sympathise with characters who kill people just because they are rich duckheads right? They normally need to have done something pretty terrible to justify being shot in the face by a 9 year old).) In previous films, Leone does a good job of convincing you that nearly every person Clint or Bronson shoots, deserves it or is involved in a fair fight. When you have a hero who mows down hundreds of people from a mile away with machine guns and dynamite, a hero who only gets upset when he himself is identified as an IRA member and does nothing to protect the other members identified and a hero who never apologises to bloke whose entire family was killed because he was tricked into becoming a revolutionist, it's difficult to feel anything positive for the lead.
But we can find sympathy for WW2 pilots bombing Germany and Japan, why not Sean? Because he smiles when he does it. And it's such an obvious and uncomplicated smile, that leaves such a bitter taste in the mouth, i can only think Leone didn't know the answer either. It's a hard question after all.