Better spaghetti than your Mama's

Rating: Null/10 (21 April 1999)

I first saw this film in college on a Saturday afternoon televised on one of the local stations, not knowing the name of the film, not recognizing Rod Steiger, and not knowing who Sergio Leone was. Since then, I've become a huge fan of Sergio's hilarious, highly individualistic westerns. I have to say that this film is probably my favorite and has the most interesting and well-studied characters of all of his films, ahead of Eastwood, Eli Wallach, Bronson, Henry Fonda, Van Cleef, and ClaudiaCardinale.
Sergio's game, right off the bat, is his thrilling introduction to the main characters, Juan (Rod Steiger) and John(james Coburn). Packed with banditos, burritos, dynamite, and the unfolding intrigue of James Coburn's character, the first hour is as exciting as any hour of any film ever.
Secondly, Sergio's cinematography is still better and more innovative than almost any director who has ever won an Oscar. Unfortunately, it seems like Leone didn't have a big-budget studio backing to insure the quality of this film production. But this movie, is definitely worth searching for if you're a serious film student. Sergio's camera work is really dazzling. Also, Morricone's score is too weird to believe, you've just gotta hear it for yourself.
It's really too bad that Leone only made one more movie after this, because all of his movies are so incredibly entertaining, but if you consider that most of his movies ran an hour longer than anyone else's, had more plot twists than your average soap opera, and were erupting with more jokes than any French Film critic could stand, then its hard to be disappointed.