A Masterpiece

Rating: 10/10 (15 May 2020)

This is one my favourite movies ever.
This is peak Sergio Leone. Everything here is perfect. And the parts that are imperfect reinforce those that are not. The story is maybe the most interesting and mature that Leone ever did in a Western genre film. It is political, while also being epic. It is funny and cartoonish while staying tragic and dark. It is violent, and at times very violent. But it always stays beautiful even when you witness terrible gruesome scenes.
The plot loosely follows two characters that are opposites while being both anti-heroes. I think that you might not like the movie maybe if you do not empathise with at least one of them. But if that is the case then Spaghetti-Westerns in general might not be for you.
However, even for Leone films these characters stand out. I could not help but root for Juan all along, because he is so honest and generous and you see that he has his heart on its sleeve, even if of course he is dirty. There is an endearing lovability to this character that you don't see often in film. The same quality Han Solo brings to Star Wars. He is a man of the people and essentially, he is the people. He is Mexico. He is the masses. Also you love him because his failures are only vices. Juan is not evil. He is not a schemer. He takes what he needs and goes against the people he goes against not from a place of hate or malice, but rather by opportunity and immediate interest. But you could say that his character really reveals itself in the ambush scene with the army tanks on the bridge. Because in contrast to Mallory's devil-may-care (and at the same time holier-than-thou) attitude, Juan chooses not to flee but to confront the army head-on. He does that by loyalty to his family, to his friend, but also because he is proud and you can see that deep down he knows that it is the right thing to do. And it is this selflessness, and the ensuing sacrifice he endures that make him such a compelling character. A character that is so unique in fiction.
It does not mean that Mallory is not a great character either. But it is very much a rather typical romantic hero. He is the bitter idealist, with a tragic sad past. But through the movie, he goes back to his roots and becomes confident again in his dreams but also in who he is and what role he plays in this story, the revolution. Sergio Leone has very frequentlyused flashbacks. And certainly the ones in this movie are the most beautiful ever, and that is largely due to the music, but also because they are more poignant than any other.
Usually these flashbacks work as a reveal mechanism that also acts as an anchor to the characters/protagonists emotions. Here in addition it functions in Mallory's character arc, where he finally understands that his Irish friend/Dr.Villega is the hero. That these events are not about him. He is only a secondary character in someone else's story. In the course of the movie, he learns to care not about an ideal/a cause (or himself for that matter) but about people. About real people with hopes and dreams and aspirations but also weaknesses and failings. He learns to love people that are broken, because he is himself broken. The genius of the movie is playing these characters alternatively side-by-side, then against each other, then together. Mallory is the idealist turned cynic, while Juan is the street-wise hustler turned hero. And they both fulfil the dream(of the Revolution or whatever) together.
I love the story. It follows a generic Western-film-plot of robbing the bank and evading the law, and it leads you right into civil war. There is this magnificent sequence in the Good the Bad the Ugly where the protagonists stumble upon a Civil War battle for a bridge. This movie is basically that sequence extended over 2 hours. And it is fantastic. I like that the kind of socialism/anarchism that the film represents, that I could only qualify of typically Italian, is also put in balance with it's own realism. It is all summed up in the people and the books speech that Juan delivers with passion. The film might be for socialism, but I see it first and foremost as an ode to pragmatism.
A note on the music. Sergio and Ennio are at it again. It is beautiful, it is sad, it is epic : it is perfect. And that is why this movie is one of the absolute masterpieces. Not only because all these elements work; they work together. They all in service of the story. You do not really watch this movie, as you live it. Of course for today's sensibilities it is rather long. But this is how movies were made in the 60s-70s. (on this point by the way it is remarkable that it never feels long). There is so much in here, they explode a bank, they derail a train, they collapse a tower and a bridge. Nobody makes movies like this any more, to the point where nobody know how to do movies like this any more. But this is Art. This is Cinema.