Giù la testa

Plot synopsis:
In 1913 Mexico at the time of the Revolution. Juan Miranda (Rod Steiger), a Mexican outlaw leading a bandit family, meets John 'Sean' Mallory (James Coburn), an Irish Republican explosives expert on the run from the British. Noting his skill with explosives, Juan relentlessly tries to make him join a raid on the Mesa Verde national bank. John in the meantime has made contact with the revolutionaries and intends to use his dynamite in their service. The bank is hit as part of an orchestrated revolutionary attack on the army organized by Doctor Villega (Romolo Valli). Juan, interested only in the money, is shocked to find that the bank has no funds and instead is used by the army as a political prison. John, Juan and his family end up freeing hundreds of prisoners, causing Juan to become a "great, grand, glorious hero of the revolution".The revolutionaries are chased into the hills by an army detachment led by Colonel Günther Reza (Antoine Saint-John). John and Juan volunteer to stay behind with two machine guns and dynamite. Much of the army's detachment is destroyed while crossing a bridge which is machinegunned by them and blown to bits by John. Col. Reza who commands an armoured car, survives. After the battle, John and Juan find most of their comrades, including Juan's family and children, have been killed by the army in a cave. Engulfed with grief and rage, Juan goes out to fight the army singlehanded and is captured. John sneaks into camp where he witnesses executions of many of his fellow revolutionaries by firing squad. They had been informed on by Dr. Villega, who has been tortured by Col. Reza and his men. This evokes in John memories of a similar betrayal by Nolan (David Warbeck), his best friend, whom John kills for informing. Juan faces a firing squad of his own, but John arrives and blows up the squad and the wall with dynamite just in time. They escape on a motorcycle John is driving.John and Juan hide in the animal coach of a train. It stops to pick up the tyrannical Governor Don Jaime (Franco Graziosi), who is fleeing (with a small fortune) from the revolutionary forces belonging to Pancho Villa and Emiliano Zapata. As the train is ambushed, John, as a test of Juan's loyalty, lets him choose between shooting the Governor and accepting a bribe from him. Juan kills Jaime, and also steals the Governor's spoils. As the doors to the coach open, Juan is greeted by a large crowd and again unexpectedly hailed as a great hero of the revolution. He throws the money back into the coach to John.On a train with commanders of the revolution, John and Juan are joined by Dr. Villega, who has escaped. John alone knows of Villega's betrayal. They learn that Pancho Villa's forces will be delayed by 24 hours and that an army train carrying 1,000 soldiers and heavy weapons, led by Col. Reza, will be arriving in just 3 hours, which will surely overpower the rebel position. John suggests they rig a locomotive with dynamite and send it head on. He requires one other man, but instead of picking Juan, who volunteers, he chooses Dr. Villega. It becomes clear to Villega that he knows of the betrayal. John nonetheless pleads with him to jump off the locomotive before it hits the army's train, but Villega feels guilty and stays on board. John jumps in time and the two trains collide, killing Villega and a number of soldiers.The revolutionaries' ambush is successful, but as John approaches to meet Juan, he is shot in the back by Col. Reza. An enraged Juan riddles the Colonel's body with a machine gun. As John lies dying, he continues to have memories of his best friend, Nolan, and a young woman both apparently loved. John recalls killing Nolan after being betrayed by him to the law. Juan kneels by his side to ask about Dr. Villega. John keeps the doctor's secret and tells Juan that he died a hero of the revolution. As Juan goes to seek help, John has a flashback to his time in Ireland with Nolan and a girl whom they both were in love with; knowing his end is near, sets off a second charge he secretly laid in case the battle went bad. The film ends with Juan staring at the burning remains, asking forlornly: "What about me?"

Tags: western, cult, avant garde, action, flashback

Review:
It's really the bridge between Once Upon A Time In The West and Once Upon A Time In America,and it contains a great many elements of both films {which let's face it,despite both being Leone films are quite different}.It starts in humorous vein,right from the opening sequence of the dirty,very poor Rod Steiger character Juan being taunted by some rich folk aboard a lavish carriage,the camera showing lots of close ups of mouths and eyes in what almost seems a parody of Leone's style.
Juan is much like Tuco in The Good the Bad And The Ugly,loud,simple and very funny {he's even often accompanied by comical music }.Juan's first encounters with the other main protagonist,IRA man Sean {James Coburn} are treated like comical duels,and as they go to rob a bank it seems the picaresque tone will continue.However,about a third of the way through the film becomes more and more serious.
The change in tone may jar to some people,but one can see the mature,contemplative Leone of Once Upon A Time In America reveal himself before our eyes.Of course there are still some great action scenes,such as the taking of a bank which is superbly cut to Ennio Morricone's music {listen for the cheeky quotes from Mozart!},or Sean and Juan machine-gunning what seems like a whole army.
The film's plot does move rather slowly,with Leone taking his time as usual,but this mean we can more enjoy the mannered Steiger and the laid back Coburn as one of the greatest partnerships in cinema history.Of particular interest are the several flashbacks dotted throughout the movie,shot in dreamlike slow motion and usually set to what is quite simply one of the most beautiful film themes EVER {Morricone excels himself with the score for this film}.
The final one is missing from many versions of this film,a tragedy because as well as being sublimely beautiful {and ambiguous,is it Sean's memory?,a marijuana-enhanced hallucination?,a vision of Heaven?} it adds yet another element to the story.A Fistful Of Dynamite {well,the French Once Upon A Time..The Revolution is the films' best title}is a masterpiece,it's extremely entertaining whilst also being full of complexity.
Coming off the triumphs of his "Man With No Name" series and his frustrations with the cutting of "The Good, The Bad & The Ugly" and "Once Upon a Time in the West," Sergio Leone directed the big budget, epic western, originally titled, "Once Upon a Time in the Revolution".
Likely the same executive choose an advertising campaign reminiscent of "The Good, The Bad & The Ugly," creating caricatures of Sean and Juan (Rod Steiger) adding the caption "...the master of adventure, Sergio Leone".
Rod Steiger, who has been in classic films like On the Waterfront and The Pawnbroker, here is slightly like a maturer version of Tuco from The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly: he's still a bandit, with pillaging and beating and raping his way across the countryside, but he's also got a family to look after, who within his anti-hero heart are the most important things to him.
This time more history is worked into the film- unlike the civil war acting like a harsh backdrop to the more 'fun' elements of the adventure in The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly, the war in this film affects the main character, and adds a serious tone to an otherwise standard genre picture.
Arriving in the town, the bank looks like a simple hit if they can find some way of distracting the masses of soldiers that now control the small town  luckily the revolution is in full swing and rebels are in great demand; but it is not long before Juan's idea of a simple bank robbery sees him up to his neck in a struggle that he has no interest in.Many reviewers have said how strong the Leone formula is and I won't be able to add much to their words but for me this is a fine film mainly because it takes apart yet another of the cinema myths of the noble revolutionary fighters and has a fascinating thread of political commentary running all the way through it.
heck, that's the most common complaint about EVERY Leone movie.)  Rod Steiger and James Coburn play Sean and Juan, respectively a poor Mexican bandit and a fugitive Irish terrorist...
A Fistful of Dynamite is often seen as the black sheep of Sergio Leone's commercial releases; and there's a good reason for that, as despite the fact that it's still a spaghetti western; it's a completely different kettle of fish to both the Dollars Trilogy and Once Upon a Time in the West.
A Fistful of Dollars features common western themes such as bandits, guns and bank robberies - but, as he did with The Good, The Bad and The Ugly; Sergio Leone has implanted war themes into the plot, and we've also got the bizarre idea of one of the major characters being an IRA bomber!
I saw 'Good, Bad...' and '...West' immediately before I saw this picture and it is very much from the same cloth and in the same league as those two films -- more comic, a bit flawed and crude perhaps; but really it's evidence of an artist working on a grand scale and well worth your time.If you consider yourself a fan of Mr. Leone's, do give MGM an email and demand the DVD release of this neglected, fascinating movieHopefully this picture will get the home video release it deserves.
Duck, You Sucker is Sergio Leone's second best work (after Once Upon a Time in America) and features an unforgettable performance from the great Rod Steiger who is well complemented by James Coburn--in arguably his best role ever.
The film is way too long with far too many scenes drawn out with close ups and that terrible, terrible, oh so terrible music score "sha shong...sha shong...sha shong...sha shong".I love a good western and I can even tolerate a slow western but this piece of Mr. Leone's body of work needed at least a 30-40 percent cut left on the editing floor.
Sure, it's got virtually no plot and just sort of meanders along for two and a half hours, but it's got Rod Steiger as a Mexican and it's directed by Sergio Leone - it's great!Rod plays Juan, a bandit leader who tricks his way onto a lush carriage full of rich folk who treat him like he's some kind of disease (amazingly acted by Steiger as he plays up to their bigoted expectations), before turning the tables on them and robbing them of everything they have - including the carriage.
Take for example the scene where Juan and John discuss the realities of the revolution at the camp  you can really believe in these characters.Like his final film, Once Upon a Time in America, this one can be seen as almost being a love story between two men.
Powell himself was one of the best directors of composed films, Robert Wise was another, and so was Leone.A brilliant example of this compositional style, and one of my favourite moments in all cinema is when Juan realises John's potential as a dynamiter, and the Mesa Verde bank logo appears above his head, just as Morricone's music references Bach's Toccata.
Of all Leone's supposed "spaghetti" westerns it is this that is perhaps the most undervalued & least revered, which is a huge shame, because "Fistful of Dynamite" is on a par with the Dollar films and almost reaches the stratospheric heights of the WEST & AMERICA movies.It's interesting how his westerns are like chapters in history - consider WEST as being a true cowboy western of the late 1800s, AMERICA covers Chicago gangsters of  the 1920s and 60s; while DYNAMITE acts as a fulcrum between the dying western era of the late 1890s and the birth of a new 20th century revolution of the motor car.And this allegory is visualised quite perfectly by the two main protagonists, Steiger, an old style cowboy cum Mexican bandit unaware that his era is almost over.
If the government had treated people such as himself with these values & virtues then he wouldn't have to resort to such extreme measures.By the end of the film and numerous gunfights, betrayals & escapes they both realise that this particular revolution is too big even for them and they decide to go North and head for America.....A classic Leone film typical of the man, although not quite so operatic or vast as the earlier WEST film and even though we are given enough background on both characters we still feel remote from really caring for them, unlike Bronson, Fonda, Robards & Cardineli in WEST.BUT Steiger gives a wonderful performance as the "little man" fighting for (and against) change, fighting for his family and later, fighting for his people.
This film is not quite as good as Viva Zapata however.It's from the guy who made the spaghetti western and Clint Eastwood popular in the USA, Sergio Leone and stars Rod Steiger and James Coburn and a cast of unknown Europeans mostly Italian.
Leone comes a cropper with his elephantine "A Fistful of Dynamite," a low-brid combination of political revolution, infantile plotting, and dreadful performances.Although "Duck You Sucker" (the alternate title) tries to be a message film, all we get is incoherence, with buckets of blood and one of the weirder musical scores I've heard.
Serving only as a producer when the film went into production & later talked into directing it, this film turns out to be a quite good standalone example of its genre but pales in comparison to what Leone accomplished with his last 4 films.Set in Mexico at the time of revolution, it tells the story of Juan Miranda; a Mexican outlaw leading a bandit family, who meets an IRA explosives expert on the run named John & forces him into his scheme of robbing the Mesa Verde national bank, only to have tables turned around for him when he ends up freeing the rebel prisoners & is hailed by them as a glorious hero of the revolution, thus attracting unwanted attention from the army.Leone's direction isn't as memorable as his previous works & although it features some of his signature styles, it is often too exaggerated (one example being the extreme close-ups of people's mouth while they are eating & talking).
The film tells the story of revolution in Mexico and the lawlessness which unfolds as a result.Steiger who plays Mexican juan is a greedy bandit taking advantage of the revolution for his own self interest but his ways are changed gradually throughout the movie with the help of former Irish Revolutionary Coburn aka Sean.Steiger's performance is brilliant the best I have ever seen him,the close up shots and facial reactions are hilarious and combined with Morricone's greatest film score ever and I mean ever (better than the Mission) make the film what it is...a Masterpiece!.
Within a year "The Good The Bad & The Ugly" also hit the theaters and we were totally immersed in the Leone style and eager for more of the same, I think we may have been under the impression that these films were similar to the James Bond franchise where a successful formula would be repeated over & over."Once Upon A Time in The West" was a totally different animal it did not star Clint Eastwood (which was the way the dollars trilogy was promoted (strike one) it was misunderstood upon release and panned by the critics who did not understand its nature(strike two) it was then re-cut (Strike three) and released widely to a quick demise."Duck You Sucker" not really a traditional Western never had a chance, it was Leone's reaction to the Zapata Westerns that never did have a wide showcase or following here in the US, his quotes & references to these Zapatas would have flown over the heads of most.
While Leones previous "Dollars" films were just fun adventures, and "OUTITW" was an homage Western about Westerns, this film had a Leone message, a statement, it was not only that "Revolution is Confusion" but also to "keep your head down" (Duck You Sucker) and stay out of politics, because only the people who read books survive the poor who do the fighting and make the changes end up dead.There are the comedy elements from his previous films juxtaposed with serious new depths to his characters, the beginning of DYS is very reminiscent to GBU and the cat and mouse games played between Tuco and Blondie are reflected in the Juan/Sean relationship each using the other for opposite purposes.
(Italian: Giù la testa), also known as "A Fistful of Dynamite" and "Once Upon a Time the Revolution", is the last Spaghetti Western directed by the legendary Sergio Leone and it is also his penultimate film - his last being the gangster epic "Once Upon a Time in America" (1984) with Robert De Niro and James Woods.
Rod Steiger sometimes overacts, yet it is different from anything else he did.So, it is not Sergio Leone's best movie; in fact it is probably not even as good as his basic (if classic) "A Fistful of Dollars" (1964).
yesterday,after viewing the entire film for the first time i posted a negative review.but i must admit the film stayed on my mind and after a second viewing i have an improved opinion of it.it is still far from perfect but is definetely one of those movies that grows on you,with repeat viewings.(the very 1st time i tried to view it i only got half way thru as i found it unwatchable.)perhaps because it is more complex than leone's other westerns,once you know what to expect it is more enjoyable.also,the explosions are spectacular,and although i still think the train wreck scene looked fake it was probably the best f/x available at the time.if you've seen it and didn't care for it i urge you to see it a 2nd time..
Whenever I'm talking about Westerns, I'll always say, "Fistful of Dynamite" is the best western of all time.This movie continues Sergio Leone's tradition of making all other Spaghetti Westerns look like Disney films.
Several versions of this film are floating around,some TV versions are butchered,thus it unfairly got some bad reviews.The best way to view it is BUY the UNCUT long version on DVD.If you are able to pick up the uncut version you are in for a real treat.Everything about it is sensational the cinematography,the soundtrack,the story, the acting,tremendous action scenes, it also makes great use of flashbacks and slow motion shots.This movie is just is as good as Once Upon a Time in the West and The Good Bad and the Ugly.
It was poorly released in two versions and as stated most TV versions are edited so much you can hardly figure out some parts of the movie.Because of the weak theatrical release and butchered TV versions many people have neverseen or heard of this movie,believe me if you like Sergio Leone you will love this movie.It is James Coburn's best film.Haunting soundtrack that you will never forget.I have seen this movie 7 times it is one of the best westerns ever made !!!
I haven't seen all of his movies so I can't say for sure, and I'd want to watch this again before I made any judgments, but Duck, You Sucker may be my favorite Sergio Leone film.
"Duck, You Sucker" (aka, "Fistful of Dynamite") is a film directed by Sergio Leone with music by Ennio Morricone--the same team that brought some amazing Italian westerns to the screen--such as "The Good, the Bad and the Ugly" and "Once Upon a Time in the West").
Amidst the chaos of the 1913 Mexican revolution, explosives expert John (James Coburn) and bandit leader Juan (Rod Steiger) join forces to break into the bank of Mesa Verde, each with their own agenda.Sergio Leone is better known for giving us fistfuls of dollars than dynamite, but in my opinion this criminally under-appreciated spaghetti western is just as deserving of attention as the director's better known Eastwood movies.As its alternative US title—Duck, You Sucker—suggests, A Fistful of Dynamite begins in a rather comedic vein, the film's less-than-exemplary protagonists trading blows and quips in a series of comical encounters; but as the pair slowly form an unlikely friendship, so the film gradually develops into a far more poignant work, exploring numerous intelligent themes—bravery, honour, corruption, politics, betrayal, tragedy, judgement, retribution, heroism, sacrifice.John's back-story, in particular, gives the film much of its profundity and pathos.
This complexity of character, perfectly portrayed by Coburn, and brilliantly realised by Leone, helps to elevate A Fistful of Dynamite above many films of the same genre.Of course, such a film wouldn't be complete without some gratuitous carnage, and Leone doesn't disappoint in this department either, delivering plenty of death and destruction in his own distinctive style and accompanied by yet another unforgettable Ennio Morricone score: sudden outbursts of violence from Steiger's deceptively buffoon-like bandit Juan; brutal executions carried out by the movie's loathsome villain Col. Günther Reza (Antoine Saint-John); a spectacular machine-gun massacre; an explosive train wreck.
Together with Rod Steiger's superb acting as the accidental Mexican revolutionary Juan Miranda and slightly less impressing performance by James Coburn as the IRA revolutionary specialist on the run, director Sergio Leone creates a rugged diamond of film here.
This Sergio Leone western(also known as "A Fistful Of Dynamite" stars Rod Steiger as a Mexican bandit who gets mixed up with IRA explosives expert James Coburn, who then, for their own reasons, become embroiled in the Mexican revolution that is devastating the country, but which both men can use their skills to make a difference.Both actors are good, but film itself is terribly disappointing, being an overlong, heavy-handed, and turgid polemic that will likely bore the viewer into a stupor.