Il était une fois la révolution
The film was originally released in the United States in 1972 as "Duck, You Sucker!", and ran for 121 minutes. Many scenes were cut because they were deemed too violent, profane or politically sensitive, including a quote from Mao Zedong about the nature of revolutions and class struggle. Theatrical prints were generally of poor quality, and the film was marketed as a light-hearted spiritual successor to the "Dollars Trilogy", not at all as Leone intended, and it did not succeed in gaining press notice. In part because of this, United Artists reissued the film under the new name of "A Fistful of Dynamite", meant to recall the notoriety of "A Fistful of Dollars". According to Peter Bogdanovich, the original title "Duck, You Sucker!" was meant by Leone as a close translation of the Italian title "Giù la testa, coglione!" (translated: "Duck your head, dumbass!"), which he contended to be a common American colloquialism. (The expletive "coglione" (a vulgar way to say "testicle") was later removed to avoid censorship issues.) One of the working titles, "Once Upon a Time... the Revolution", was also used for some European releases.