A Fistful of Dynamite

• Italian: Giù la testa, lit. “Duck Your Head”, “Get Down”
• Also known as Duck, You Sucker! and Once Upon a Time … the Revolution
• Directed and Co-Written by Sergio Leone
• October 29, 1971 (Italy) / July 7, 1972 (US) / September 16, 1972 (Madrid) / October 6, 1972 (Barcelona)

A Mexican outlaw and a former member of the Irish Volunteer Army accidentally become heroes of the Mexican Revolution.

A Fistful of Dynamite or any number of other names it has is style and substance. It has something to say. Within the first couple of minutes Sergio Leone gets into classism with a scene involving some wealthy/important travelers on a stagecoach. It is there we are introduced to Juan Miranda (Rod Steiger) whose accent is as bad as they get. Steiger should’ve taken a few pointers from Eli Wallach who for many years I thought was actually Spanish, Mexican, or a Latino of some type. He gets the character right, but the voice is just wrong.

At times Juan is personable and jovial but at others downright cold and cruel. He’s a dangerous man with a screw or three loose yet with vague aspirations. His seasoned gang is composed largely of his own children. His mood is mercurial and he is often eyeing the next big thing even if it is being a hero.

John “Seán” Mallory (James Coburn) is an Irish revolutionary with a secret personal pain. He’s on the run clearly and that goes a little bit beyond his knowledge of nitroglycerin. Coburn’s accent is good when it’s there, but its strength varies along with its general presence. He’s certainly good and as always excellent and my guess is similar to Steiger it’s the environment A Fistful of Dynamite was made in. Leone simply may not have picked up on it since English for him was a second language. The nuances of accent can be lost to those that are not native speakers.

Juan has an obsession with robbing a particular bank his father couldn’t successfully rob. John with his nitroglycerin is the exact thing that Juan needs. What starts out as Juan’s plan to rob a bank becomes a bond between the two. Loyalty develops amongst them.

I thought this was a bit of a slow burn. Not boring but things didn’t really get frenetic or pick up. From start to finish there’s a steady flow of events. The culmination of the story didn’t rock my world either. It was a bit downbeat. Juan’s reaction that closed out the movie really brought things down and I guess that was the point. 

I’m not sure if this length was needed. I think it could’ve been trimmed here and there to make it a shorter and maybe a little more exciting film. There are plenty of lingering shots on the scenery and characters that drew things out. The rape scene involving Juan really was unnecessary to show him as dangerous.

There’s a lot of train crashes and those effects have not aged well. Those effects are accomplished largely with miniatures. Most of the time the shots aren’t obvious but when they slow things up you can clearly see these are very detailed models. This is one of those things that I’m going to bet even outside of high definition it was sort of obvious.

A Fistful of Dynamite is a classic that is a bit on the slow side making it much more for Western connoisseurs than the general Western audience. I do think it could’ve been a little shorter, but the length is not a factor against it. Clear a little bit of time in your schedule and watch.