Sergio Leone Web Board
Films of Sergio Leone => A Fistful of Dollars => Topic started by: wind demon on May 31, 2014, 01:01:38 AM
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Anyone think that this is underrated still because despite it being lower budget, his first personal one, more simplistic that people say "it's a good one, but of course he topped himself constantly afterward", well i honestly would say that this is truly his 3rd best movie behind the other two Dollars flicks. Yes even over Once Upon a Time in the West! Why? Because Once is him at his most directorial, more introspective, while Fistful is simple b-movie comic book style, to me that is actually more powerful of a thing to do, there is this energy and vibrancy to Fistful, which encapsulates the whole Dollars trilogy -- to me this is more powerful than even the Once Upon Trilogy.
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In Italy it is probably still the most popular one.
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Anyone think that this is underrated still because despite it being lower budget, his first personal one. . . .
Well, it's a remake, so it seems to me it's a lot less like a Leone movie than what comes later. But to each his own.
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Even if there are a few other Leone films I prefer, it's like saying you like filet mignon slightly better than prime rib. The point is all are great; I don't feel a need to rate Leone films. If I was gonna be stuck on an island for the rest of my life and could only bring 6 movies with me, I'd bring Leone's 6 movies. Or maybe CASABLANCA and 5 Leone movies besides DYS. These are all masterpieces to be treasured :)
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On the other hand, like WD said, Fistful is clearly intended to be a B movie (of not a Z movie) while OUATITW is Leone's first shot at the "masterpiece" league. Different ambition leads to different ratings.
Still, and I said it before, even in the "genre film only trying to be a genre film" category, I always thought that Leone began to make real movies (that means, for non intellectual movies like his ones, something I can show to a non movie buff) with GBU. FoD and ffdm are great but too flawed.
I even admit that I never watch FoD for the pleasure. I often watch parts of it just for fun ("get 3 coffins ready" + mule quote), but the whole film doesn't work for me. When I watch it, it's either because of its importance in the history of cinema (especially the cinema I like) or to study it just like I sometimes listen lesser works from musicians I admire: you can learn more by studying mistakes and some patterns/tricks that are hidden in their good work (because they work) are easier to spot when flawed (and don't work). That's why I love Jacques Brel's "Le Dernier Repas" and "Les Toros".
To me, FOD is a rough draft of GBU while FFDM is a rough draft of OUATITW.
Also, GBU was never meant to be yellow so DJ is wrong, even thoug it's particulary off topic here.
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Also, n_l was never meant to be a fag, but he is, and that's very on-topic.
First we go through a whole discussion about you hating FAFDM. That was a big mistake on my part. I sure as hell ain't wasting my time arguing the same point over FOD. I bet you hate the Mona Lisa and Beethoven's 9th, too.
If you don't like FOD, I am sorry for you, I am sorry for those who raised you, and I am very sorry for your cock.
:-*
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Also, n_l was never meant to be a fag, but he is, and that's very on-topic.
First we go through a whole discussion about you hating FAFDM. That was a big mistake on my part. I sure as hell ain't wasting my time arguing the same point over FOD. I bet you hate the Mona Lisa and Beethoven's 9th, too.
If you don't like FOD, I am sorry for you, I am sorry for those who raised you, and I am very sorry for your cock.
:-*
First, I'm French, so being a little fag is part of my identity. Also, I'm pretty sure Leone never thought of FoD as being equivalent to Mona Lisa (while he certainly thought of Ouatitw and Outatia as Mona Lisa league).
Moreover, since you also like this:
(http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_ee_653UtaBg/TUHDEKBE2yI/AAAAAAAAAJE/1aJb3uNG4GI/s400/the-patriot.jpg)
... I'm not sure that your defense of FoD is very relevant.
:D
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If I had the chance to save either the last print of FOD left on Earth or the Mona Lisa, it ain't even close - I save the former.
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I'd save SHOAH, it's got a longer screening time.
(and we all know you'd save The Patriot over Mona Lisa, any Beethoven symphony and any Leone film)
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Haha I actually haven't watched THE PATRIOT since high school. Not since Mel Gibson started making his loving and inclusive comments
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yes noodles i guess i just really adore the whimsical picaro style of the dollars movies, that even if something is less quality like FOD than OUATITW that just in itself clinches it… that is how much i hold it dearly. I mean directors always grow serious to prove themselves to the critics, etc, wathver, so it's natural only Leone did his Once Upon a Time trilogy he even said "if i had not made America i would have remained a b-movie director"… but that picaro style is soooo underrated. Anyone can make a serious reflective movie and all that, but to get the balance for "fun" without it being disney or kid fun or whatever,, but like badass fun, is actually very underrated and what he pulls off with the 3 movies … well i guess thats why they're so iconic.
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Yes I think you're far from being alone here. Many prefer the dollar trilogy, probably for the reasons you mention. I like ambition and amplor (more than "seriousness"), that makes me rate OUATITW higher than GBU but these two movies are objectively equal, each of them being the perfect movie in their own genre.
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Yes I think you're far from being alone here. Many prefer the dollar trilogy, probably for the reasons you mention. I like ambition and amplor (more than "seriousness"), that makes me rate OUATITW higher than GBU but these two movies are objectively equal, each of them being the perfect movie in their own genre.
Those genres being The Iliad and The Odyssey, respectively.
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Yes I think you're far from being alone here. Many prefer the dollar trilogy, probably for the reasons you mention. I like ambition and amplor (more than "seriousness"), that makes me rate OUATITW higher than GBU but these two movies are objectively equal, each of them being the perfect movie in their own genre.
"objectively equal?"
really?
why not unequally unobjective? I'd describe it as Equilateral Objectivity. yeah, that's the more accurate one.
is it impossible for you to just get that cock outta your ass and enjoy all of Leone's movies?
I can just imagine you sitting there with furrowed brow wondering where to rate this or that and how objective one has to be to state with equanimous unanimity that without any potential theoretical hypothetical possibility of subjectivity, FOD and FAFDM suck balls when compared with the equally objectionable GBU and OUATITW.
God Almighty, I get a headache just reading you. Better than a buttache, sure. But a still a pain.
Oh, and btw, Beethoven's 8th is better than his 9th. Just my opinion - which I can admit is by definition subjective :P
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Those genres being The Iliad and The Odyssey, respectively.
Wait GBU=odyssey, but that came out first… and iliad before that one, … oh never mind.
Btw your name i love it how Frank says it "dave jenkins dead long time ago". Real hickory guy talk!
Amplor is a word i have never heard...
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Amplor is a word i have never heard...
Sorry it doesn't exist in English. I meant the French "ampleur", that has no real translation in English (or more likely: I don't know the right word). It means "scale" but with a notion of ambition.
is it impossible for you to just get that cock outta your ass and enjoy all of Leone's movies?
It's possible but I prefer to be a human being rather than a fanboy. I like free will.
That doesn't change the fact that Leone films are the most important thing that ever happened to me. Including FOD and FFDM. They made me love cinema, chose a job and changed my life. Still, it's important to me to understand how, why and how it could have been done better. You do the same with OUATIA and COR so I don't really get what you're trying to say and why I have to argue about self evident points that we all agree about.
I can just imagine you sitting there with furrowed brow wondering where to rate this or that and how objective one has to be to state with equanimous unanimity that without any potential theoretical hypothetical possibility of subjectivity, FOD and FAFDM suck balls when compared with the equally objectionable GBU and OUATITW.
Well that's part of my job. I earn a living making videos. So I HAVE to at least try to understand what is objectively good and what work only for a specified target. Some people make a film only for themselves, it can work if they're lucky. Other people, including little guys like Spielberg, Leone, Scorsese and Hitchcock think about audience first. And then they think about them, of course. But it's second thought.
Also, if you're talking about cinema with anyone, you HAVE to understand that some stuff are objective, and some are subjective. If you don't get that you cannot start a discussion. You'll only start a monologue. And he commonly accepted "tastes and colors do not discuss", even if it's often meant with a lot of so called tolerance ("you're opinion is as valid as mine even if we differ") is the end of dialogue. It's the worst kind of monologue.
How's that for a cock in my ass? I bet your headache isn't improving ;D
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Sorry it doesn't exist in English. I meant the French "ampleur", that has no real translation in English (or more likely: I don't know the right word). It means "scale" but with a notion of ambition.
Perhaps "amplitude"? It doesn't carry the idea of ambition, but you included that idea separately anyway. Maybe you want "ambitious amplitude."
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No, now it's a migraine ;)
Of course you don't have to like all Leone movies equally. Of course you can say they could have been better. There is no such thing as absolute perfection in art. Even Mona Lisa's smile maybe COULD HAVE been made better. I think when Rick said, "we'll always have Paris," he shoulda stopped right there, instead of going on with the unnecesary "what we didn't have....."
But for me, Leone's movies - which I love as a movie fan, not a fanboy - are in that realm of greatness where I don't worry too much about what shoulda woulda coulda been.
I really didn't wanna discuss this seriosly. Damn you!
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And I NEVER said you can't debate taste. I just said I don't think you can say anything is OBJECTIVELY EQUAL. Nothing in art is objectively anything. I'm not trying to get into that nerdy "when is a tree a tree" shit, just saying I am sure there are people who LOVE GBU and hate OUATITW and vice versa.
Btw, where did you get the idea that I somehow have a problem with OUATIA? you put it in the same sentence as COR??? I love OUATIA (though of course the 229 minute version is flawed) as much as any other Leone movie. (and a lot more than COR ;) )
How's that for an aspirin ;)
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Perhaps "amplitude"? It doesn't carry the idea of ambition, but you included that idea separately anyway. Maybe you want "ambitious amplitude."
It'squite close. "amplitude" also exists in French.
What about scope?
I really didn't wanna discuss this seriosly. Damn you!
Man, just say I'm right, it usually shuts me up.
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Your avatar is awessssssome.
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Haha thanks! If I tell you what it actually is you'll be disappointed.
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It'squite close. "amplitude" also exists in French.
What about scope?
Oh, yeah, if you wanna use scope then just use scope.
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I ilke amplor , made up words that sound real are rare..
yes noodles that has gotta be … freddy right? i mean i thought we were on the same page no?? that pic was in some snazzy film book of thousand movies that need to be seen.
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I'll take that as a compliment. It's a picture of my shadow on a parking lot while I was wanting for a bus a few years back in Ottawa. Then I added some light effects on it. But you can call me Freddy >:D
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It was him behind some sort of cloth screen slowly tearing it with his claws just like in your photo exactly.
It is interesting fod is proto gnu and fafdm is proto ouatitw and i can definitely see it. for, aside from the sole location against the most geographical gbu there is definitely that other aspect. there are like 3 picaro tuco like characters with silvanito, piripero and the first guy he meets entering the town who actually even looks like tuco sort of.
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For me FAFDM is closer to GBU than to OUTW, and FoD of course closer to FAFDM than to GBU. Leone was developing his style with each film from The Last Days to Pompeii until OuTW. After OuTW he could only go backwards or sidewards.
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Of course FAFDM is stylistically closer to the other films from the Dollar trilogy. And I fully agree that Leone was developing until OUATITW. But a few key points support my assertion:
- Thematically, it's very similar to OUATITW (death of the Old West, rise of another kind of West, although both films don't speak about the same new civilization)
- The musical device (musical watch here) will only be found in OUATITW and OUATIA
- The use of flashbacks, that has became a Leone trademark, is really a rehearsal before OUATITW/DYS and isn't in GBU
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- The use of flashbacks, that has became a Leone trademark, is really a rehearsal before OUATITW/DYS and isn't in GBU
True, but if you consider that more generally Leone uses time-displacement strategies (of which flashbacks can be considered a sub-set), then all is of a piece. A case in point: in GBU the Union officer arrives and begins beating his uniform repeatedly with his glove, scattering dust and revealing the blue color beneath; cut to: the feet of prisoners entering Betterville, marching to the cadence set by the Union officer's glove--8 months later. Leone uses a match cut to jump through time--one of his signature moves.
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Is FAFDM about the death of the old west? I never viewed it this way.
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Is it me or is virtually every possible western the "death of the west" ? lol. What about the BIRTH of the west!
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"How the west was won" is about its birth :)
STANTON: Just rewatch the ending, the opposition between the romantic man riding toward the sunset and the materialistic guy puting bodies in his car.
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FAFDM is not about the death of the old west or any themes like that. Just about chasing the good ol' greenback.
DJ - I always assumed that the scene where we first see Blondie and Tuco in Betterville is right when they arrive there. I can't say I remember everything offhand that was written in CJ's timeline thread, but I'm almost certain that scene is right when they arrive at Betterville. Would it really take 8 months from the time they were captured till the time they arrive at Betterville? Unlikely
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D&D, rewatch the ending. This movie is better than you think.
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FAFDM is not about the death of the old west or any themes like that. Just about chasing the good ol' greenback.
Noodles what have you done? I have to agree with Drink ...
Spagies are not about the dying of the west, Spagies are set in an already dead west. In the evolution of the genre the SWs should have been made after the the demythologization of the genre, after the US western has disappeared. But at least the first Twilight Westerns (Ride the High Country, The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance) were made before FoD, even if the bulk of Twilight Westerns were produced after 1968, the culmination point of the SW.
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Stanton: it's part of my plan to get you together for once.
FFDM is not about the death of the west it's about the death of the old west. Classic AW are dead, long live the SW. A new kind of west, that is still the wild west.
I agree, the theme only appears in the last part of the movie, but still, if the following parallel montage isn't explicit about it, then what is:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KBdBCTvK5zM
True, but if you consider that more generally Leone uses time-displacement strategies (of which flashbacks can be considered a sub-set), then all is of a piece. A case in point: in GBU the Union officer arrives and begins beating his uniform repeatedly with his glove, scattering dust and revealing the blue color beneath; cut to: the feet of prisoners entering Betterville, marching to the cadence set by the Union officer's glove--8 months later. Leone uses a match cut to jump through time--one of his signature moves.
Fair enough. However, only in FFDM, OUATITW and DYS the flashbacks progressively lead to a key dramatic revelation that the audience only learns during the climax of the movie.
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n_l: the movie is better than I think? Wtf is that supposed to mean? i LOVE FAFDM. YOU are the one who only rated it a 7/10. The fact that I don't think it's about the end of the west, and is just about getting a few dollars more, is NOT a bad thing. Just a fact. Unlike you, I don't need a movie to be about some deep big theme in order for it to be great. A plain good ol' movie about bounty hunters and revenge can be great. Even if it wasn't about revenge it could be great. (Anyway, with Leone, the greatness is generally mostly about style. But that's another story.)
FAFDM is not about any "end of the west" themes. The story just involves 2 bounty hunters goin after the same outlaw: one for revenge, one for profit. And it's still one of the 5 greatest movies ever made.
For the last time, my friend, get that cock outta your ass.
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n_l: the movie is better than I think? Wtf is that supposed to mean? i LOVE FAFDM. YOU are the one who only rated it a 7/10. The fact that I don't think it's about the end of the west, and is just about getting a few dollars more, is NOT a bad thing. Just a fact. Unlike you, I don't need a movie to be about some deep big theme in order for it to be great. A plain good ol' movie about bounty hunters and revenge can be great. Even if it wasn't about revenge it could be great. (Anyway, with Leone, the greatness is generally mostly about style. But that's another story.)
FAFDM is not about any "end of the west" themes. The story just involves 2 bounty hunters goin after the same outlaw: one for revenge, one for profit. And it's still one of the 5 greatest movies ever made.
For the last time, my friend, get that cock outta your ass.
1 seven words joke => 7 lines of D&D
However, f*cking click on that link and then try to tell me you're NOT witnessing the old west dying so that I can be SURE you only speak japanese:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KBdBCTvK5zM
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I am on my phone now (cell phone, not smartphone - i am in the Stone Age - so I can't click on any links till i get to computer)
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if I had a buck for every time someone said sumthin like, "I can't believe I am gonna have to agree with D&D on this.....," I'd have quite a large fistful of dollars by now. Nothing amuses me more (sorry stanton, I know you hate to hear that :p )
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I am on my phone now (cell phone, not smartphone - i am in the Stone Age - so I can't click on any links till i get to computer)
Well if you're still on a cell phone you may not know yet that the old west did actually die a few years ago.
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if I had a buck for every time someone said sumthin like, "I can't believe I am gonna have to agree with D&D on this.....," I'd have quite a large fistful of dollars by now. Nothing amuses me more (sorry stanton, I know you hate to hear that :p )
We are all here only for amusement purposes ...
Apart from that it was only the rule proving exception of the game.
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I too love the dollars for them being just simple stories, apart from the whole dying of the west/political/childhood motifs of his next trilogy.
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You can enjoy any movie on earth without having to read between lines. But man, even the Jurassic Park sequels have double meaning and hidden (heavy) symbolism.
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n_l, you have been avoiding the most important issue: What hidden theme/symbolism is in THE PATRIOT?
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;D
I cannot chose between those 3:
1 - UK sucks
2 - USA rock
3 - Mel Gibson kicks asses
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DJ - I always assumed that the scene where we first see Blondie and Tuco in Betterville is right when they arrive there. I can't say I remember everything offhand that was written in CJ's timeline thread, but I'm almost certain that scene is right when they arrive at Betterville. Would it really take 8 months from the time they were captured till the time they arrive at Betterville? Unlikely
No, according to CJ's timeline, it's more like 2 months. I was getting this confused with the time between the beginning of the film and the moment when Al Mulock shows up again.
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No, according to CJ's timeline, it's more like 2 months. I was getting this confused with the time between the beginning of the film and the moment when Al Mulock shows up again.
I am sure it's as soon as they arrive at Bettervile - they seem to be going through the routine for the first time (eg. one Johny Reb explains to Blondie, "Wallace will punch him as long as the music plays," and Tuco says, "Bill Carson, that's me,") so they are definitely just arriving at Betterville. Did it take two months from the moment they were captured till they were brought to the camp?
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That's CJ's contention. They have to travel something like a thousand miles. A reasonable pace would be 20 miles per day, so it would take about 50 days, with no days off for rest or foul weather. So, according to the timeline, they get captured near Ft. Craig in May 1862 and arrive at Betterville in July. Sounds reasonable to me.
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Forgot completely to add the Prologue of Fistful that was made later i adore it so much, love it Harry Dean Stanton rules it, and the James Bond M type of briefing is cool too, yes while not part of what the man with no name is supped to be blah blah, i don't really care it's a good idea.
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Forgot completely to add the Prologue of Fistful that was made later i adore it so much, love it Harry Dean Stanton rules it, and the James Bond M type of briefing is cool too, yes while not part of what the man with no name is supped to be blah blah, i don't really care it's a good idea.
Fuck no, what planet are you smoking?, it sucks donkey dick
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Even for it's (ridiculous) purpose it is badly made.
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Well we all have our differences.