Sergio Leone sympathetic leanings towards the Confederates.

[emmo26]

Imo is very evident in the following scenes.

The Confederate Outpost
Battleville - The bad in Union gear, the good and tuco on the other side
The dying solider scene.

I believe these scenes always show the Confederates mostly in a downtrodden, beaten up and vulnerable state

Does this show any evidence of Sergio political beliefs ? or is it because the greys where so depeleted at this stage of the war he was just rooting for the underdogs.

They say that history is written by the victors......maybe Serigio was trying to give us another side of the civil war.

[drinkanddestroy]

Personally, I'd doubt that Leone "supported" one side or another.

I believe Frayling, in his chapter on GBU, quotes Leone as saying the reason he uses the "Betterville" camp run by the Yanks, is cuz while the atrocities at the Confederate "Andersonville" camp were well-known, what wasn't very well-known is that the Yanks had similar camps, cuz indeed, history is written by the victors. So Leone wanted to depict the truth, that atrocities were committed by both sides.

In the movie, there are Yanks that are shown as positive characters: eg. the commandant of Betterville camp is shown as a good guy who does all he can to keep his camp a civilized place, but is unable to because of his gangrene; and the captain played by Aldo Guiffre, though he may be a drunk and not in the greatest shape to lead men into war, understands the truly senseless nature of war.

So I think Leone's goal was to show the horrors of war and that atrocities were committed all around. But personally, I'd doubt that the Italian Leone was sympathetic to either side. That's not based on any fact, just a guess.

[Dust Devil]

I don't think it has anything to do with sides or politics. Philosophy, rather.

[Groggy]

Well if you want to look at it that way Emmo, you could note that Carson and his scallywags are nominally working for the Confederates.

[emmo26]

To Groggy.....


"WATER..........WATER!!!!"




My theory is mabye the rebel forces are more romanticized in Latino countries i.e. Spanish Civil war against Evil Franco...
Che Guevara and all that.

[noodles_leone]

In "Conversation Avec Sergio Leone", Leone talks about a film he wanted to remake at some point: Gone With The Wind. He states that he would have "shown the real deal", which means that Yankees were the bad guys.

I suspect he only got this point of view years after making GBU: when he became an established author, he needed to have an opinion about everything.

[Groggy]

In "Conversation Avec Sergio Leone", Leone talks about a film he wanted to remake at some point: Gone With The Wind. He states that he would have "shown the real deal", which means that Yankees were the bad guys.

I suspect he only got this point of view years after making GBU: when he became an established author, he needed to have an opinion about everything.

The Yankees aren't the bad guys in Gone With the Wind?

[noodles_leone]

The Yankees aren't the bad guys in Gone With the Wind?

Lol yes they are. I'll find the part of the book and tell you the exact quote if you're interested.

[drinkanddestroy]

YANKEES IN TARA???

[stanton]

Tara is by Roxy Music

[Groggy]

My theory is mabye the rebel forces are more romanticized in Latino countries i.e. Spanish Civil war against Evil Franco...

I seem to recall Franco was the rebel in that case.

[DixieDan]

He had complete sympathy with the confederate cause.

Lots of romantic shots of the saltire in the background.

[sentenza_]

The quotes from 'Conversation Avec Sergio Leone' about the civil war :

"I've read that 120 000 people died in confederate camps like Andersonville.
And I didn't ignore that the Yankees did the same thing.We always know all the shameful
events from the losing side, never from the winning side.So i've decided to show this extermination inside a Yankee concentration camp.The Americans didn't like it.Movies about this war never work.Except 'Gone with the Wind ' but you don't really get to see the war itself.

"And when Fred Zinnemann tried to make a movie about Andersonville, he didn't find the money to do it.American civil war is taboo, because its reality is insane.And me, I'm always doubtful about official History.Without doubt because I grew up during a fascist period.
I've witnessed the way they manipulated the truth.So I'm always doubtful about the things they're spreading.It became instinctive."

"The last of the trilogy will be,  The GBU, the american civil war,  the shock between the north and the south,a new development of America,the reassessment of historical stereotypes.Because the true racists weren't the confederates.They were the yankees.To denounce this, I wanted to do the remake of Gone With The Wind, to get things right !"

[cigar joe]

The quotes from 'Conversation Avec Sergio Leone' about the civil war :

"I've read that 120 000 people died in confederate camps like Andersonville.
And I didn't ignore that the Yankees did the same thing.We always know all the shameful
events from the losing side, never from the winning side.So i've decided to show this extermination inside a Yankee concentration camp.The Americans didn't like it.Movies about this war never work.Except 'Gone with the Wind ' but you don't really get to see the war itself.

"And when Fred Zinnemann tried to make a movie about Andersonville, he didn't find the money to do it.American civil war is taboo, because its reality is insane.And me, I'm always doubtful about official History.Without doubt because I grew up during a fascist period.
I've witnessed the way they manipulated the truth.So I'm always doubtful about the things they're spreading.It became instinctive."

"The last of the trilogy will be,  The GBU, the american civil war,  the shock between the north and the south,a new development of America,the reassessment of historical stereotypes.Because the true racists weren't the confederates.They were the yankees.To denounce this, I wanted to do the remake of Gone With The Wind, to get things right !"

Well, he was wrong about "Duck, You Sucker" being a common phrase also. lol

[uncknown]

I think he was trying to make the point, that the North wasn't fighting for a cause anymore than the South.
It was aimless slaughter.
Northerners didn't treat blacks much better than Southerners.