quality of film

[franksgrandson]

is it just me or is the quality of the film used in once upon a time the revoloution lower than that used on west and others it just seems to be different or was that an effect Leone was trying to capture in places it gives me a feel of a sepia photograph wheres west and gbu scream epic.

[The Firecracker]

is it just me or is the quality of the film used in once upon a time the revoloution lower than that used on west and others it just seems to be different or was that an effect Leone was trying to capture in places it gives me a feel of a sepia photograph wheres west and gbu scream epic.

i dont know about the sepia tone of the film, I really dont see that. But I do agree that this film is not an epic. at least it doesnt feel like one. If feels like a more controlled story about to people who dislike eachother grow to love eachother. Juan becomes dependent of John and vice versa.
I think Leone was experimenting with this film. He was working on things that he had never worked with before with Duck you sucker. You can even tell that his style was moving away from his previous westerns. There are alot more fast zooms in this film then there are in any other of his westerns.

[franksgrandson]

I think you see the same things in the film as I do and I always get a wave of depression watching it, its my least liked Leone film and I only watch it when I am in the mood for its kind of message and story.
Its funny but west also has these overtones in places but it never hangs heavy in fact a viewer feels a lot for the protagonists in West while not in DYS maybe its a fact that most people think little or nothing about the Mexican revoloution or know much,where's stuff on the civil war or US revoloution is much more known.
If there was a period I would have liked to see Leone film that would have been the North American English/ French/Indian wars
I am a great fan of what Micheal Mann did with his version of Last of the Mohicans

[The Firecracker]

I always get a wave of depression watching it

I feel this way about "Once Upon A Time in America"(the least likable of his films in my opinion).
Duck you sucker is a nostalgic story(so is america to a greater extent, but I just dont like it as much). I like nostalgia. I like old memories. And I enjoy the melancholy feeling of old friends that you lost touch with years ago and never see again.
Things were simpler in youth.

I am a strange one I guess....

some say "it is bad to live in the past", I say "sometimes...that is the best pace to live".

[Juan Miranda]

is the quality of the film used in once upon a time the revoloution lower than that used on west and others

It depends on the circumstances in which you saw the film. Was it on TV? Was it on video, in which case which format, PAL, NTSC or what? Was it on DVD, and if so, what region and which version? Any of Leone's films when seen on panned and scanned transferes look grainy, washed out and poor in terms of cinematography, but are still obviously remarkable in terms of direction.

If we are talking poor film stock here, A FISTFULL... and A FEW DOLLARS are shot on very cheap stock, and if I remember right, that Almaria sun even burns through the magazines (or the eye piece) in places, causing fogging.

If anything, GIU LA TESTA looks far more "modern" than any of Leone's prior films, and there is no attempt at a "sepia" look, comperable to say Robert Altman's MACABE AND MRS MILLER, or some sequences in HEAVEN'S GATE. If anything, in the restored version, the film is crisp and clear, and due to the use of an early form of video assist, the camera does things which would have been impossible on OUATITW (in the grotto massacre scene in particular).

The only exception to this are the rather poor process shots of Coburn with the "Messa Verde" script appearing around him, and a similar effects shot when Juan sees the bank again for the first time in years.

[The Firecracker]

a similar effects shot when Juan sees the bank again for the first time in years.

Juan: I dont believe there is any effect shot for Juan seeing the bank in years. It just shows the bank with of course the children in the chorus singing. You are mistaken.

[cigar joe]

If there was a period I would have liked to see Leone film that would have been the North American English/ French/Indian wars
I am a great fan of what Micheal Mann did with his version of Last of the Mohicans

I would like to see more films about this period of time also, its another one of my personal interests, and the stories that are there to be told about this time period would make some great epics. For instance, when the Governor of Virginia sent Washington on his difficult journey across the "endlesss" mountians to the "La Belle Riviere" (Ohio) frontier, to tell the French to leave their posts , the French commader there, Legarder de St. Pierre, had already seen the Rocky Mountians.

You basically had three factions fighting for control of North America, the French, the Engilsh and the Native Americans, it was probably the Natives best shot at holding on to their lands their only problem was that they were not fully united and the French had not the population that the English colonies had. Even so it took an army of eventually 30,000 to subdue a French colony of at most 50,000 men, women, and children.

Anyway I build historical models as another sideline and I have a penchant for Vauban style fortifications, check out my web site if interested:

http://members.aol.com/tabletopstd/Page4.html

[Juan Miranda]

Blimey Joe, that's some web site, and some talent. I love those old Vauban forts too. There is a magnificent one in the foothills of the Pyrenees, just outside Figueres in Spain. One of the happiest afternoons of my life was spent wandering round it in the company of an extremely beautiful girlfriend.

Juan: I dont believe there is any effect shot for Juan seeing the bank in years.

I don't have my DVD here, so I can't post the image, but when Juan sees the bank for the first time, a large round window changes to a glowing communion wafer (I think I'm right in saying). When I get the DVD back in May, I'll post it.

[cigar joe]

Thanks Juan Miranda

[franksgrandson]

re question on what version I have seen I have the new special edition area 2  and an old dvd release that is of lesser quality I have also three diffrent versions from BBC showings from over the years.
And to Cigar Jo loved the website have you a model of Fort William Henry
Leone would have made much of the French attack on the Fort and of Roy Rodgers raids into the north

[cigar joe]

franksgrandson,


Actually I was contacted by Ft. William Henry about a project for them, also from Mt. Vernon, the City of Pittburgh, the Hienz History Center & Museum and The Braddoc's Field Historical Society. I have done a diorama of  Ft. Sinclair on the St. Clair River between Detroit and Lake Huron for the St. Clair Historical Society

It was Robert Rodgers and Rogers Rangers that you are speaking of. But the French had "La Marine" which like I kind of alluded to had officers and companies with much wilderness experience and had been to the Rocky Mountians and back before 1750, they were like Rodgers Rangers x 10, in fact if you remember the film "Northwest Passage" the scene where the Rangers form a human chain to cross a raging river was based on a incident that actually happend, but not with the Rangers, a Company of La Marine did it during the attack on the English forts at Oswego, crossing the Oswego River much to the demorilization of the garrison there. 

[franksgrandson]

my mistake on the roy rodgers gaff it was very late at night, I was hooked on this period after picking up a huge book at the library called the CRUCIBLE OF WAR its about 2500 pages long in very small print so ideal for late night easy reading took me about 4 weeks to wade through it having to refer back lots of times to get the whole thing into my spaghetti western addicted head as its packed with just about everyone who was in North America at the time.
What really amazed me was just how bloody hard it was just to get to face your enemy at that time somthing that I started to appreciate when I visited the region and I agree George Washingtons adventures in the conflict could make a pretty good movie as long as they get it right that he made some pretty bad mess ups as well as the hero stuff

[The Firecracker]

I don't have my DVD here, so I can't post the image, but when Juan sees the bank for the first time, a large round window changes to a glowing communion wafer (I think I'm right in saying). When I get the DVD back in May, I'll post it.

wafers? this I dont recall at all. Must be a very suddle effect.
I'll have to see right now.

[cigar joe]

I was hooked on this period after picking up a huge book at the library called the CRUCIBLE OF WAR its about 2500 pages long in very small print so ideal for late night easy reading took me about 4 weeks to wade through it having to refer back lots of times to get the whole thing into my spaghetti western addicted head as its packed with just about everyone who was in North America at the time.

Yea that's a good book, if you are really, really  interested there is a lot of info in "Documents Relative to the History Of New York" huge volumes of actual journals, reports, etc. and a lot of other primary sources.

But we are way off topic. 

[dave jenkins]

I don't have my DVD here, so I can't post the image, but when Juan sees the bank for the first time, a large round window changes to a glowing communion wafer (I think I'm right in saying). When I get the DVD back in May, I'll post it.

Communion wafer, eh? Maybe. To me it just looks like a round window that has been illuminated. I hadn't noticed this before your comment, though. Talk about an SSFX (Stealth Special Effect)!