Sergio Leone's Most Underrated Western Is A Masterpiece That Needs More Fans

Sergio Leone's so-called Man With No Name Trilogy is well-worn territory for cineastes. His 1964 film "A Fistful of Dollars" launched its star, Clint Eastwood, to international fame and drew in audiences with its style, its score by Ennio Morricone, and its story, ripped off directly from Akira Kurosawa's 1961 film "Yojimbo." As has been well-documented, Kurosawa admired "A Fistful of Dollars" but also took successful legal action against its creatives for plagiarizing his work without permission. Leone's movie was followed by the equally good but slightly less celebrated "For a Few Dollars More" in 1965, and the unofficial trilogy concluded with "The Good, the Bad and the Ugly" in 1966.

Many might also know about Leone's equally stylized 1969 follow-up "Once Upon a Time in the West," a movie that starred Charles Bronson as the hero and a cast-against-type Henry Fonda as the villain. That film was ambitious and incredibly long, and some have argued it's the best of Leone's Westerns. 

Sadly, that's where a lot of people stop with Leone, which is a pity since his next film, the 1971 Western "Duck, You Sucker!," is pretty glorious unto itself. It certainly has the best title, although it's also sometimes known as "A Fistful of Dynamite." Set in Mexico in 1910, the movie stars James Coburn as an Irish explosives expert and Rod Steiger as a Mexican bandit. (Yeah, I know.) It follows the pair as they initially become reluctant partners in crime before eventually getting involved in the Mexican revolution. It's a great character piece (arguably one of the best Westerns of the 1970s) and features some very ... let's say "spirited" performances by Coburn and Steiger.

One will certainly have to overlook that the white, New York-born Rod Steiger is playing a Mexican character in brownface. Of course, if one can overlook the fact that Eli Wallach, a New York-born son of Polish Jewish immigrants, donned brownface to play a Mexican bandit in "The Good, the Bad and the Ugly," then one will simply have to activate the same neural gland to accept Steiger. Writing for Crooked Marquee, critic Zach Vasquez argued that both performances are so good that they transcend any traditional cultural criticism.

"Duck, You Sucker!" is, according to Letterboxd, Sergio Leone's least-watched Western (gauging by the "number of views" metric on the website). Only his 1961 peplum flick "The Colossus of Rhodes" is less popular. "Duck, You Sucker!" is not just an action-packed epic that's possessed of all the usual plot complications, violence, and sweat that Leone is known for. It's also a cheeky film with a strong comedic undertone. The relationship between James Coburn's character, Seán/John, and Steiger's character, Juan, is unusual and exciting, with both men being the best of frenemies. They hate each other yet seem endlessly amused by one another. One might suspect that each man sees the other as their sidekick. Moreover, you might hate both characters, as they're not really great, heroic figures. They're even less likable than other Leone creations.

The plot of "Sucker!" is all over the place. Juan is a horrible bandit who, right at the beginning of the film, commits an act of sexual assault. Juan later enlists John to help him rob a bank, framing him for murder and blackmailing him to make sure he doesn't back out and that the two remain partners.

It only sprawls from there.

John eventually gives Juan the slip and runs into a commander of the Mexican resistance at Mesa Verde. The commander (Romolo Valli), also a doctor, enlists John to use his explosives to help them fight against their opposition. Juan eventually drifts into the same orbit, and John enlists him as well. Luckily for Juan, robbing banks (his plan all along) also happens to weaken the Mexican army's finances, so they are both in their wheelhouse, noble by accident. Juan, a total scoundrel, is eventually hailed as a great revolutionary hero. 

But after that, a long series of battles, happenstance, and betrayals is unleashed. Juan finds his family has been killed, tries to get revenge, and is captured. Juan and John fight off the Mexican army using only machine guns and explosives. They are sold out by the Valli character. Juan is set to be executed via firing squad, John springs him (using dynamite, of course). Etc. etc. John reveals a backstory about a love triangle he was involved in, and Juan eventually comes to care deeply about him. It's a grizzled, prolonged, violent bromance for the ages. On the page, it feels epic. In motion, however, "Duck, You Sucker!" is more lighthearted than the hefty plot might have you believe, mostly because of the effervescent performances of its two leads. 

One will definitely need to overlook James Cobern's terrible Irish accent, though.

As for Sergio Leone, he only directed one more movie after "Duck, You Sucker!," and it was the 1984, 229-minute family epic "Once Upon a Time in America," which Leone saw as a dying breed of cinema. It's a very different movie from his Westerns of the 1960s and '70s.