West Saddle
Sergio Leone | Fastest Gun in the West
By the 1950′s, the influence and appeal of the American West, created by early directors such as the late John Ford and Howard Hawks, would reach internationally to the Far East and the cinematic centers throughout Europe. Ford, the director of such classics as The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance and The Searchers, greatly influenced Japanese auteur Akira Kurosawa, who’s 1961 picture, Yojimbo, was the blue-print for Sergio Leone’s Spaghetti Western smash, A Fistfull of Dollars. Along with Citizen Kane, Kurosawa’s Seven Samurai set the world on fire with its revolutionary blend of cinematography, action and score; a practice Leone would hone to cinematic bliss in later films.
For years, the western was a genre that was distinctly American. It expressed our ideals, our beliefs, and identified a code of honor which transcended law, life and society. Collectively, these traits bridged the cinematic gap between the American, Japanese and Italian cultures. The cautionary morality tales had as much to do with the open grandeur of the American frontier as they did with the consequences of personal action. Perhaps, more clearly interpreted through an outsider’s eye, Leone would redefine the legacy of the great American western.
Thankfully, in Leone’s films, there were no Indians for John Wayne to kill and no Gene Autry to sing songs by the campfire. There were no ‘tarts with heart’. In fact, there were few women of any kind. Whores populated the burnt out brothels and were seldom found outside the bedroom. Instead men and bandits roamed the streets, stalking one another like beasts in the wild, armed with Remington’s, Colt’s and Magnum’s. They were unshaven and unclean, staggeringly drunk and cunningly stupid. There were no heroes, only villains who spared the innocent. The west was a place where the good, the bad and the ugly all kill; stark contrasts to the American westerns of the time.
For the sake of future generations, the final showdown of The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly, and the opening scene of Once Upon a Time in the West should be chiseled into stone tablets, as they are composed in a manner that can only be described as god-like. The cowboys, with their hats drawn low above their staunch brow, gazing in with eyes that would slice a diamond, stand tight and motionless as their full length trench coats flail in the winds of an open desert. It is these mythic poses, where Leone turns mere mortals into giants that stand as tall as any of the gods on Mount Olympus.
Few artists ever achieve such an extraordinarily successful collaboration as Sergio Leone and Ennio Morricone did on their films. Morricone was the yin to Leone’s yang, each masterfully accenting the others work with texture, style and grace that has yet to be duplicated. Leone’s long and patient cuts of a face, a walk, or a stare, coupled with Morricone’s natural soundscapes and textures, elevates tension to unbearable levels, as the audience waits impatiently for the action to occur. Few directors ever mastered the set-up as well as Leone, and this remains as one of his most endearing techniques as a master filmmaker. Other than Leone, Stanley Kubrick is the only director that can convey so much by saying so little. In the two hour forty five minute opus that is Once Upon a Time in the West, there are only thirty pages of dialogue. The emphasis here is movement, tension and then, finally, the action. The scenes are allowed to breathe and develop as if happening for the first time; a touchstone of vintage cinema lost on all but a few of the current filmmakers. Leone would probably spontaneously combust viewing a modern day action/adventure film.
Nonetheless, Leone lit an eternal flame to an era where he claimed life has no value. Creating a genre that spawned over 200 films is a claim few individuals can make. Leone is one of those people. There has always been a level of intrigue in Italian cinema. Fellini was the first master of the craft, creating films with inordinate meanings, but ultimately engaging and enthralling pieces. Leone, the heir to the king, created a legacy of robustly complete films with simple themes: man against man against man, and may the fastest draw win. Nothing more, nothing less.
In 1964, before Zeppelin shook the earth, Leone introduced the world to The Man With No Name and over the next few years, the director, Leone, and star, Clint Eastwood, achieved international stardom with the films of the Dollars Trilogy.
Eastwood, who follows Charlton Heston as one of cinema’s most triumphant leading men, spent the next thirty years riding tall in the saddle, gun slinging and hustling his way across the old west, building iconic status as a relic from a past age. In 1992 he directed a film that would go on to win the Academy Award for Best Picture and Best Director. The film was called Unforgiven. In the two hour film, Eastwood managed to deconstruct the western myth he spent his entire career building, finally collapsing under a harrowing crescendo of bullets, blood and death.
Few endings are as satisfying as a three man dual after a near three hour romp through the west. If the poignant visuals don’t grab you, the most indelible theme in cinema history will. It’s hard to tell what Leone film is the best of the bunch. Each subsequent film grew in scope, size, and scale, and the result was a more complete, more mature film than the last. Once Upon a Time in the West was as much an homage to the east as it was to the west, an amalgamation of all the major western archetypes and a strong sense of the old west dying off. The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly remains the definitive western for most that have experienced the film and Once Upon a Time in America is as ambitious a project that has ever been attempted. One thing remains clear; Sergio Leone belongs in the pantheon of cinema legends and on the Mount Rushmore of the greatest directors of all time.
About the Author
Donnie Walker is a rabid fan of Film and Rock & Roll. He is a relic from a past age, jaded cynical and strong, but remains walking that line alone, where ever it may lead him. With a series of podcasts and articles in development, as well as a screenplay, busy job and a college schedule, he decided to create a website to collect his passions in one place. Join the mayhem at BadlandsBlvd.com
Tall in the Saddle
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