Duck, You Sucker (1971)
While this movie can’t exactly be called overlooked, as most spaghetti westerns fans knows about it, but there is still a massive gap between this and For A Few Dollars Movie in viewership here on Letterboxd. Which is really a shame, because I think this is one of Leone’s more mature films. It may lack the fantastic memorable score and Clint Eastwood from the Dollars Trilogy, but it makes up for with providing something very different yet very recognizable of Leone’s unique style. First of all, it is just fun with a more modern setting with motorcycles, machine guns and dynamite! Rod Steiger delivers a hell of a performance, including the best monologue in any western:
A revolution? “Little revolution”? Please, don’t try to tell me about revolution! I know all about the revolutions and how they start! The people that read the books, they go to the people that don’t read the books, and say “Ho-ho! The time has come to have a change, eh?”
Sh, sh, sh, sh, sh, SHIT, SHUSH! I know what I am talking about when I am talking about revolutions! The people who read the books go to the people who can’t read the books, the poor people, and say, “We have to have a change.” So, the poor people make the change, ah? And then, the people who read the books, they all sit around the big polished tables, and they talk and talk and talk and eat and eat and eat, eh? But what has happened to the poor people? THEY ARE DEAD! That’s your revolution! Sh… so, please… don’t tell me about revolutions. And what happens afterwards? The same fucking thing starts all over again!
Leone’s other westerns have all a blend of violence and humor, and this does too, but I think it way darker and more brutal. We see executions and massacres of civilians and resistance fighters. Leone definitely doesn’t have a rose-tinted view on revolutions.
The title of the movie may imply that it is somehow a little goofy, and while it does have elements of humor as Leone’s other films, it is a really solid movie with serious political themes that I think surpasses many of his other westerns.
Rating: 4.5