Duck, You Sucker
Director: Sergio Leone
Year Released: 1971
Rating: 3.0
Irish terrorist and explosives expert James Coburn and Mexican bandit Rod Steiger form an unlikely alliance in order to rob a bank, but end up in the middle of the exceptionally violent Mexican Revolution. Although this, like some of Leone's other films, has some pacing problems in the beginning, once it gets going it really sails - Steiger and Coburn make a formidable (and, again, quite odd) pair, and the development of their friendship is credible. Leone does have a moral side to him, and the idea of revolution as being something beneficial for society gets pissed on (like the ants on the tree in the opening shot) - as Steiger's character says, it's the men who can read (and later, sit around and drink tea and 'think') who come up with the ideas and then make the peasants (who can't think for themselves) fight and die for those ideas. Violence and bravery, however, never seem to go out of style - estrogen has no place here.
