This film is alternatively known as "A Fistful of Dynamite" and a couple of other names (including "Once Upon a Time in the Revolution" which would put it in the "Once Upon a Time" trilogy) and it also happens to be the last of Sergio Leone's "big six" that I had not seen. I must say that Leone did it again. From the film's opening sequence I had no doubt that I was once again sucked in. I don't know of anyone else that can make you feel like you've been watching a movie for an hour when it has actually been five minutes.

The movie has many of the same qualities of his other movies - slow, breathtaking panoramas, dramatic closeups and strong characters. However, there are a few differences that set this one apart. While the characters start off as the cold and calculating individuals that mark Leone's other films, you sense that they are struggling with who they are and their own moral directions. There is a sense of good and evil in this film. Also, as the movie goes along we slowly get a feel for what shaped the characters into what they are in the movie. These revelations are what really gives the movie a unique flavor.

I feel that this movie does not get the credit that it deserves among Leone's great works.

follow me at https://Ihatebadmovies.com

Another wonderfully ground-breaking western from Sergio Leone with a memorable score from Ennio Morricone - this time with Rod Steiger as a bit of a low life bandit who encounters James Coburn - a IRA explosives expert on the run from the British. The story is told in tandem timelines as we discover just what brought Coburn to revolutionary Mexico in the first place and the current scenario as he and Steiger gradually develop their relationship from potential bank robbers to something way more sophisticated and inter-reliant. Along the way we've got plenty of humour, action - explosives galore - with some fine photography of the locale. At times, it can be a little too unnecessarily violent - particularly once they become more involved in the revolution; but Steiger and Coburn are great.