Xixax Film Forum

Hi!
Any opinions on the creator of the spaghetti western?

He's one of my favourite directors.
"Once Upon a Time in America" is just so great.
And his westerns are amazing.

Spike

I think the intro credits for A Fistfull of Dollars are great.

Quote from: mogwaiI love spaghetti.

"...and westerns. if only there was a way to... put the two TOGETHER!" and they all called him crazy but it was he who got the last laugh

Quote from: Spike"Once Upon a Time in America" is just so great.

wow, did i just hate that movie!  and it started out SO promising. the first hour had me all ready to buy the dvd, and then god what the hell happened to that story?  i dont know, but it really fell to shit.  the opening murders and the whole beginning with them as children, pretty much till deniro gets out of jail was good, and then it just got progressively worse and worse.  i guess if Solaris is the un-2001, than this can be the un-Godfather.  

SPOILERS--------------------------------------------




okay, that friggin rape scene was so unneccesary and awful.  i couldnt believe i now had to spend the next hour of the movie with this character that i completely hated. there were no reasons for his actions and it seemed to be completely out of character with no attempt for any explanation for it.  i can see why they left this out of the american release, and i wish they had left it off the dvd.



-----------------------------------------------------END SPOILERS


i also read some theories about the rest being a dream or something, but either way, it SUCKED THE BIG ONE.  a fucking shame, since i have loved every other Sergio Leone movie up until this point.  i guess he should've stuck to westerns.

Leone is quickly becoming one of my favorite directors.  I have seen and own his Dollars trilogy along with Once Upon a Time in the West.  I actually just finished Once Upon a Time in the West and I have to say that I am just amazed.  I haven't seen Once Upon a Time in America but I'm so tempted just to blindbuy the dvd, as I did with West.

It's amazing what Leone did in only 7 films (althought I have only seen 4).  I see no reason why he shouldn't be up there with Cinema's greats.  I think time will tell and as the years march on so will his legend.

Quote from: SHAFTRI haven't seen Once Upon a Time in America but I'm so tempted just to blindbuy the dvd, as I did with West.

please dont. i beg of you.  dont let the similar title fool you into thinking the greatness of the former rubbed off in any way on the latter.  please just watch it, dont waste your money.

leone is the filmmaker i am currently obsessed with right now, i have been blind buying all of his stuff, and god he is fucking great.  he and godard are the two i am heavily into at the moment...

Quote from: ewardleone is the filmmaker i am currently obsessed with right now, i have been blind buying all of his stuff, and god he is fucking great.  ...

same here.

I want to see Fistfull of Dynamite.

While on the topic of Leone's DVDs, I must say that I *would* buy the Eastwood trilogy however they're so cheap and minimal with extras that I would think they're getting re-released in the future. Which saves me from spending about $55 canadian on Dvds I know I'm going to replace anyway.

Quote from: CinephileWhile on the topic of Leone's DVDs, I must say that I *would* buy the Eastwood trilogy however they're so cheap and minimal with extras that I would think they're getting re-released in the future. Which saves me from spending about $55 canadian on Dvds I know I'm going to replace anyway.

I got all 3 of them for a total of $15 last week.

http://www.amazon.ca/exec/obidos/ASIN/0792842502/702-8944585-2265604
Right there... that's as cheap as *I* will find it. :(

i got all three of them in a fucking pharmacy for under twelve bucks too

Quote from: CinephileWhile on the topic of Leone's DVDs, I must say that I *would* buy the Eastwood trilogy however they're so cheap and minimal with extras that I would think they're getting re-released in the future.

"Good, Bad and Ugly" is being rereleased:
http://xixax.com/viewtopic.php?t=3933

so I just bought and watched Once Upon a Time in America.  The 3hr 45min viewing time seemed like nothing at all.  I was curious to find out what everyone's interpretation of the film is.  The film was an art film epic.  Everything was top notch.  Ohh, how I wish Leone was still alive.  





SPOILERS
Do you think all of the 1968 stuff actually happened or was it an opium trip?  What happened to James Wood's character?  What was with the flappers in 1968 at the end (with god bless america playing?)

SPOILERS END

OUTIA is baaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaad

OUTITW is Goooooooooooooooood

Quote from: RegularKarateOUTIA is baaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaad

OUTITW is Goooooooooooooooood

:yabbse-thumbup:  :yabbse-thumbup:

Quote from: themodernage02

Quote from: RegularKarateOUTIA is baaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaad

OUTITW is Goooooooooooooooood

:yabbse-thumbup:  :yabbse-thumbup:

you guys are silly.  I agree with the genius of Once Upon a Time in the West, but Once Upon a Time In America is also very good.

EDIT:
Now, Once Upon a Time in Mexico sucked, I'm glad that wasn't Leone.

I somewhat agree on Once upon a time in America. I very much wanted to like it, but as previously stated, you really can't shake the idea of trying to sympathize with a rapist. I'm itching to see it again, though. Maybe I'll find some redeming quality, in DeNiro's character, or the movie itself.

Anybody's seen Fistful of Dynamite? Worth getting hold of?

Quote from: WithnailAnybody's seen Fistful of Dynamite? Worth getting hold of?

yes it is very much worth getting ahold of.....and i like the other title better, personally....

Quote from: WithnailI somewhat agree on Once upon a time in America. I very much wanted to like it, but as previously stated, you really can't shake the idea of trying to sympathize with a rapist. I'm itching to see it again, though. Maybe I'll find some redeming quality, in DeNiro's character, or the movie itself.

You're not supposed to sympathize with DeNiro's character. He screwed up his own life. He was a bad person. A killer. A rapist. And then, in trying to help his friend, he got all of his friends killed. The guy's life is a train wreck, and he doesn't deserve our pity. ... And I DO think the 1968 stuff is a pipe dream. ... I don't imagine his actual character lived much longer, past that night in the opium den.

It's a great film, I think. ... Clearly there is a wide spectrum of opinions on whether it is worthwhile (like Magnolia, perhaps). ... I happen to think OUATIA is worthwhile. But it's definitely a film you should see, and form your own opinion on. Even if you end up disliking the film overall, it's time well spent on cinema. Oh, and the score is mesmerizing.

Quote from: Find Your MagaliAnd I DO think the 1968 stuff is a pipe dream. ... I don't imagine his actual character lived much longer, past that night in the opium den.

.

the one problem is that television is in his 1968 sequences.  if it was a pipe dream, why does he see that?

Quote from: Find Your MagaliYou're not supposed to sympathize with DeNiro's character. He screwed up his own life. He was a bad person. A killer. A rapist. And then, in trying to help his friend, he got all of his friends killed. The guy's life is a train wreck, and he doesn't deserve our pity

I'll watch it again this week with that in mind. Not betting to much on my views changing, though. I pretty much know I'll like it better than the first time, since it has already grown in my head. But a complete turnaround, I doubt, even if I misunderstood DeNiro's character.

Quote from: SHAFTR

Quote from: Find Your MagaliAnd I DO think the 1968 stuff is a pipe dream. ... I don't imagine his actual character lived much longer, past that night in the opium den.

.

the one problem is that television is in his 1968 sequences.  if it was a pipe dream, why does he see that?

A very valid point. In interviews, Leone himself liked the idea of the film being open to some radical interpretations, but he didn't want to speculate as to his own thoughts on exactly what happened. I think he enjoyed the ambiguity.

As much as I LOVE The Dollars Trilogy and Once Upon a Time in the West (my favorite western), I can't believe that America is that bad. Should I see it? Should I not see it? That is the dilemma.  :?

Quote from: filmboy70As much as I LOVE The Dollars Trilogy and Once Upon a Time in the West (my favorite western), I can't believe that America is that bad. Should I see it? Should I not see it? That is the dilemma.  :?

DONT SEE IT.  whatever you do!  go your whole life WITHOUT having seen it, and it will be a happier one.  i wish i could.  :cry:

nah, you should definitly see it, man.  it's got it's moments.

yeah but all the moments are in the beginning.  and then, it becomes the worst movie of all time.

Quote from: themodernage02yeah but all the moments are in the beginning.  and then, it becomes the worst movie of all time.

Worst film of all time?
You better be exagerating.

Quote from: themodernage02yeah but all the moments are in the beginning.  and then, it becomes the worst movie of all time.

MAN, and I was SO SURE that "Police Academy 6: City Under Siege" was the worst movie of all time. Shows you what I know.

ONce Upon a Time in the West is on AMC right now.
i see it has Claudia from 8 1/2.
how is the SE DVD?

Quote from: bigideashow is the SE DVD?

http://xixax.com/viewtopic.php?t=1445&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=15

I just bought Once Upon A Time In America without reading all the negative shit posted in this thread. Shiat! I have yet to watch it. Atleast now I can view it without high expectations and hopefully I wont be as dissapointed as some of you were. But fuck, its the only Leone film I haven't seen and im obsessed with his other films, how can I not have high expectations?  :?

Quote from: Brock LandersI just bought Once Upon A Time In America without reading all the negative shit posted in this thread. Shiat! I have yet to watch it. Atleast now I can view it without high expectations and hopefully I wont be as dissapointed as some of you were. But fuck, its the only Leone film I haven't seen and im obsessed with his other films, how can I not have high expectations?  :?

You've seen Duck Sucka and Fistfull of Dynamite?

Quote from: MacGuffin

Quote from: bigideashow is the SE DVD?

http://xixax.com/viewtopic.php?t=1445&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=15

i actually did a search beforehand and went through 5 pages and i didn't see it.
=(

Quote from: SHAFTRYou've seen Duck Sucka and Fistfull of Dynamite?

Aren't they the same film?

Quote from: Withnail

Quote from: SHAFTRYou've seen Duck Sucka and Fistfull of Dynamite?

Aren't they the same film?

Yes, you are right.  I meant to say The Colossues of Rhodes and Fistfull of Dynamite.
Anyways, I have little interest in seeing Colossues of Rhodes but I really want to see Fistfull of Dynamite.

haven't seen Colossues of Rhodes. that's actually the first Ive heard about it. i thought fistful of dollars was his first film. I saw fistful of dynamite on tv one night. its his worst film, but worth seeing if you can find it.

Quote from: Brock LandersI saw fistful of dynamite on tv one night. its his worst film, but worth seeing if you can find it. I just bought Once Upon A Time In America and  have yet to watch it.

hold that thought....

Quote from: themodernage02hold that thought....

is it really that bad? ive heard good things. i still haven't gotten a chance to see it. im a uni student and things are really hectic right now. when i get around to seeing it ill post my thoughts.... well, not my thoughts, just a simple "liked it" or "didn't" post. or maybe even "fuck, best movie ever! you guys are nuts". or quite possibly "im burning all my leone dvds tomorrow. ill never forgive that asshole!"

sergio leone was incapable of making a bad film.  he just made an average one with OUTIA.  everything else (with the exception of collosus of rhodes, unseen by me) was gold.  duck, you sucker (preferred title by me) was just a notch underneath any of the dollar's films.

I don't understand the hate on here for Once Upon a Time in America.  One critic called the american re-edited version the worst film of 1984, but after seeing the original cut (on the DVD) said it was one of the best movies of the decade.  This makes me wonder if some on here saw the american edit.  Or else people dislike the film b/c it's not a western.  I assure you though that everything in this film is top notch.  Only big problem I have is it wasn't shot in scope.  This isn't a simple vengeance film though, it's has many more complexities in it.  He takes the operatic structure he dabbled with in OUTW and expands it.  I'd also say that OUTA is a 4 hr art film, maybe that bothers some on here for a Leone film.

i like OUTIA.  just more comfortable with Leone in a wetsern setting.  Seems as if he was too.

Can I have some reports on the new spec ed of GB&U?

Is the transfer much better than the old cheapo dvd? How is the new material? Is this the only version they'll release, or will they re-master the original version (w/ out extra footage) in the near future?

Quote from: SoNowThenCan I have some reports on the new spec ed of GB&U?

Is the transfer much better than the old cheapo dvd? How is the new material? Is this the only version they'll release, or will they re-master the original version (w/ out extra footage) in the near future?

http://www.xixax.com/viewtopic.php?p=143168&highlight=#143168

I have since seen the rest of the film and it's great.  I'm keeping my original US cut copy, though, but will be watching the extended version from now on. I don't expect that they're going to remaster the US cut ever.

Oops, sorry. I remembered reading that review you wrote, but I thought it was on another board.

Hmm, I think I'll wait on this purchase, see if it comes down in price like OUATITW did.

Is there a chance MGM will release a box set of new transfers for the other Leone films they own?

Quote from: RaviIs there a chance MGM will release a box set of new transfers for the other Leone films they own?

I would love to see that, but I don't think his other work comes close to TGTBTU or OUTITW in terms of potential commercial impact in a more expansive DVD format. Therefore, I don't see A Fistfull of Dollars, for example, getting some sort of special edition release. I hope I'm wrong, though.

Quote from: UncleJoey

Quote from: RaviIs there a chance MGM will release a box set of new transfers for the other Leone films they own?

I would love to see that, but I don't think his other work comes close to TGTBTU or OUTITW in terms of potential commercial impact in a more expansive DVD format. Therefore, I don't see A Fistfull of Dollars, for example, getting some sort of special edition release. I hope I'm wrong, though.

I don't expect them to do lavish SEs for the others, but maybe they'll do new transfers.  I don't want to buy The Good, The Bad, The Ugly now only to find out later they are releasing new transfers of the others in a box set.

Quote from: Ravi

Quote from: UncleJoey

Quote from: RaviIs there a chance MGM will release a box set of new transfers for the other Leone films they own?

I would love to see that, but I don't think his other work comes close to TGTBTU or OUTITW in terms of potential commercial impact in a more expansive DVD format. Therefore, I don't see A Fistfull of Dollars, for example, getting some sort of special edition release. I hope I'm wrong, though.

I don't expect them to do lavish SEs for the others, but maybe they'll do new transfers.  I don't want to buy The Good, The Bad, The Ugly now only to find out later they are releasing new transfers of the others in a box set.

I seriously doubt that they're going to redo the Dollars flicks, at least not anytime soon, but I do remember hearing that Duck You Sucker (aka A Fistful of Dynamite) is being restored with extra footage right now.  So if MGM has the rights to that, then they may wind up doing a Leone box set, a la Kubrick, which would probably have the No Name trilogy, Duck, OUATITW (maybe, if they can borrow the rights), and OUATIA.

But who wants to wait for that?  Just get TGTBTU now and pick up the others as they come along. I doubt that they'll have the good sense to do a feature length doc on Leone as a bonus companion to any big box set.

i believe they've already said this (as if it wouldnt be common sense).  they're waiting to see how the GBU set sells before they decide whether the first two need an upgrade.

Did they add new gunshots to the new version of GBU?   A lot of them sounded like the standard modern movie gunshot, and it was kind of distracting.

no they were the same

EDIT - or so i'd like to believe, even though they're not...

no they said on the extras that in order to make the sound STEREO they had to add some new sounds in order to cover up some of the holes.

So I'm working on a paper on Leone and I found out that before his death, he was planning on making a movie on the battle of leningrad.  Wow, I wish he was still alive.

a couple of weeks ago i noticed that the 2 disc SE was already lower in price and with those DVDs by the cash register at Best Buy.

how evil!!!

Quote from: bigideasa couple of weeks ago i noticed that the 2 disc SE was already lower in price and with those DVDs by the cash register at Best Buy.

Of what, OUATIW or GBU?  I've seen OUATIW for as little as $9.99, though I bought mine for $12 or 13.99.  Got GBU for $15.99 at Best Buy when they had a sale.

Quote from: Ravi

Quote from: bigideasa couple of weeks ago i noticed that the 2 disc SE was already lower in price and with those DVDs by the cash register at Best Buy.

Of what, OUATIW or GBU?  I've seen OUATIW for as little as $9.99, though I bought mine for $12 or 13.99.  Got GBU for $15.99 at Best Buy when they had a sale.

OUATIW

From thedigitalbits.com:

MGM's remaining Sergio Leone titles, including Fistful of Dollars, For a Few Dollars More and Duck You Sucker) ARE all currently in production for SE release on DVD. Those can tentatively be expected later in 2005.

:!:

Quote from: CinseyFrom thedigitalbits.com:

MGM's remaining Sergio Leone titles, including Fistful of Dollars, For a Few Dollars More and Duck You Sucker) ARE all currently in production for SE release on DVD. Those can tentatively be expected later in 2005.

:!:

yay.
I want to point out how under rated For a Few Dollars More is.

boner.

Huge fucking boner!

Cinsey, where are you? There's all sorts of sex talk going on.

Quote from: hacksparrowCinsey, where are you? There's all sorts of sex talk going on.

I'm playing Bump-it with myself.

is there a way to read that tiny writing?

Quote from: bigideasis there a way to read that tiny writing?

Get a really good magnifying glass.

Quote from: wantautopia?

Quote from: bigideasis there a way to read that tiny writing?

Get a really good magnifying glass.

i must have a little 'shine,' because i knew someone would do that!

Quote from: SHAFTR
yay.
I want to point out how under rated For a Few Dollars More is.

underrated by whom?  i think its pretty generally regarded as better than the first but not as good as the third.  am i wrong?

Quote from: themodernage02

Quote from: SHAFTR
yay.
I want to point out how under rated For a Few Dollars More is.

underrated by whom?  i think its pretty generally regarded as better than the first but not as good as the third.  am i wrong?

Not wrong but, in light of GBU, all of Leone's other films tend to be underappreciated.

Quote from: hacksparrowNot wrong but, in light of GBU, all of Leone's other films tend to be underappreciated.

Not "Once Upon A Time In The West".

Quote from: MacGuffin

Quote from: hacksparrowNot wrong but, in light of GBU, all of Leone's other films tend to be underappreciated.

Not "Once Upon A Time In The West".

well, in public opinion, I would say it is.

It's overrated by xixax. But underrated by schoolhouse shirley types. Most movies are the same way when you break it down in two sides.

Quote from: StefenIt's overrated by xixax. But underrated by schoolhouse shirley types. Most movies are the same way when you break it down in two sides.

no, it's not overrated here.

You are overrated in both worlds.

Quote from: SHAFTR

Quote from: StefenIt's overrated by xixax. But underrated by schoolhouse shirley types. Most movies are the same way when you break it down in two sides.

no, it's not overrated here.

Yeah, I would say that it's appropriately rated on xixax and AMC but still underrated everywhere else.  People have only recently "discovered" the Once Upon a Time movies.  

So what I'm trying to say is... The Good, the Bad and the Ugly is the only Leone film that assholes like.

it's his best.

Quote from: ewardit's his best.

I think the point though is that is a matter of opinion, not fact (as some would assume).

His Dollars Trilogy and Once Upon a Times are all great films.  Five films good enough to stand up to five films of any other director.

More Leone This Summer (source: IGN)

2/23: A fistful of Special Editions planned.

February 23, 2005 - Ask and ye shall receive. A reader wanted to know if the other two films in Sergio Leone's Man With No Name Trilogy -- Fistful of Dollars and For A Few Dollars More -- would ever come out on DVD. I said I'd seen info on a spaghetti western web site but couldn't remember the title.

Enter a helpful Insider with the address: www.fistful-of-leone.com. There I found all the details. A Fistful of Dollars, For A Few Dollars More and A Fistful of Dynamite (a.k.a. Duck You Sucker) will be released in Europe on April 18 and in the U.S. in the summer.

Like The Good, The Bad & The Ugly, all three films have been fully restored (presumably by Lowry) and will have missing scenes restored. Here are the details for each title:


A Fistful of Dollars: Special Edition

Fully Restored Version
Audio Commentary
A New Kind of Hero - Documentary
A Few Weeks Off in Spain - Interview with Clint Eastwood
Cinque Voci
Featurette
Not Ready for Primetime - Featurette
Additional Scene - The Network Prologue
Restoration, Italian Style
Double Bill Trailer for A Fistful of Dollars and For a Few Dollars More
Radio Spots
Collector's Gallery


For a Few Dollars More: Special Edition

Fully Restored Sound and Picture
Audio Commentary
A New Standard - Documentary
Back For More - Clint Eastwood Interview
Tre Voci - Interviews with Sergio Leone
Original American Release Version - Featurette on Alternative Versions
Restoration Notebook
Locations Comparisons
Rare Double Bill Trailer
Collector's Gallery
Radio Spots
Original Theatrical Trailer


Fistful of Dynamite (a.k.a. Duck You Sucker): Special Edition

Fully Restored with Extended Footage
Audio Commentary
Bigger, Louder, Deeper - Documentary on Leone
Sergio Dontai: The Screenwriter Remembers Duck You Sucker
The Autry Exhibition: Sergio Leone Comes to the USA
Visions And Versions: A Visual Analysis of Duck You Sucker
Finding The Original Version: Restoring Duck You Sucker
Locations Comparisons
Radio Spots
Trailers

i can't stop smiling.

From thedigitalbits.com:

Leaks out of MGM in Europe have revealed that the studio will release a trio of long-awaited 2-disc Sergio Leone special edition DVDs in the U.K. on 4/18. These include A Fistful of Dollars, For a Few Dollars More and A Fistful of Dynamite. We've checked with our sources and learned that these same special editions HAD tentatively been scheduled to street from MGM here in the States in December. Do you sense a BUT coming? You're right. BUT... now that Sony is busy gobbling up MGM Home Entertainment, any decision to release these special editions in the U.S. is going to have to be made by them. Eventually. In other words, these DVDs have been caught in the thick of the merger, and there's a fair possibility that it's going to be a while before we see them here. We're checking with Sony to see what they say... but we'd be surprised if they commented at this point. We'll let you know in any case.

In the meantime, click here to see R2 cover and the outstanding list of extras for these discs at the A Fistful of Westerns website.
http://website.lineone.net/~braithwaitej/mainsite/mainpage.htm

fuck sony, i'm buying the R2's.

We've got a follow-up on that Sergio Leone SE DVD story we posted in The Rumor Mill yesterday. We've contacted Sony Pictures Home Entertainment and learned pretty much exactly what we expected: The deal to purchase MGM just closed, so they're only just starting to address the logistics of assuming responsibility for MGM Home Entertainment's catalog and DVD release slate. It's too early to know if the titles MGM had previously slated for release later this year (including the A Fistful of Dollars, For a Few Dollars More and A Fistful of Dynamite special editions) will street as planned, or will be delayed. Rest assured we'll keep you up to date on this in the weeks and months ahead. Cross your fingers, Leone fans.

Quote from: MacGuffinCross your fingers, Leone fans.

or just buy the r2s that come out in like 3 days!  if u can watch an r2, that is.

The good, the bad and Leone
Christopher Frayling’s "Once Upon a Time in Italy" shows why Sergio Leone, master of the spaghetti western, should be ranked among the 20th century’s great filmmakers. By Richard Schickel

(https://xixax.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fimages.amazon.com%2Fimages%2FP%2F0810958848.01._SCLZZZZZZZ_.jpg&hash=c4b429517dbf4a052e46e2b1172b0f6964f1ff63)

Once Upon a Time in Italy: The Westerns of Sergio Leone
Christopher Frayling
Harry N. Abrams: 240 pp., $40

Modernist, postmodernist or merely mannerist? It's hard to know how to label Sergio Leone, but of this much I'm certain: It is time to pry open the portals of the Pantheon and permit him to enter that company of filmmakers — Bergman, Fellini, Godard, Kurosawa (feel free to season the list to taste, with others who speak with special urgency to you) — who in the middle of the 20th century expanded (exploded, really) the expressive and stylistic possibilities of world cinema.

The foregoing will be stale news to the Leone cult; these cinephiles have always known that he was the movies' unlikely great man — a chubby, bombastic, motor-mouthed figure with a short fuse and an equally short filmography, confined almost exclusively to westerns, who somehow administered a galvanic shock to a genre that was virtually moribund. This may come as new news, however, to those who believe that elevated filmmaking, to be worthy of high critical discourse, demands elevated subjects; that westerns must be made on American soil, not on Spain's rainless plains by a bunch of feckless Europeans; and that they require overt statements of a traditional morality if they are to be taken to the ever-patronizing hearts of those who insist on defining movie art in essentially literary terms.

Leone's cause was not helped by the vicious critical response to his first three westerns when they were released in the United States in the 1960s. Renata Adler, in the New York Times, for example, thought "The Good, the Bad and the Ugly" should be retitled "The Burn, the Gouge and the Mangle." It didn't help that the pictures' success in Europe had been largely populist and that they achieved their huge grosses here mainly in the "animal houses," where male adolescents went to get off on lowbrow action fare. Like his first star, Clint Eastwood, Leone has withstood vast amounts of early calumny. In this struggle, Christopher Frayling has been his most reliable ally. Frayling is the author of a definitive biography of the director, as well as a thorough study of the spaghetti western, which was a preoccupation of Italian filmmaking in the decade after Leone pioneered it. It helps greatly that Frayling speaks in measured tones and that he is rector of the Royal College of Art in London, a school of visual art, which means he approaches Leone's work from the correct perspective.

"Once Upon a Time in Italy" is the handsome and generous companion volume to an invaluable exhibition, centered on Leone's westerns and curated by Frayling, at the Autry National Center's Museum of the American West in Griffith Park through mid-January. One would like to think that the imprimatur of a museum show might finally secure Leone's place in the critical-historical mainstream, but I somehow doubt it. There's still a lot of prejudice (and indifference) to overcome.

In his introductory essay, Frayling firmly places Leone among the postmodernists, which is all right with me, since his films stress major post-modernist themes: They are self-conscious and knowing comments on the past; they are ironic in tone; and most important, they always emphasize style over substance.

Taking these points in order, we see that Leone, who had an encyclopedic knowledge not merely of the West portrayed in movies, but also of the real West, was always quoting from previous westerns. In "Once Upon a Time in Italy," Frayling includes a six-page chart of all the homages to other films that Leone offered in "Once Upon a Time in the West." As important, all his major characters are clearly descended from classic western figures. What, after all, is Eastwood in these pictures but the mysterious stranger who wanders into a godforsaken community, stays around long enough to clean the place up, then rides off? The difference between him and his predecessors is that he is much less voluble about his motives than they generally were.

Silences of this sort are the hallmark of Leone's irony. He's saying that the only reliable guide to morality is behavior, that modernism's emphasis on psychological explanation doesn't carry much weight in a fundamentally anarchical postmodernist world. That's why most of his characters squint in silence at the world through appraising eyes. In Leone's West, all alliances are expedient (see Tuco and Blondie in "The Good, the Bad and the Ugly"), all final judgments rendered at the end of a gunfight. Such a world tends to make a man quiet — too quiet even to laugh aloud when his worst suspicions about his fellow man prove true. A thin smile will have to do.

Above all, Leone was a great stylist. In our fictions today, it is not what you say but how you say it that counts most. It may be that the most telling film clip in the Autry exhibition is not from a western at all but from Leone's first film, a sword-and-sandal epic called "The Colossus of Rhodes," in which he staged a swordfight on the humongous shoulder and arms of the title statuary — a truly arresting visual idea. In his westerns, it is Leone's manner that keeps us interested while everyone glowers sullenly at everyone else. It begins with his settings: All those stark, sun-baked towns rob the region of the Edenic potential implicit in the traditional western, which required only the removal of a few nasty serpents for it to become a full-scale paradise. Nothing's ever going to grow in Leone's West.

Beyond that, there's Leone's use of the camera — tight close-ups of faces, eyes, shooting irons and twitching trigger fingers fill the big screen in alternation with the broadest imaginable panoramic shots — very disorienting to audiences used to less-vivid contrasts. And that says nothing about the way he ignored the conventions of the American western's shootouts. He was famous for liking three-man, as opposed to two-man, gunfights, but he also liked to tie together, in a single shot, a gun being fired and its victim falling. Genteel American convention had always insisted on a cut between those two occurrences and on the victim falling forward, whereas, in reality, he would have been blasted backward by the impact of the bullet.

People thought when they first saw these films that they were more violent than anything they'd seen before. Maybe they were — but only marginally so. What made them seem more transgressive was the way Leone would extend time — another postmodernist trope — as his combatants stalked and circled one another, indulging themselves in, as it were, endless foreplay, before their rather efficiently managed climax was achieved. And then, of course, there are Ennio Morricone's scores to consider. Orchestrating Fender Stratocaster guitars, moaning choruses, penny whistles, jew's-harps, mariachi brass and the kitchen sink, he eschewed traditional symphonic themes, signaling disorienting postmodernist intent as powerfully as Leone's camera did.

Leone was a disappointed lover of the Old West as it was refracted in the films of traditionalists like his beloved master, John Ford. He once said that contact with real U.S. soldiers during and after World War II disabused him of the notion that Americans were any more noble or principled than anyone else. He brought that weariness and cynicism, not so different from the attitudes of his countrymen, Fellini and Antonioni, to a hallowed place where it had never been before.

Frayling's book — rich in interviews with Leone's creative collaborators, out of which an amusing collective portrait of the artist as an instinctively smart and playful child emerges — fails only in its attempt to make a case for Leone as a model for later filmmakers. He really wasn't. The western is well and truly dead now and the anxiety of influence prevents direct imitation of him in other movie contexts. He's admired by many directors for the intransigence with which he pursued his vision, but like most major artistic innovators, he is sui generis, a man standing outside the mainstream's rush, entire unto himself.

MGM confirmed that they're finally planning Region 1 versions of those three Sergio Leone DVD special editions that were released last year in the U.K. (A Fistful of Dollars, A Fistful of Dynamite and For a Few Dollars More) sometime in 2007, to be distributed by Fox.

MGM just released details on their LONG-awaited 8-disc box set, The Sergio Leone Anthology box set, due on 6/5 (SRP $89.98 - the individual 2-disc sets will also be released separately for $26.98 each). The set will include 2-disc Collector's Editions of A Fistful of Dollars (100 mins), For a Few Dollars More (132 mins), The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (178 mins) and Duck, You Sucker! (157 mins, a.k.a. A Fistful of Dynamite). Each film is presented in fully-remastered anamorphic widescreen video. Audio will be English Dolby Digital 5.1 and Spanish and French Dolby 2.0 Surround (for Duck, You Sucker! and For a Few Dollars More), English Dolby Digital 5.1 and Spanish Dolby 2.0 Surround (for A Fistful of Dollars) and English Dolby Digital 5.1 (for The Good, the Bad and the Ugly). All four films will feature subtitles in English, French and Spanish and will be Closed Captioned. Here's a list of the extras you can expect on each:

A Fistful of Dollars will include audio commentary by film historian Sir Christopher Frayling, 5 featurettes (A New Kind of Hero, A Few Weeks in Spain, Tre Voici, Not Ready for Primetime and Location Comparisons: Intercutting Film Clips with Current Footage of Locations Used), the network prologue (additional scene), 10 radio spots, a double-bill trailer for the film and an 8-page booklet.

For a Few Dollars More will include audio commentary by Sir Christopher Frayling, 5 featurettes (A New Standard, Back for More, Tre Voici, For a Few Dollars More: The Original American Release Versions and Location Comparisons: Intercutting Film Clips with Current Footage of Locations Used), 12 radio spots, the original theatrical trailer, a double-bill trailer and an 8-page booklet.

The Good, the Bad and the Ugly will include audio commentary by film historian Richard Schickel, 3 documentaries (Leone's West, The Leone Style and The Man Who Lost The Civil War), 3 featurettes (Reconstructing The Good, the Bad and the Ugly, Il Maestro: Ennio Morricone and The Good, the Bad and the Ugly and Il Maestro: Part Two), deleted scenes, the extended "Tuco torture" scene, The Socorro Sequence: A Reconstruction, the film's French trailer, the original theatrical trailer, a poster art gallery, 4 Easter eggs, 5 collectible postcards and an 8-page booklet.

Finally, Duck, You Sucker! will include audio commentary by Sir Christopher Frayling, 6 featurettes (The Myth of Revolution, Sergio Donati Remembers Duck, You Sucker, Once Upon a Time in Italy, Sorting Out the Versions, Restoration Italian Style and Location Comparisons: Intercutting Film Clips with Current Footage of Locations Used), 6 radio spots, the original theatrical trailer and an 8-page booklet.

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i just now found out about the Leone Special Editions...

:shock:

how is Duck, You Sucker!?