Duck, You Sucker (1971)

By 1971, Sergio Leone had already reshaped the western genre twice over, first with the Dollars Trilogy and then with the monumental Once Upon a Time in the West (1968). Duck, You Sucker (released in some territories as A Fistful of Dynamite) arrived as his follow-up to that film, and it represented something of a pivot for the director. Where his earlier westerns had traded in myth and frontier archetypes drawn largely from American cinema, this one planted itself firmly in the political soil of the 1913 Mexican Revolution, a choice that gave the film a rawer, more morally complicated texture than even his previous work. It is, in many respects, a film about what revolution actually costs, as opposed to what romanticised memory insists it meant. The production was an Italian co-venture between Rafran Cinematografica, San Marco and Euro International Films, shot on location in Spain as was customary for the Italian westerns of the era. Leone had reportedly been reluctant to direct the project at all and had originally sought to produce rather than helm it, facts which colour some of the behind-the-scenes mythology that surrounds the film to this day.

The script pairs a Mexican bandit with no ideological allegiances whatsoever with an Irish Republican Army explosives expert who has fled British pursuit and washed up in the chaos of a country tearing itself apart. It is a pairing that, on paper, sounds almost farcical, which is part of the point. Leone had spent his career playing with genre expectations, and the central relationship here is built on friction, mistrust and a shared talent for destruction. Rod Steiger takes on the role of Juan Miranda, bringing a physical, almost theatrical energy to a character who is greedy, crude and, in his own way, rather magnificent. James Coburn, lean and laconic opposite Steiger's volcanic presence, plays John Mallory as a man haunted by the version of himself he left behind in Ireland. The two had very different approaches to their craft, and the contrast comes through on screen in ways that feel entirely intentional. The supporting cast includes Romolo Valli and Maria Monti, with Rik Battaglia among the ensemble filling out the revolutionary backdrop. Ennio Morricone, Leone's long-standing collaborator, provided the score, as he had for everything from A Fistful of Dollars (1964) and For a Few Dollars More (1965) through to Leone's later work including Once Upon a Time in America (1984). At a runtime of 157 minutes, the film is, even by Leone's generous standards, a long sit, and opinions on whether it earns every one of those minutes have divided audiences and critics more or less since its release.

Duck, You Sucker! (1971), also known as A Fistful of Dynamite, is vintage Sergio Leone, epic in scale, rich in political weight, and drenched in the dusty poetry of revolution. It’s a sprawling, operatic Western set during the Mexican Revolution, following an unlikely alliance between Juan Miranda (Rod Steiger), a bandit with no cause but survival, and John Mallory (James Coburn), an ex-Irish Republican explosives expert turned revolutionary symbol. Their journey from self-interest to something resembling purpose is both thrilling and tragic, wrapped in Leone’s signature slow-burn tension, grand close-ups, and sweeping desert vistas. I love Leone’s films (the myth-making, the moral ambiguity, the sheer visual audacity) and this one has all of it. The friendship-turned-rivalry between Juan and John crackles with irony and melancholy, and the film doesn’t shy away from the brutal cost of revolution. There are moments of breathtaking beauty: the train heist, the massacre at Mesa Verde, the final, devastating twist that reframes everything. It’s a film about how revolutions eat their children, and how men become legends whether they want to or not. That said, it is too long. Several scenes drag well past their natural end point, conversations, standoffs, even entire sequences feel unnecessarily drawn out, diluting the impact. Unlike The Good, the Bad and the Ugly, where every silence had weight, here the pacing stumbles under its own ambition. And while Ennio Morricone’s score is always welcome, this one feels oddly mismatched. The main theme (a jaunty, almost whimsical tune) clashes tonally with the film’s darker turns. It lacks the haunting gravitas of his work on Once Upon a Time in the West or the raw tension of The Ecstasy of Gold. Here, it sometimes plays like parody when it should soar. Flawed, yes, but still a powerful, visually stunning entry in Leone’s late-period masterpiece cycle. Not his finest, but essential for fans. A flawed epic, undone by its own grandeur, but still larger than life.

Coming back to Duck, You Sucker after a gap of a few years, I find my feelings largely unchanged: it is a film I admire more than I love, which is a strange thing to say about something this visually assured. The Mesa Verde sequence alone is worth the price of admission, and Steiger gives one of his most committed performances on record. But commitment is not the same as coherence, and for all its grandeur, the film occasionally mistakes length for weight. Still, if you have any patience for Leone's particular brand of operatic, sun-scorched melancholy, this one rewards it, even when it tests it. Not every revolution arrives on time.

Rating: ★★★½  | Year: 1971  | Watched: 2025-10-12

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Related on Movies With Macca

More from Sergio Leone: Once Upon a Time in America (1984) · A Fistful of Dollars (1964) · For a Few Dollars More (1965) · Once Upon a Time in the West (1968)
More from Italy: Nightmare City (1980) · Cemetery Man (1994) · One Way or Another (1975) · Chicken for Linda! (2023)
More from the 1970s: Fantastic Planet (1973) · Here and Elsewhere (1976) · Italianamerican (1974) · Punishment Park (1971)
More western: The Ox-Bow Incident (1943) · Rio Bravo (1959) · Ride Lonesome (1959) · The Great Train Robbery (1903)