Oh c'mon, he wasn't saying he hated it. He was just giving his own personal opinion. He is entitled to his own opinion. I prefer Leones style as well but I don't have a problem with Clients assessment
The only director that could film a 10 minute scene with no dialogue that would still keep you on the edge of your seat (the opening scene of Once Upon a Time in The West) is one of the best pieces of cinema I have ever seen. He was the best tension builder. Him an Ennio were the best Director/Composer team of all time! I think Ennio had a lot to do with his success. They created something revolutionary on a tiny budget. The story also plays a big part in Leone's success, he took inspiration from Kurosawa's Yojimbo and flipped the western genre on its head and went against the grain, and it paid off massively. I see alot of Orson Welles and Fritz Lang in his camera work but he used that inspiration and made it into his own style completely. There has been no one like him since. Every frame is perfect, every film still stands up today. Its poetry in motion, its art!
Leone was a genius.....every shot is like a Michelangelo....when they said he saw it in a painting now i understand why.....thats what movies lack nowadays.....the artistic element both visual and storywise....his movies are like an italian painting while Kubrick for example is more like a french Picasso....more cubic futuristic imaginative.....i dont know the terms in English but whoever knows paintings understands....
My favourite director of all time, and a huge influence. I think Clint Eastwood is wrong in his first comment, though God knows Eastwood is a fine director, but Leone's work is pure art as well as entertainment. I love the way he constructed every scene. Every film student and young director should watch his films and learn, and throw away the handheld cameras. Each shot, each angle, each frame is like a filmed sentence in a book. By the time of The Good, the Bad and the Ugly he was using Ennio Morricone's music to complete each paragraph. Pure genius. Morricone too.
Leone somehow manages to be technically correct and yet so emotionally free. He literally makes it look easy, and keeping it in his head and freestyling some of it is probably a big part of why that happens. The best GOOD directors are technically sound, and better ones flow properly through their stories and plots. However, Leone is so evocative. There are some other directors from his period that achieved this as well. These days, technical prowess has gotten to the point that people have lost the emotion and the story. There's someting to be said for the limitations of the past, although directors in other countries, are using advances in technical gear to make it easier to make good movies cheaper. It's all in the approach I guess. I wish I knew the exact secret, but it's probably just the director's vision.
Leone is a master of landscapes and human characters both. He gets across atmosphere, temperature and struggle better than any director I iknow. His stories feel as real as if you are standing right there every time.
I understand what Clint is saying at the beginning here about films that have overly long sequences for no reason, but I disagree massively that Leone did this too often. Most of the time Leone's long shots and sequences are absolutely doing a powerful job. They are brilliantly shot and paced to build tension, emotion and drama like no other director does, and they also, as with Lawrence of Arabia, give a real sense of space and size to the vast desert landscapes. The Good, The Bad and the Ugly perhaps drags on a little too much in places, especially with the extended cut, but overall it's still a masterpiece. For a Few Dollars More is oddly my favourite of the dollars trilogy (by a hair), just because I actually find it to be not only big is scope but also very tight. I also slightly prefer Lee Van Cleef as Col. Mortimer, the tenuous relationship he develops with Manco and the very powerful and emotional character development towards the end. I also find Gian Maria Volante's "El Indio" to be the best villain of all Leone's films, and the showdown at the end with Mortimer the most powerful. Good Bad Ugly is also a masterpiece and has a lot more crammed into it, but overall it's a little more saggy in the narrative and the finale not quite as emotionally powerful, but more gimmicky (I'm talking fine degrees here, not knocking it at all).
His long sequences work largely because what is happening in them is novel and unique and something you never see in film, whether pedestrian or epic. His casting was also brilliant, so the people you are watching are always worth watching. On top of that the scenery, the grit, weather, everything.
Those shots of Indio completely baked out smoking marijuana, remembering Mortimer's sister, with the most sad melancholic eyes, it's what makes his demise sadder and more dramatic.
I dont get all the hate being directed at Clint in these comments. He wasnt shitting on Leone, he was just giving his own personal opinion. I swear, friggin fanboys are the worst. I love Leone and prefer his style as well but that doesnt mean he is infallible. Clint has a right to his own opinion. Im sure he has a great deal of respect for Sergio and what Sergio did for his career. But i do not agree with the assessment that i keep seeing that Clint would be nothing without Sergio. No, Clint has a tremendous amount of screen prescence and natural charisma that elevated him. I think he would have succeeded in Hollywood regardless. But i am happy that Clint and Sergio found each other and made those movies together.
Eli appears the real character off the big screen as he very much does on, a great film an easy watch compared to In the West which is absolutely brilliant however many times you watch it and I have no understanding why that should be. Thanks for the extra info.
Because it wasn't an american movie, or rather it was an Italian western movie about American far west with american actors. But it was not a fully american movie. And the academy didn't like this thing.
Ενα πολυ ενδιαφερον αφιερωμα,για το πως γυρισε ο διασημος και αξεπεραστος Ιταλος σκηνοθετης Σερτζιο Λεονε,το θρυλικο"σπαγγετι γουεστερν"με τον πραγματικα αξεχαστο τιτλο:"Ο καλος ο κακος και ο ασχημος"με τους Κλιντ Ιστγουντ,Λι Βαν Κλιφ και Ελαιας Γουαλας.Μεγαλον ενδιαφερον εχουν οι μαρτυριες των Ιστγουντ και Ουαλας για τα γυρισματα.Εστω και 23 λεπτα διαρκεια ειναι αρκετα,για να παρει και ο κοσμος μια ιδεα,για το πως γυριστηκε αυτη η ταινια,που θεωρειται μια απο τις καλυτερες στην ιστορια του Παγκοσμιου Κινηματογραφου...
Yeah he had something in common with Samuel Beckett of the theatre in his similar love of amputees and minimalism including in dialog. And you can be sure that this was one influence of many upon the eclectic Sergio Leone. I saw him speaking perfect French in an interview but I believe he spoke little English. Neither did Clint Eastwood. ;-)
Most people who love his films, realize you don't need unnecessary dialog. That's what sucks about most new films. They think the viewer is an idiot and has to be spoon feed. Less is more. For me at least.
it's all in the head because italy is an oral culture. i think they only have oral exams. people in the balkans too have all the things in the head - you need to communicate as much as you can.
Clint must know, or should know, that without Leone he would have been nothing more than a mediocre Hollywood actor unknown to most. Leone said of him: _He has only two expressions: one with a cigar and the other without_ . And that other one, I suppose an American critic, R. Schickel, who almost derides a film that is considered by everyone as perhaps the best film in the history of cinema, I'm talking about _The Good, the Bad and the Ugly_ .... a film that is far above Hollywood standards and that makes him chew his ass off.
@@Milestonemonger No, dude, Sergio got attention for his filmmaking style, when A Fistful of Dollars was a huge sucess in Italy, and eventually he got attention worldwide, Clint was not even that famous at this point, he was a tv star for a while, but hadn't even one known movie released in teathers, and A Fistful of Dollars made him a household name. He wasn't even Leone's first choice, he wanted Steve Reeves for the role. I mean, Once Upon a Time in the West doesn't feature Clint and is also popular and a masterpiece
