BY FRED BLOSSER
Sergio
Leone’s “Giù La Testa,†later retitled not once but twice for American release,
opened in Italy in October 1971 to great expectations by the director’s
fans. According to the preeminent Leone
expert Sir Christopher Frayling, in an informative audio commentary included in
a new Blu-ray edition of the film from Kino Lorber Studio Classics under its
second U.S. title, “A Fistful of Dynamite,†the Italian phrase meant something
like “keep your head down.†In other
words, in times of social convulsion like the bloody 1913 Mexican revolution
portrayed in the movie, save yourself unnecessary grief and keep as low a
profile as you can. Toshiro Mifune’s
wandering samurai in “Yojimbo†offered similar advice: “A quiet life eating
rice is best.†In Leone’s film, James
Coburn and Rod Steiger starred as mismatched partners -- a fugitive Irish dynamiter
and a volatile Mexican bandit -- who learn that you only bring sorrow and
tragedy upon yourself when you leap into the whirlwind of political
turmoil. When the picture reached the
U.S. through United Artists in July 1972, the title was changed to “Duck, You
Sucker,†a rough translation. In a literal sense, it’s the warning that
Coburn’s character invariably utters just before he detonates his nitro
charges. Leone thought it was a common
colloquialism in America. Maybe he was
thinking of “fire in the hole.†United
Artists gave the release decent publicity, selling it as an action movie in a
shorter (by half an hour) cut than the 157-minute Italian print. I remember seeing the ad art of Coburn and
Steiger prominently displayed on a billboard in downtown Pittsburgh that
summer, just before the picture opened. The ad extolled Leone as “the master of adventure.†Around the same time, United Artists Records
released Ennio Morricone’s eclectic soundtrack on vinyl. The New York Times panned the movie, but Time
Magazine offered a mostly positive review, one of the earliest to take Leone on
his own terms instead of dismissing him as a passing curiosity.
However,
audience turnout was sparse, and when the film reached smaller markets like the
one where I saw it in early fall 1972, the studio had renamed it “A Fistful of
Dynamite,†in an attempt to lure audiences who had flocked to Leone’s “A
Fistful of Dollars†and its sequels starring Clint Eastwood. The strategy gave the picture a second chance
in movie houses in that era before home video and streaming video when movies
had to make money at the box office or not at all. However, it didn’t do much
to boost business. In the meantime,
another violent drama about a fugitive IRA gunman in revolutionary Mexico,
Ralph Nelson’s “The Wrath of God,†had opened in theaters. Nelson’s film had
the added commercial advantage of a “Playboy†pictorial. For the record, it didn’t sell many tickets
either despite the publicity afforded by Hef’s magazine. Later, TV and VHS prints of Leone’s movie
retained “A Fistful of Dynamite†as the title, and their pan-and-scan format
ruined Giuseppe Ruzzolini’s beautifully composed Techniscope photography. The first respectful home-video edition
finally appeared in 1996 from MGM Home Video on laser disc. Remember that technology from the dawn of
home theater, sonny? The 1996 laser disc
retained “A Fistful of Dynamite†as the title, but restored the widescreen
aspect of the image and much of the footage missing from previous U.S. versions. “Duck, You Sucker†ultimately resurfaced as
the chosen title for its premier on U.S. DVD from MGM Home Video in 2007.
On
the run from the British government during the Irish Rebellion, explosives
expert John Mallory (Coburn) comes to Mexico to work for German mining
interests. There, traveling through the
desert on a vintage motorbike, he crosses paths with Juan Miranda (Steiger), a
sweaty, hot-tempered bandit who leads a gun-toting gang of robbers. The gang consists of Juan’s elderly father and
Juan’s six sons “by different mothers.†Miranda sees Mallory’s proficiency with explosives as the key to
realizing his long-cherished dream of breaking into the fortress-like Bank of
Mesa Verde. The loot will enable him and
his family to leave Mexico and reach the U.S., where -- like the worst
nightmare of a Trump supporter -- he expects to pursue an even grander career
robbing American banks. After Juan
deviously maneuvers Mallory into a partnership, the Irishman eludes him but the
two reunite in Mesa Verde. There,
Mallory has joined a cell of insurrectionists headed by the dapper Dr. Villega
(Romolo Valli). Villega plots a series
of diversions in Mesa Verde to support two imminent onslaughts by the rebel
commanders Villa and Zapata. One
diversion will be an explosion at the bank, dovetailing with Miranda’s own
obsession of pulling his big heist. Once
the building is blasted open, Juan will lead his kids inside and empty the
vault. But things take a turn he doesn’t
expect, and instead of getting rich from the break-in, he becomes an unwitting
hero of the revolution. For the cynical
Juan, who has no use for politics and no loyalties beyond his rough affection
for his aged father and his sons, it’s a dumbfounding development. Moreover, his new-found notoriety puts him in
the crosshairs of a punitive military expedition led by a ruthless officer in
an armored transport, Col. Gunther Ruiz (Antoine Saint-John).
In
retrospect, it’s easy to see why the film did poorly at the U.S. box office,
first under an opaque title and then
under, arguably, a misleading one. Leone
enjoyed using an elliptical narrative style in which often, as a scene begins
or unfolds, the viewer doesn’t quite know where the characters are or the point
of what they’re doing. Eventually, with
a visual or verbal cue, the meaning becomes clear. Fans enjoy this technique, similar to a
stand-up comic preceding a punchline with an elaborate set-up. Leone trusts that you’re smart enough and
curious enough to stay with him. But the
technique was bound to frustrate 1972 moviegoers who expected a straightforward
shoot-’em-up narrative, based on the poster art of Steiger firing a machine
gun, Coburn displaying a coat lined with dynamite, and a military convoy being
blown up. Some confusion also resulted
from the cuts made for the U.S. release. What happened to the paying job that Mallory was hired for, and if he’s
finished with rebellions as he had implied in one passing comment, why does he
end up collaborating with Dr. Villega’s resistance movement? A scene in the overseas print explained that
Juan had lured John’s employer and a military guard to a remote church, and
then killed them with a blast of Mallory’s dynamite. Mallory, known to be a wanted Irish rebel,
was blamed for the murders; presumably, as the authorities put out their
dragnet, he had only one recourse to slip out of Miranda’s devious grip -- go
underground, seek refuge with the Mexican revolutionaries, and resume his
insurrectionary career.