Sergio Leone

For me it's "Once Upon a Time in the West", an easy choice although all his "major" films are superb. It is simply the most poetical movie I have ever seen and one of my all time favourites. Leone was a truly unique director.

edit: My 2nd choice would be "Once Upon a Time in America".


Edited by geezer

I went with OUATIA. As brilliant as his spagetti westerns were, they were still a genre you just can't take too seriously. OUATIA was labor of love for Sergio. Has anybody seen the Italian tv version of this? About 6 hours wasn't it?

fandango wrote: I can't argue with anyone's choices on this poll...they are all superb.  I have voted for The West, because it is probably the closest to moviemaking perfection he ever came to, although I absolutely LOVE Good, Bad, Ugly...and I have a large framed movie poster of America on my wall. I also think that Fistful of Dynamite is severely underrated...nuff said.

That opening scene with the fly in The West is great! And you're right about Dynamite being underrated.

All masterpieces, but The Good, The Bad and the Ugly gets my vote.

hugo wrote: Does anyone know if Duck you Sucker will be coming out on dvd anytime soon??? I'd love to see that. The rest are utter masterpieces, some of the best films ever made.

It's widely available on Region 2 at a budget price, if you have a multi-region player..

All of them are excellent!

Eetu Pellonpää wrote: marktheshark wrote: I went with OUATIA. As brilliant as his spagetti westerns were, they were still a genre you just can't take too seriously. OUATIA was labor of love for Sergio. Has anybody seen the Italian tv version of this? About 6 hours wasn't it? I did similar choose. Didn't know about the Italian TV version! I'll start searching now.

Right now I'm watching it again for the umpteenth time and I just never get tired of it. There are 5 versions of this film that I know of and I've seen 4. They go like this:

The U.S. theatrical release condensed:
Disasterous! Chopped by almost 90 min and re-arranged in chronological order without the stylish flashback transitions that made the original so compelling. Not to mention the story is practically incomprehensible!

The U.S. home video long version:
Pretty faithful to the original Cannes film festival version except for a few minor snips. Deniro's girlfriend Eve at the beginning gets shot once instead of twice. The rape sequence with Deniro and McGovern in the back of the limo is toned down. Also that's missing is the flashback in old Noodle's head at the end when he thinks over about killing Max.

The original Cannes version (now on DVD):
See above.

The U.S. network television version:
Despite the snipping of the violence, nudity and profanity, they still screwed around with the editing and shortened it by about 30 min.

And then there's the Italian TV version which is supposedly about 5-6 hours! Loved to see that one!


Edited by marktheshark

Thank you very much "marktheshark" for your list!  I have the Cannes vs. DVD, and it's one of my top10 personal favourites. Do you (or anybody else) know the italian name of the movie? I would help searching the tv-series from web...

...or from p2p...

Got to be the Good the Bad and the Ugly.

Great characters, incredible setpieces and laugh out
loud humour (most of it revolving around Eli
Wallach's wonderful Tuco).

Also Morricone's best soundtrack and one of the few
where the music is so good you can listen to it on its
own merits.

Edited by Drachen Theaker

good bad & ugly, followed by giu la testa!