In the same way that Alfred Hitchcock was renowned as the “Master of Suspense,” Sergio Leone could be called the “Master of Tension” because of his unparalleled ability to create tense moments in his films. Leone directed seven films throughout his two-decade career, including four spaghetti westerns, one Zapata western, one peplum, and one gangster film. One of the most stylish and influential filmmakers in cinematic history, he was renowned for his distinctive visual style. His partnership with Clint Eastwood, with whom he collaborated on three films titled “A Fistful of Dollars (1964),” “For a Few Dollars More (1965),” and “The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly (1966) (also known as The Dollar Trilogy),” which is still considered one of the greatest film trilogies, earned him widespread international recognition. However, Sergio Leone’s most important collaborator was Ennio Morricone, who composed music for all of his films except his first, A Colossus of Rhodes (1961), and they were a match made in heaven because their work together produced some of cinema’s most memorable moments. Most of his films were regarded as epics, whether it was Once Upon a Time in America (1984), The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly (1966), Once Upon a Time in the West (1968), or even his directorial debut, The Colossus of Rhodes (1961), because, according to him, “cinema must be a spectacle, which is what the public wants to see, and for me, the most beautiful spectacle is that of the myth.” Despite having only directed seven features, his filmography was flawless because he never made a bad film. This article will examine Sergio Leone’s filmography in great detail, analyzing his unique visual style, the themes he explored, the characters, and why his films have endured the test of time.
Types of films (themes and genres):
Sergio Leone’s directorial debut, The Colossus of Rhodes (1961), was a Peplum (or Sword and Sandal) film, a popular subgenre in Italy between 1957 and 1964 before the spaghetti westerns took over. These Peplum films emulated Hollywood period epics set in Biblical, Greek, or Roman times, and they frequently featured a protagonist, usually a man with superhuman strength, who rebels against tyrannical rulers and eventually prevails. The female characters were either helpless damsels or ambitious Femme Fatales who became involved romantically or sexually (or both) with the hero. The films often culminate in a battle between civilized and barbaric populations. The Colossus of Rhodes (1961), a studio production that Leone made in an attempt to adhere to the then-current popular conventions of Italian cinema, has all these recurrent features. As a result, it doesn’t feel like a Leone film because his signature style and unique vision (the tension-filled setups, the Morricone score, extended scenes, etc.) that brought him international recognition are missing in this one.
Sergio Leone’s subsequent four features, such as “The Dollar Trilogy” and Once Upon a Time in the West (1968), virtually reinvented the “Western” genre, which had been in decline since the 1950s, in the form of “Spaghetti Western,” primarily produced and directed by Italian filmmakers. He viewed spaghetti westerns as a satire of Hollywood western films, a way to criticize the romanticism of the old West while also debunking many of the genre’s conventions, most notably the representation of heroes as one-dimensional good guys (most John Wayne films) and replacing them with grey characters who are violent, morally ambiguous, and can be considered anti-heroes.
Leone created his own version of the Old West with these spaghetti western films, primarily exploring themes of greed and revenge. For example, in A Fistful of Dollars (1964), a stranger (Clint Eastwood) arrives in town and attempts to benefit from a conflict between two families, exploring the theme of greed. Similarly, in films like For Few Dollars More (1965) and Once Upon a Time in the West (1968), Leone explores the theme of vengeance, with characters like Colonel Mortimer (Lee Van Cleef) and Harmonica (Charles Bronson), respectively, having only one goal: to exact revenge on the villain who has killed someone close to them. One of the primary reasons The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly (1967) is recognized as a masterpiece is the film’s seamless integration of numerous themes. Firstly, Leone returns to the topic of greed, with the three main characters—Blondie (Clint Eastwood), Tuco (Eli Wallach), and Angel Eyes (Lee Van Cleef)—repeatedly crossing and double-crossing each other in quest of gold. Furthermore, the film’s setting during the American Civil War allows Leone to effectively convey the pointlessness of the war and how ordinary people on both sides are the ones to endure the pain of the senseless bloodshed. Beyond that, it’s also an adventure film about three individuals going on wild adventures in pursuit of gold in locations as diverse as cemeteries, prison camps, deserts, and abandoned villages.
Duck, You Sucker (1971), Sergio Leone’s final Western film, can be classified as a Zapata Western, another Western subgenre concerned with the Mexican Revolution, in which the protagonists are typically a Mexican bandit and an American man motivated by money, who band together to overthrow the dictator’s regime. Despite the film’s politically charged setting, Sergio Leone insisted that the “Mexican Revolution in the film is meant only as a symbol, not as a representation of the real one.” Leone goes on to say that the actual theme of the film is “friendship” between Juan, a Mexican bandit, and Johnny Mallory, an Irishman, played by James Coburn and Rad Steiger, during the Mexican Revolution of 1913. This film deviates from Leone’s signature style of packing his scenes with tense moments. Instead, it takes viewers on a wild roller coaster ride through the exploits of Johnny and Juan, who embark on a bank heist plot but quickly become entangled in the Mexican Revolution and confront increasing dangers.
In 1972, Sergio Leone turned down the chance to direct The Godfather, a decision he later came to regret. This decision prompted him to experiment with the gangster genre in his last film, Once Upon a Time in America (1984). From the early days of prohibition into the late 1960s, the epic tale of four gangsters told in Once Upon a Time in America spans over fifty years in New York, touching on themes of friendship, loyalty, betrayal, love, and murder. The film’s non-linear narrative contains flashbacks within flashbacks and switches between them throughout its runtime (a technique first pioneered in The Godfather 2 (1974) that Leone drew inspiration from for Once Upon a Time in America). The film adheres to all the gangster conventions observed in hardcore films of the genre, including the beginning of their gangsterdom and the circumstances that compelled them to enter this profession, followed by their ascent to power, their love lives, violence, betrayal, and eventual downfall as they are left to lament their remaining pitiful existence. With Once Upon a Time in America (1984), Sergio Leone got to work on his passion project, which took over ten years to finish, and the film served as the ideal farewell to his stellar career.
How Sergio Leone creates tension:
Sergio Leone’s filmography was replete with instances of anxiety-inducing moments due to his unique ability to create tension. For example, if two characters are having a showdown, Leone uses his writing to establish uncertain circumstances, making the outcome unpredictable and capable of swinging either way. Then, he slows down the action, literally making the time stand still, and stretches the scene to the appropriate length without going overboard. He accomplishes this by juxtaposing extreme close-ups with lengthy wide-angle shots and cutting to other things (such as people watching in anticipation, if any) before the action occurs suddenly and unexpectedly, startling the audience. Additionally, the sound effects – like crickets chirping, wind blowing, or water droplets dropping from a tap – depending on the scene’s geography, combined with Ennio Morricone’s background score, elevate the tension to a different level. Here are some of the best examples that prove Leone’s mastery of creating tension.
The climactic sequence of The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly is undoubtedly one of the greatest endings in cinematic history. It opens with Blondie (Clint Eastwood), Tuco (Eli Wallach), and Angel Eyes (Lee Van Cleef) all arriving at the grave in the cemetery where the gold stash is buried. They’re all facing each other around the pavement in a Mexican- standoff, and Leone, in his signature style, elaborates on the premise and builds immense anticipation by extending the standoff as long as he can. He accomplishes this by frequently cutting from wide shots of the three characters to extreme close-ups of their faces, followed by close-ups of their hands as they reach for the holstered revolver. He then follows it with very rapid and repeated shots of the three characters’ eyes to heighten the tension, and suddenly, the shootout happens out of nowhere, startling the spectators as the action unfolds. Additionally, Leone allows Morricone’s score to play in its entirety, which raises the excitement and makes the sequence twice as impactful.
The opening scene from Once Upon a Time in the West (1968) is another outstanding example of Leone’s distinctive method of prolonging the action to generate tension and anxiety within the audience. The scene opens with three men wearing dusters entering a train station. The old station master hands three tickets to one of the men, who throws them in his face and intimidates him to the point where he runs away from the station. Now, the three men are waiting, and Leone deliberately exaggerates their wait so that the audience may feel time passing in real-time. To achieve this, he shows one of them sitting motionless as a fly lands on his face, and he futilely tries to get rid of it. Another one is standing beneath a place where water drips down the upper wall and into his hat, which he eventually drinks. The mystery surrounding these men’s activities and motivations adds to the intrigue. After a long wait, the men spot a train approaching and quickly take positions before it pulls into the station. They wait patiently for someone’s departure from the train but fail to see anyone doing so. And then, just as they’re about to leave, convinced that no one has shown up, they hear a harmonica tune, which stops them in their tracks. As the train fades from view, a clear image of a man standing on the other side of the station, plucking his harmonica, appears. Everything comes to a standstill; there is tension in the air, and Leone shows these characters through a series of recurrent wide-angle, close-ups, and extreme close-up shots. Out of nowhere, the harmonica player draws his gun and shoots (and kills) the three men while also getting shot (and injured) in the process. It is a spectacular opening sequence that will take your breath away.
In addition to his visual prowess, Sergio Leone’s films stood out for his skill at constructing tension through his writing. He was always a firm believer in withholding information from the audience for as long as feasible. Take any scene from his films, and you will always find a structure with a beginning, a middle, and an end. And since each scene had its own story, it could serve as a standalone short film. Leone and his writers crafted each scene with the intention of keeping the audience in the dark about its background and purpose until around halfway through. Even after we understand its context, there is always a piece of information he manages to hide and reveal towards the end of that scene to make it more engaging. This approach to scene construction ensures that it retains its freshness even after repeated viewings, which is why his films have aged so well. For example, a scene in For a Few Dollars More (1964) begins with a shot of multiple characters’ legs as they are climbing a building. The scene then cuts to a room where an elderly man sits and observes another mysterious man lying on the opposite side of the room, with his hat covering his face. The characters seen ascending the building in the previous shot arrive outside the room and break the door. The man lying down removes his hat, and the camera reveals his face in a close-up; he turns out to be the film’s main villain, El Indio (Gian Maria Volonte). Only near the end of the scene do we realize that the men scaling the building are El Indio’s posse, who have come to free him from prison. To maintain the scene’s unpredictability, Leone goes so far as to ensure that El Indio’s detention place does not resemble a prison; as a result, the prison appears to be nothing more than an ordinary building. This meticulous attention to detail exemplifies Leone’s commitment and desire to captivate the audience maximally.
As another illustration of Leone’s storytelling prowess, consider a sequence in The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly (1966) involving three bounty hunters pursuing Tuco (Eli Wallach) due to the $2000 reward on his head. Just when the bounty hunters have him cornered and are about to execute him, Blondie (Clint Eastwood) shows up and shoots them all. However, Blondie decides to bring Tuco in by himself and collects the bounty from the authorities. But just as Tuco’s execution is about to take place, Leone pulls a fast one, revealing that Blondie shoots the rope, allowing Tuco to escape and leaving spectators perplexed. Only at the end of the sequence does it become clear that these two are business partners who profit off Tuco’s bounty. Leone’s films are replete with sequences like these, most notably in his five spaghetti Westerns. They never feel formulaic and constantly keep you on the edge of your seat, which makes his films entertaining even after several viewings.
How Sergio Leone uses sound to elevate tension:
A complete filmmaker maximizes the use of all the resources at their disposal. Be it the camera angles, editing, or background score, Sergio Leone manipulated every available tool to his advantage to produce intense dramatic moments. But his use of sound to create tension was distinct and innovative. In The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly (1966), Tuco becomes obsessed with finding Blondie after the latter betrays him, takes his money, and abandons him in the desert. After Tuco enlists the help of his three old pals, they track down Blondie to a hotel in a town where Confederate soldiers are starting to retreat in anticipation of an onslaught by Union forces. After questioning the hotel owners, Tuco and his pals learn the room Blondie is staying in. Thus, the scene opens with the three guys slowly walking towards Blondie’s room on the hotel’s first floor. The scene is then cross-cutted with the one in which Blondie is cleaning his gun in his room, unaware that men are pursuing him. Concurrently, there’s another crosscutting shot outside the hotel of troops on horseback and in marching formation, with the sound of the horses’ hooves and the soldiers’ footfalls amplified. The scene cuts back to the three companions, who continue walking through the hotel alley (Leone shows the close-ups of their shoes), closing in on Blondie’s room. Despite the clomping sounds produced by their shoes, the outside marching noise cancels everything out. The moment they arrive outside the room, the march outside abruptly comes to a halt, and Blondie hears the clomping sound of one of the men’s shoes, making him suspicious. He then swiftly loads his rifle with rounds and shoots the three men as they break into his room. The editing transitions between Blondie cleaning his gun, Tuco’s men walking, and the troops marching outside are all choreographed to perfection. This entire sequence is a masterclass on using sound design to get the desired emotional impact.
The introductory sequence of Frank (Henry Fonda), the main villain in Once Upon a Time in the West (1968), is another example of Sergio Leone’s masterful use of sound. The scene opens with Brett McBain (Frank Wolff) and his family preparing to eat lunch. As his daughter prepares the table in the yard in front of their house, the sounds of crickets and insects constantly buzzing in the background abruptly stop, concerning Brett, who finds it unusual. Leone uses this as a setup because the insects and cricket sounds resume, and the McBain family continues about their business. Brett instructs his eldest son to pick up Jill (Claudia Cardinale), his future wife, from the train station. At that moment, the insect sounds suddenly stop again, and this time, Brett’s daughter gets shot out of nowhere. And that’s when Frank (Henry Fonda), the film’s villain, makes his grand entry and eventually kills everyone in the family.
To understand different ways of utilizing sound design, let’s go back to the opening sequence of Once Upon a Time in the West (1968). Initially, Leone had written it in such a way that he wanted to employ the entire tune Morricone had composed for the scene. However, the attempted blend did not seem to work well. As a result, Leone decided to remove Morricone’s score from the opening train station sequence and record the ambient sounds relating to the scenes (including the squeaking windmill and individual footsteps) after Morricone witnessed a musical performance created using only the sounds of a metal ladder. And this resulted in an exaggerated version of what became known as the “spaghetti sound.”
In Once Upon a Time in America (1984), the film begins with two incredibly violent scenes in which the gangsters are looking for Noodles (Robert De Niro), who has ratted out his friends and is now on the run. Then, the film sets its tone with a scene where Noodles calls the police to tell on his buddies; this call is pivotal to the story since it alters the course of events for everyone involved. To emphasize the importance of the call, Leone amplifies the telephone ringing sound and plays it in the background even before Noodles makes the call.
Leone and Morricone – Cinema’s greatest partnership:
When you think of successful directors in cinematic history, they have all had lasting collaborations with their music composers, be it Alfred Hitchcock and Bernard Hermann, Steven Spielberg and John Williams, David Fincher and Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross, Paul Thomas Anderson and Jonny Greenwood, etc. But the most impactful collaboration was between Sergio Leone and Ennio Morricone, whose music was the backbone of Leone’s films. The key to their fruitful partnership was Leone’s profound comprehension of the role of music in film. He always believed that music is more expressive than dialogue and that when an artist expresses something with visuals and music instead of saying the words on the page, it is always an impactful and complete work. In contrast to most directors, who wait until the film’s shooting is over to commission the soundtrack, Leone would first acquire Morricone’s score and then plan his scenes around it. They had a unique style of working together. Morricone never read any of Leone’s scripts. Instead, Leone would give him a detailed brief regarding the characters’ thoughts and feelings, and Morricone would produce at least five themes for each character from which Leone could choose. As a result, along with the screenplay and visual representation, music played a vital role in strengthening the key characters’ personalities and making them memorable.
An excellent example is the eerie, lonely harmonica tune in Once Upon a Time in the West (1968), which perfectly complements Charles Bronson’s character. Similarly, in For a Few Dollars More (1965), the melancholy pocket tune assigned to Gian Maria Volonte’s villainous El Indio encapsulates the guilt that has plagued him for a long time. Morricone’s score amplified the film’s dramatic impact through the ingenious use of diverse arrangements and instruments like Jew’s harps, dissonant harmonicas, dancing piccolos, bombastic church organs, eerie whistling, thundering trumpets, oddly sung gunfighter ballads, and ghostly vocal choruses—all became trademarks of the Morricone-Leone productions and subsequently of the spaghetti Western genre in general. In an interview, Leone acknowledged this, stating, “I’ve always said that my best dialogue and screenwriter is Ennio Morricone.” From the incredible compositions that Morricone created for Sergio Leone, these are the top five that I love the most and play on repeat.
- “The Ecstasy of Gold” – The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly (1966)
- “Childhood Memories” – Once Upon a Time in America (1984)
- “Main Theme” – For a Few Dollars More (1965)
- “Titoli” – A Fistful of Dollars (1964)
- “Invenzione per John” – Duck, you Sucker (1972)
Characters in Leone’s films:
Sergio Leone may have only directed seven features in his entire career, but his ability to develop memorable characters is one of the primary reasons his films are timeless classics. Among them, Clint Eastwood’s “The Man with No Name” from “The Dollars Trilogy” has to rank among the most iconic characters in cinematic history. On casting Eastwood for the role, Leone said, “More than an actor, I needed a mask, and Eastwood, at that time, only had two expressions: with a hat and no hat.” Along with Leone, Eastwood was instrumental in creating the Man with No Name’s distinctive visual style. He bought the black jeans from a sports shop on Hollywood Boulevard, the hat from a Santa Monica wardrobe firm, and the trademark cigars from a Beverly Hills store. Eastwood also brought props from Rawhide, including a cobra-handled Colt, a gun belt, spurs, and the Poncho from Spain. In terms of mannerisms, he appears to move at a snail’s pace in all his on-screen actions, yet when he pulls out his gun and shoots, he completely outpaces everyone. Eastwood imbues the character with subtle yet impactful details, such as his cigar-smoking style, the habit of encircling himself in the blanket, the stylish way of drawing a gun, etc.
As previously said, Leone’s Westerns often dealt with themes of revenge. In For a Few Dollars More (1965), Colonel Mortimer (Lee Van Cleef) seeks vengeance on the film’s antagonist. The inclusion of Colonel Douglas Mortimer makes the film twice as compelling. Initially, he is the film’s second protagonist, following the man with no name. However, toward the end, he takes over as the lead character since the story centers on him and something extremely personal to him. With this performance, Lee Van Cleef arguably outshines his work in 1966’s The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly, and he kills it as Mortimer. Once Upon a Time in the West (1968) also features Charles Bronson’s Harmonica going after Henry Fonda’s Frank for no other reason than pure vengeance. The revenge element works particularly well in a Western genre because it depicts a world of carnage and plunder, where you are either a hunter or a prey, and survival is a constant struggle. This world is replete with outlaws who kill people for money, bounty hunters who kill outlaws for their bounty, and greedy businesspeople who will do everything to get what they desire (be it money, land, or women). Presenting a man in such a world whose sole purpose is to exact revenge for past wrongs—rather than seeking wealth, land, or anything else—stands out and effectively evokes empathy from the audience.
Sergio Leone chose to include comedic relief in his films after directing For a Few Dollars More (1965), introducing at least one comic character as one of the leads. There was Tuco (Eli Wallach) in The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly (1966), Chayenne in Once Upon a Time in the West (1968), and Juan (Rod Steiger) in Duck, You Sucker (1971). Apart from providing comic relief and being top-tier gunslingers, these personalities received extensive characterization. Leone ensured their dubious actions were justified on paper, endowing their characters with empathy that made us root for them. In The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly (1966), Tuco emerges as the most captivating and intricately developed character. In one scenario, Tuco encounters his priest brother, and the two dispute his decision to embrace a life of crime and become a bandit. However, Tuco firmly replies that he had no choice but to choose the more challenging paths than his brother because this way of life was all he had ever known and accustomed to. We learn more about his background and viewpoint in this scene, which adds depth to the character. Like Tuco, the Chayenne character from Once Upon a Time in the West (1968) provides comic relief in the film. However, unlike Tuco, who lacks sentimentality and is solely motivated by selfish financial gain—to acquire the gold—Chayenne is more compassionate and caring. In the film, a wanted bandit like Chayenne goes out of his way to help Jill break free from her whoring ways so that she can start a new chapter in her life, settle down, and avoid a similar fate to his own mother’s, whom he characterizes as “the biggest whore in town and the finest woman who ever lived”—someone who died trying to escape the rut of prostitution. Finally, in Leone’s last Western, Duck, You Sucker (1971), we meet Juan (Rod Steiger), the most hilarious of the three. His story is interwoven seamlessly with the Mexican revolutionaries’ fight, and he gets a decent amount of character growth as he undergoes the most metamorphosis from a goofy person to the film’s main hero, who plays a vital part in defeating the government’s army.
The menacing villains in Leone’s films were just as formidable and badass as his sleek protagonists. Ramon (Gian Maria Volonte) from A Fistful of Dollars (1964) is a character that is not only sinister but also very astute and intelligent. He is an outright sadist and a ruthless villain who takes pleasure in killing innocent people for his amusement. In For a Few Dollars More (1965), Gian Maria Volonte plays El Indio, a character similar to Ramon, who is equally cruel and brutally murders people. However, El Indio is a more compelling antagonist due to his nuanced characterization as a disturbed man whose previous sins and regrets haunt him and from which he perpetually yearns to escape. However, Henry Fonda’s character, Frank, from Once Upon a Time in the West (1968), is easily the best antagonist in all of Leone’s films. He is the most sinister of Leone’s villains who would stop at nothing to get what he wants, even if it means killing children, and while the character is not as detailed as El Indio from For a Few Dollars More (1965), Henry Fonda’s towering, overpowering, and domineering personality sells it for me. Furthermore, Leone skillfully employs close-ups of Fonda, catching his ominous smile, tobacco-smeared lips, and piercing blue eyes, all of which contribute to his intimidating and somewhat terrifying personality.
If there is one critique of Sergio Leone’s entire body of work, it would be regarding the characterization of Noodle (Robert De Niro) in his final feature film, Once Upon a Time in America (1984). The story is told from Noodles’ point of view, detailing how he and his four pals struggled as street kids in Manhattan in the early twentieth century, resorting to criminal means that began with petty crimes. The group ascends the criminal hierarchy and begins to amass a respectable amount of wealth, but Noodles goes to jail after a violent confrontation with their rival gang. A few years later, after being released from prison, Noodles rejoins his friends, who are now rich bootleggers during the prohibition era. Max (James Woods), Noodles’ best friend, has enormous goals and political ambitions that Noodles does not share. When Max proposes a suicide bank heist, Noodles objects; however, Max refuses to budge and insists on carrying out the plan. To keep him from getting into more problems and being killed, Noodles decides to inform the police, reasoning that he will be imprisoned but will be safe at the very least. However, his strategy fails miserably, and he finds out all his pals are dead. Following that, Noodles goes into hiding for thirty years in Buffalo, New York, using an alias, and eventually returns to Manhattan after receiving a note about the relocation of his dead friends’ graves. With a melancholy tone, the film follows Noodles after 30 years—now old and lonely—as he tries to hide from the world and battles the remorse he feels for betraying his friends and causing their deaths. The point is to empathize with the character and his past actions. However, it is shown earlier in the film that he rapes two women, including his childhood sweetheart, Deb (Elizabeth McGovern), for no reason whatsoever. And it’s not like she wasn’t interested in him. In fact, she genuinely liked him since they were kids and even patiently awaited his return from prison, all the while avoiding relationships with other men. As a result, such a character is difficult to empathize with. Also, particularly upon his release from prison, I found his character dull, aimless, and devoid of intention. By contrast, Max’s character is well-defined as an ambitious, straight-shooter, future-oriented person who pursues his goals relentlessly—good or bad. And he is the best friend anyone could ask for. I can see myself rooting for Max more than Noodles because I couldn’t connect with the latter character.
Conclusion:
Sergio Leone was a maverick filmmaker who made films the way he wanted to and often defied conventions to realize his vision. His signature style and distinct artistic voice were responsible for subverting an old genre, like the Western, and creating a whole new world out of it. His films were instrumental in igniting my passion for cinema and turning me into a cinephile because he made films EPIC in scale, he made movie viewing a FUN experience, and he made movies that had COOL vibes. His work has stood the test of time and will continue to do so as long as the cinematic medium is alive.
Sergio Leone info: IMDB, Letterboxd
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