Sergio Leone

Sergio Leone was virtually born into the cinema - he was the son of Roberto Roberti, one of Italy's cinema pioneers, and actress Bice Waleran. Leone entered films in his late teens, working as an assistant director to both Italian directors and American directors working in Italy. Towards the end of the 1950s he started writing screenplays, and began directing after taking over Gli Ultimi Giorni di Pompei in mid-shoot after its original director fell ill. His first solo feature, Il Colosso di Rodi, was a routine Roman epic, but his second feature, Per Un Pugno di Dollari/A Fistful of Dollars, a shameless remake of Akira Kurosawa's Yojimbo, caused a revolution. Although it wasn't the first spaghetti Western, it was far and away the most successful, and shot former TV cowboy Clint Eastwood to stardom. The two sequels, Per Qualche Dollaro In Piu/For A Few Dollars More and Il Buono, Il Brutto, Il Cattivo/The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly, were shot on much higher budgets and were even more successful, though his masterpiece, C'era Una Volta Il West/Once Upon A Time In The West was mutilated by Paramount Pictures and flopped at the US box office. He directed Giu La Testa/Fistful of Dynamite reluctantly, and turned down offers to direct The Godfather in favor of his dream project, which became Once Upon A Time In America. He died of a heart attack in 1989 after preparing an even more expensive Soviet co-production on the World War II siege of Leningrad.


Per Un Pugno Di Dollari/A Fistful Of Dollars - 1964
A wandering gunfighter plays two rival families against each other in a town torn apart by greed, pride, and revenge. Sergio Leone was sued by Akira Kurosawa because this was a blatant remake of his movie, Yojimbo.
Trailer: http://youtube.com/watch?v=s2ar1OB1LSQ

Per Qualche Dollaro In Piu/For A Few Dollars More - 1965
Two bounty hunters with completely different intentions team up to track down a Western outlaw. Perhaps the most compelling of Sergio Leone's films; For A Few Dollars More mirrors the tragic, opera-style of Once Upon A Time in the West. The lives of the three main characters (Clint Eastwood, Lee VanCleef and Gian Maria Volonte), collide; forming a partnership between two: one seeking revenge, and the other money, to end the juggernaut of evil and insanity of the third that is El Indio. The finale follows the design of a great opera by crushing the viewer with emotions of fear. Leone shows us how when the stakes are high, mankind follows his pattern of betrayal. Worth watching repeatedly, as with all of Leone's work, you will discover new layers of emotion with each viewing.
Trailer: http://youtube.com/watch?v=RC6D2DvBbyU

Il Buono, Il Brutto, Il Cattivo/The Good, The Bad, & The Ugly - 1966
A bounty hunting scam joins two men in an uneasy alliance against a third in a race to find a fortune in gold buried in a remote cemetery. Features one of the most instantly-recognizable scores written by the great Ennio Morricone. This is often recognized as one of the greatest movies ever made. If you have not seen it yet, please stop reading this and go watch it!
Trailer: http://youtube.com/watch?v=Xj0gJTGL93Q

C'era Una Volta Il West/Once Upon A Time In The West - 1968
This is my personal favorite of Sergio Leones movies, and one of my all time favorites movies. Featuring probably the greatest opening credits ever put on film. An epic story of a mysterious stranger with a harmonica who joins forces with a notorious desperado to protect a beautiful widow from a ruthless assassin working for the railroad.
Trailer: http://youtube.com/watch?v=49FsaizH9tQ
A bit of the opening credits: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jHZpO6aNLwE&NR=1

Giu La Testa/A Fistful Of Dynamite/Duck You Sucker - 1971
An IRA explosives expert on the run in Mexico meets an amoral Mexican bandit; together they get drawn into the Mexican revolution.
Trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3KhbM_ZG_p0

Once Upon A Time In America - 1984
Epic, episodic, tale of the lives of a small group of New York City Jewish gangsters spanning over 40 years. Told mostly in flashbacks and flash-forwards, the movie centers on small-time hood David 'Noodles' Aaronson and his lifelong partners in crime; Max, Cockeye and Patsy and their friends from growing up in the rough Jewish neighborhood of New York's Lower East Side in the 1920s, to the last years of Prohibition in the early 1930s, and then to the late 1960s where an elderly Noodles returns to New York after many years in hiding to look into the past.
Trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mzhX2PD6Srw