Duck, You Sucker!

A Marxist quote followed by someone urinating on ants is a most peculiar way to begin a film, and I wish "peculiar" was the worst thing I could say about "Duck, You Sucker!" The second (and more commonly forgotten) part to the second trilogy Sergio Leone is most famous for, "Duck, You Sucker" (sometimes known as "A Fistful of Dynamite" and sometimes known as "Once Upon A Time...the Revolution") has pretty terrible acting, dismal dialogue, and overall presents nothing compelling whatsoever. It's a long, at times miserable, mess.

Rod Steiger is Juan, a thief and loyal father of many children. Where we first meet him (it's him, incidentally, who is doing the urinating), he hops on a large stage wagon filled with a grotesque band of racists enjoying copious amounts of food. But soon we find things aren't what they seem--Juan and his many sons are to rob these individuals. This is a shaky start to the movie, but it quickly becomes downright disturbing. After the sabotage, Juan corners the sole female in the party and rapes her. Because there are other examples of rape in Leone's films, like in "Once Upon A Time in the West" and "Once Upon A Time in America," this film is not unique, but as blogger John Bleasdale pointed out, "Duck, You Sucker!" was the first time in his films where the protagonist committed the crime, though it hardly seems that Leone even thought of such acts are criminal. He awkwardly defended the rape scene in "Once Upon A Time in America" by calling it an "act of love." Why is it that there is such violence and mistreatment of women in Leone's films, and why is he rarely criticized for it?

What could have been yet another example of Steiger's ability to be a chameleon of an actor quickly evolves into a horrendously annoying performance. He slaps around his children and spends most of the rest of his time parading about and unleashing a massive barrage of stereotypes. Steiger's performance might be one of the cinema's most irritating portrayals ever, and he's matched by an awful "Lucky Charms" accent by his co-star. The said co-star is James Coburn, who shows up on a motorcycle almost immediately after the raping and pillaging of the opening scene. Coburn plays John, an Irish revolutionary and quite the fan of explosives, so much so that if some of them go off simultaneously, "they'll have to alter the maps." Coburn seems to be going in and out of his attempts at an Irish accent, and even with all the camp, it's difficult to take seriously his frequent use of saying "duck, you sucker." So off they go, John and Juan, not exactly fond of each other and prone to trick one another, but they become revolutionaries together in Mexico in 1913.

At this point (barely a third into the movie), it becomes more than clear that this is one of Leone's weakest movies. There is hardly anything to praise in in; it's a dull, boring misfire in between two stronger films, which makes it such an odd trajectory, since the "Dollars" trilogy might be the only trilogy in cinematic history that gets better with each film. Unlike Leone's "The Good, the Bad and the Ugly," the greatest western in history, "Duck, You Sucker!" is a film you are likely to care less and less about as it progresses, and just about everything in it is uninteresting: its macho duels, its attempts at humor, its use of history (if it can be called that), its technical design. Coburn and Steiger do have their moments, with some instances of genuine chemistry and rivalry, but most of the time, it's flimsy performances from two very talented actors.

"Duck, You Sucker!" has all the big, grand, epic movie-making that is expected, but there are far too many flaws.