Ranking the Films of Sergio Leone

This was a tricky one to decide. By my understanding, the debate over exactly what is Sergio Leone's greatest film seems to be a three-way tie between Once Upon a Time in the West, The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly, and Once Upon a Time in America, all of which have a group of devoted fans. I can see why all of them are at the top, so it was hard to decide which to put first. I chose Once Upon a Time in the West mainly because of its unique structure based entirely around music and visuals (it's kinda like the Western equivalent of 2001: A Space Odyssey, and even came out the same year) combined with some amazing sound editing.

It's hard to compare this one to Leone's other work. In some ways, the fact that this was his only successful film that wasn't a Western actually makes it seem out of place, but on the other hand, that makes it so good. The fact that Leone did somewhat manage to branch out and make this incredible epic about gangsters, and it's a shame that he died before he could branch out further with a movie about Leningrad.

This is just a really fun movie that can be watched over and over again, but it is also a really well-directed film that can be looked at multiple ways- on the one hand, its an exciting action adventure film with a mix of humour, drama, and suspense; but on the other hand it is a brutal and violent anti-war film which shows just how the Civil War destroyed America. The fact that it took two seemingly incompatible ideas, and put them together in a movie that is both fun and emotional definitely makes this one of his best works.

Probably not as good as Once Upon a Time in the West, but a clever idea nonetheless. It is an effective anti-war film and it is interesting to see Leone take an unusual approach towards the concept of revolution by showing it as a horrifyingly violent experience that ultimately destroys society and does more harm than good. There is also some clever sound editing such as the use of sound bridges to end flashbacks and the scene with the upper class citizens in the stagecoach.

Definitely a good way for Sergio to practice the skills he learned in A Fistful of Dollars. The Man With No Name is definitely a lot quieter and he is made much more mysterious, making him closer to the much more famous version from The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly. There is good chemistry between Clint Eastwood and Lee Van Cleef, and it is interesting to see Sergio explore the relationship between the two.

This isn't neccessarily a terrible film on its own, but when compared to the others, it's pretty flawed. The characters are mostly flat and the acting is not all that great. It's a great film for Leone to start with and also a good one to see as an introduction to his work, but still not as good as his better-known masterpieces. There is also the fact that the plot is taken from the earlier film Yojimbo.