Duck, You Sucker!


Duck, You Sucker!, also known as A Fistful of Dynamite and Once Upon a Time... the Revolution, is a 1971 epic Zapata Western film directed and co-written by Sergio Leone and starring Rod Steiger, James Coburn, and Romolo Valli.
Set during the Mexican Revolution of the 1910s, the film tells the story of Juan Miranda, a Mexican outlaw, and John Mallory, a former member of the IRA and Irish Volunteer Army. After they accidentally meet under less-than-friendly circumstances, Juan and John involuntarily become heroes of the revolution, despite being forced to make heavy sacrifices.
It is the second film of Leone's unofficial Once Upon a Time Trilogy, which includes the previous Once Upon a Time in the West and the subsequent Once Upon a Time in America. The last Western film directed by Leone, it is considered by some to be one of his most overlooked films.

Plot

In revolution-torn 1913 Mexico, outlaw Juan Miranda leads a family of bandits, robs a coach of wealthy men, and rapes a female passenger who insulted him. Passing by on a motorcycle is John H. Mallory, an Irish Republican explosives expert, who works in Mexico as a silver prospector. Juan asks John to help him rob the Mesa Verde National Bank. After John refuses, Juan frames him for the murder of his employer and several soldiers, making him a wanted criminal and offering to "protect" him in exchange for his help. John reluctantly agrees, but escapes on the way to Mesa Verde.
Arriving in the city before Juan, John makes contact with revolutionaries led by physician Dr. Villega and agrees to use his explosives in their service. When Juan arrives, John inducts him into the revolutionaries' ranks. The bank is hit as part of an orchestrated attack on the Mexican army. Juan, interested only in money, is shocked to find that the bank has no funds and is instead being used by the army as a political prison. After freeing several prisoners, Juan inadvertently becomes a "glorious hero of the revolution".
The revolutionaries are chased into the hills by an army detachment led by Colonel Gunther Ruiz. John and Juan volunteer to stay behind, armed with machine guns and dynamite. Much of the detachment is destroyed while crossing a bridge, which John explodes. Ruiz, however, survives. After the battle, John and Juan find most of their comrades, including Juan's father and children, have been killed by the army. Enraged, Juan decides to fight the army single-handed, and is captured. John sneaks into camp, where other revolutionaries are being executed by firing squad. They were informed on by Dr. Villega, who has been tortured by Ruiz and his men. This evokes in John memories of a similar betrayal by Nolan, his best friend in Ireland. Nolan identified John, who killed two British soldiers and then killed Nolan, making himself a fugitive and forcing him to flee Ireland. Juan is facing a firing squad when John saves him with dynamite.
After escaping on a motorcycle, John and Juan hide in the animal coach of a train. It stops to pick up the tyrannical Governor Don Jaime, who is fleeing from revolutionary forces. As the train is ambushed, John lets Juan choose between shooting Jaime or accepting a bribe from him. Juan kills Jaime, also stealing the governor's spoils. Juan and John decide to flee to America with the money, but as the door opens, Juan is greeted by the revolutionaries. The money is taken away by the revolutionaries, so Juan and John are forced to stay in Mexico.
On a train with commanders of the revolution, John and Juan are joined by Dr. Villega, who has escaped. John alone knows of Villega's betrayal. Pancho Villa's forces will be delayed by 24 hours, and a train carrying 1000 soldiers and heavy weapons, led by Ruiz, will arrive that evening, which will surely overpower the rebel position. John suggests they rig a locomotive with dynamite and send it head on. He requires one other man, but instead of picking Juan, who volunteers, he chooses Villega. Villega realizes that John knows of the betrayal, but does not judge him. John pleads with him to jump off the locomotive before it hits the army's train, but Villega feels guilty and stays on board. John jumps in time, and the trains collide, killing Villega and several Mexican soldiers.
The revolutionaries' ambush is successful, but as John approaches to meet Juan, he is shot by Ruiz. Enraged, Juan kills Ruiz with a machine gun. As John lies dying, he continues to have memories of Nolan, and of a woman they both apparently loved. Juan kneels by his side to ask about Villega. John only says that Villega died a hero of the revolution. As Juan goes to seek help, John sets off a second charge he secretly laid in case the battle went badly. Horrified, Juan later stares at John's burning remains and forlornly asks, "What about me?"

Cast

  • Rod Steiger as Juan Miranda, is a Mexican peon leading a band of outlaws composed mostly of his own children. He does not care about the revolution at first, but becomes involved after his encounter with John.
  • James Coburn as John H. Mallory, is a Fenian revolutionary and explosives expert. Wanted for killing British forces in Ireland, he flees to Mexico, where he ends up getting involved in another revolution.
  • Romolo Valli as Dr. Villega, is a physician and commander of the revolutionary movement of Mesa Verde.
  • Maria Monti as Adelita, is a wealthy female passenger on the stagecoach robbed and raped by Juan at the beginning of the film.
  • Rik Battaglia as General Santerna, is a commander leading the Mexican revolutionary army.
  • Franco Graziosi as Governor Don Jaime, is the corrupt and tyrannical local governor.
  • Antoine Saint-John as Colonel Günther Ruiz, is a ruthless commander leading a detachment of federales and the main antagonist of the film.
  • Vivienne Chandler as Coleen, is John's girlfriend; she appears only in flashbacks.
  • David Warbeck as Nolan, is John's best friend, also an Irish nationalist; he appears only in flashbacks.

    Production

Development

The development of Duck, You Sucker! began during the production of Once Upon a Time in the West, when Sergio Leone's collaborator Sergio Donati presented him with an early treatment of the film. Around the same time, political riots had broken out in Paris, and the ideals of revolution and left-wing nationalism had become popular among university students and filmmakers across Europe. Leone, who had used his previous films to deconstruct the romanticization of the American Old West, decided to use Duck, You Sucker! to deconstruct the romanticized nature of revolution, and to shed light on the political instability of contemporary Italy.
Leone, Donati, and Luciano Vincenzoni worked together on the film's screenplay for three to four weeks, discussing characters and scenes for the film. Donati, who had previously acted as an uncredited script doctor for The Good, the Bad and the Ugly, conceived Juan Miranda's character as an extension of Tuco from The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly. Meanwhile, Leone was largely responsible for the character of John Mallory, and the film's focus on the development of John and Juan's friendship. At times, however, Leone, Donati, and Vincenzoni found that they had highly differing opinions about how the film should be made, with Leone wanting to have the film produced on a large scale with an epic quality, while Donati and Vincenzoni perceived the film as a low-budget thriller.
Leone never intended to direct Duck, You Sucker!, and wanted the film to be directed by someone who could replicate his visual style. Peter Bogdanovich, his original choice for director, soon abandoned the film due to perceived lack of control. Sam Peckinpah then agreed to direct the film after Bogdanovich's departure, only to be turned down for financial reasons by United Artists. Donati and Vincenzoni, noting the director's frequent embellishment of the facts concerning his films, claim that Peckinpah did not even consider it - Donati stated that Peckinpah was "too shrewd to be produced by a fellow director". Leone then recruited his regular assistant director, Giancarlo Santi, to direct, with Leone supervising proceedings, and Santi was in charge for the first 10 days of shooting. However, Rod Steiger refused to play his role as Juan unless Leone himself directed, and the producers pressured him into directing the film. Leone reluctantly agreed, and Santi was relegated to second unit work.
The inspiration for the firing-squad scene came from Francisco Goya, and in particular from his set of prints The Disasters of War. Leone showed the prints to director of photography Giuseppe Ruzzolini to get the lighting and color effects he wanted. The film is believed to have been influenced by Peckinpah's The Wild Bunch, and it shares some plot elements with Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid, a Western film also starring Coburn and released a year later. Leone biographer and film historian Sir Christopher Frayling noted that Duck, You Sucker! was made in a period of Italian cinema where filmmakers were "rethinking" their relationship with fascism and the Nazi occupation of Rome. He has identified numerous references to both world wars in the film, such as Colonel Reza's commanding of an armored car resembling a Nazi tank commander, the massacre of Juan's family, and an execution victim resembling Benito Mussolini.

Casting

Casting the lead roles of Duck, You Sucker! proved to be a difficult process. The role of John Mallory was written for Jason Robards, who had played Cheyenne in Once Upon a Time in the West, but the studio wanted a bigger name for his character. Clint Eastwood was then approached by Leone for the role, but he saw it as just a different take of the same character he had already played in the Dollars Trilogy, and he also wanted to end his association with the Italian film industry. As a result, he declined the offer and starred in Hang 'Em High, instead. George Lazenby was then approached to play John, but he declined. A young Malcolm McDowell, then mostly known for his performance in if...., was considered for both John and Nolan, John's Irish friend, but Leone eventually settled on James Coburn to play John. Coburn had previously been considered for other Leone projects, including A Fistful of Dollars and Once Upon a Time in the West. He had also previously been considered for a role in another United Artists-financed Zapata Western, Sergio Corbucci's The Mercenary, but Franco Nero was later cast in what was originally his role.
The role of Juan Miranda was written for Eli Wallach, based on his performance as Tuco in The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly, but Wallach had already committed to another project with Jean-Paul Belmondo. After Leone begged Wallach to play the part, he dropped out of the other project to play Juan. Rod Steiger owed the studio another film, though, and they refused to back the picture unless Steiger was used. Leone offered no compensation to Wallach, and Wallach subsequently sued.
Leone was initially dissatisfied with Steiger's performance in that he played his character as a serious, Zapata-like figure. As a result, tensions rose between Steiger and Leone numerous times, including an incident that ended with Steiger walking off during the filming of the scene when John destroys Juan's stagecoach. After the film's completion, Leone and Steiger were content with the final result, and Steiger was known to praise Leone for his skills as a director.