10 Epic Moments In Sergio Leone Films
4. The Other Bridge Explosion - A Fistful Of Dynamite
And so Sergio Leone's troubled relationship with bridges continues!
After kindly preserving the Manhattan Bridge in Once Upon a Time in America, Leone couldn't help but blow up another bridge in his most undervalued western epic, A Fistful of Dynamite, otherwise known as Duck You Sucker... as well as Once Upon a Time: The Revolution. (The complicated history of this film's title was one of many production and distribution errors related to Leone's final Western.)
Despite the film suffering from a mixed critical response upon its release in 1972, it has since been reconsidered as one of the most underappreciated of Leone's works. Starring Hollywood icons Rod Steiger and James Coburn, Leone's assessment of revolution is an entertaining, powerful and in the end harrowing experience, as bandit Juan Miranda reluctantly becomes a hero of the Mexican Revolution.
Whilst not remembered as fondly as Leone's other western classics, the film features by far the most impressive explosive scene of the director's entire filmography. With the Mexican army in hot pursuit of the recently escaped revolutionary prisoners, former Irish revolutionary and explosive expert John Mallory is tasked with disrupting the chase, leading to an outstanding bridge explosion.