doncopey1
Posts: 4981
Joined: 29/11/2005
From: Liverpool: Age 25
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ORIGINAL: directorscut
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ORIGINAL: doncopey1
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ORIGINAL: directorscut
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ORIGINAL: doncopey1
John Ford for me, although I do have a lot, a lot of love for Peckinpah. Anthony Mann's dark brooding depiction of the Western earns him third spot, whilst Budd Boetticher would gain 4th. On Leone for he is a great example of style over substance. Sure they look nice but half the time I don't give a shit (in a sassy Nicholson voice).
For Leone his style is the substance. It is his style that creates the atmosphere, the tension, the excitement, the attachment to characters. The way he cuts between ultra extreme close ups and long shots. The way he edits the scenes to Morricone's peerless music.
If your hair doesn't stand up on you neck during the climatic stand offs of The Good, the Bad and the Ugly and Once Upon a Time in the West then you sir are not alive.
Im not denying he creates some moments of brilliance but to put it differently he relies to much on his style. He has to be the most formulaic director in cinema, his characters are carictures and its lauded upon us with his over stylistic camera work and editing. I'll give you TGTBATU but nothing else. Just my opnion im afraid.
I'm not sure how you can call him formulaic, the man had one of the most distinctive and unique styles (at the time and certainly in the spaghetti western genre) in cinema. He made the Dollars trilogy look as epic as a Hollywood production for only a pittance. If his style has become formulaic over the years it is only because of the countless imitators that have come in his wake. Also the man only made a handful of films so its hardly fair to criticise him for a lack of variety. Even so, the Dollars trilogy is different than the sword and sandal films he made before them, Once Upon a Time in the West is far more elegant than the Dollars trilogy to suit the content of the film and there is a definite change of style in Once Upon a Time in America. Who know what else he would have done had he lived to make more film.
His characters aren't so much caricatures as they are archetypes. He uses his own version of the characters he grew up watching in American westerns. Criticisng this would be like criticising Star Wars or Raiders of the Lost Ark for the same reason. His characters aren't deep but they're not meant to be. The characters were fun, interesting, cool and mysterious - just what they needed to be. He wasn't making dramas to be thought over here, he was making cheapo spaghetti action westerns to sell to an international audiences, and his talent certianly dwarfed anyone else doing the same.
His films are unique from a perspective, but him as a filmmaker hes very formulaic as far as i'm concerned.
I don't see how can you consider his arhetype's a positive thing. What I love about the Western, is that it's rooted in historical depth, and the characters are mythological, steeped in depth and ambiguity. Basically Leone's characters are static depcitions of their character, nothing diverse nor nothing extra oridnary. Henry Fonda is an example in Once Upon a Time... as he personfies the typical caricacture in a Leone picture. Sure he has fun but theres just nothing there, and in the end his performance is a bit over the top, perhaps no fault of his own. Whether or not its fun is a matter of debate, when watching his films I certainly wasn't having the fun whe watching Star Wars and Indiana Jones. Just how I feel on him as a filmmaker, even his masterful Once Upon a Time in America is not without its minor flaws
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"Fake is as old as the Eden tree." Orson Welles
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