Vote for Our Official Top 20

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3128

I’m finally doing it…here is my top 20:

  1. For a Few Dollars More
  2. The Good, the Bad and the Ugly
  3. Once Upon a Time in the West
  4. The Mercenary
  5. The Big Gundown
  6. A Fistful of Dollars
  7. The Great Silence
  8. Death Rides a Horse
  9. Companeros
  10. Django
  11. The Return of Ringo
  12. Bandidos
  13. The Forgotten Pistolero
  14. My Name is Nobody
  15. Run Man Run
  16. Duck You Sucker
  17. Sabata
  18. God Forgives, I don’t
  19. The Grand Duel
  20. Cemetery Without Crosses

Just missing out on my top 20 (in no particular order):
Day of Anger, A Pistol for Ringo, Django Kill, If You Live Shoot, Navajo Joe, If You Meet Sartana, Pray For Your Death

Some discussion points:
FAFDM is at number 1 partly for nostalgic reasons (first spag I remember watching with my dad growing up), but also because of the tighter narrative relative to the more wandering epic that is GBU, but ultimately for me it may as well come down to the flip of a coin as to which of these two Leone classics I think is better.

The Mercenary is higher on my list than most would have it, and I admit it may not be as consistently strong throughout as some of the others that l ranked lower (not to mention that I typically prefer my westerns to be free of cars and airplanes). However, L 'Arena is quite possibly my favorite piece of music to appear on a soundtrack and the duel in the arena is just about on par with the final standoffs in GBU and FAFDM. Furthermore, I prefer the Mercenary to Companeros in part because I’m not always a fan of Milian who can be guilty of being over the top at times (although he is absolutely excellent in the Big Gundown).

Similarly, my ranking of Sabata reflects how much I enjoyed certain parts of the film (for example, Sabata having dinner with Stengel, playing a game of cat and mouse while the music rises to a maelstrom-like crescendo), rather than how it comes together as a whole, with its overuse of acrobatics and gimmicks, and its confusing and at-times nonsensical plot.

On the other hand, some of the much loved classics appear a bit lower on my list for various reasons. For example, I need to give Django another chance because the image quality on the version I watched was subpar, which probably caused it to drop down a couple of spots.

Finally, and admittedly this will probably discredit everything I’ve said, but i have yet to watch a couple of the films on the official top 20: Face to Face, which has proved elusive to find either on DVD or various streaming services despite my best efforts, and Keoma, which is next on my list. So who knows, I might be revising this ranking sooner rather than later.

12 Likes
3129

I think it is consistently strong (except for one scene), and I have it higher in my top 20 (well one rank), and I think it is on of the key works of the genre, as well as for directing as for narrative ideas as for its content.
Actually I think that FaFDM has much more flaws (mainly in the 2nd half), but yes overall The Mercenary is a much underrated movie.

2 Likes
3131

I’d be interested to hear more about the flaws you see in FaFDM… like i said, nostalgia has quite likely made me overlook or even miss some of these.

edited to reply directly to Stanton instead of the general thread.

3132

The story telling is quite confident in the first half, but in the 2nd half it often all goes bonkers, and the directing seems less inspired, but luckily the final duel and the whole ending is very well made, which saves the film. For me FaFDM is a bridging film between the roughness of FoD and the lavish virtuosity of GBU. Actually I think everything which was great in FaFDM was done even better in GBU.

For me the essence of the SW are Leone’s GBU and OuTW and Corbucci’s The Great Silence and The Mercenary. These are nor only the best directed, but also represent the narrative and thematic possibilities of the SW at its best. Interestingly 3 of these were release in late 1968 within 5 weeks.

These 4 films are doubtless the most entertaining Spags, to put it in other words, for me.

2 Likes
3133

Just curious, which scene do you have an issue with?

3134

The scene in which Kowalski and Colomba provoke Paco to a fistfight, including a pig-mud bath and over-the-top slapstick.
Corbucci called Il mercenario a picaresque, so there is by concept some humour in the film, but in this scene it is totally out of balance in an otherwise brilliantly balanced film. Somehow he even “outbalanced” the more serious looking Quien sabe?. :wink:

Il mercenario is different form Django and The Great Silence, but it is a not less cynical film, despite a foxing light-heartedness.

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3135

I like that scene…I think it’s quite funny. But I think you’re right, it does feel a bit out of place.

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3136

The Mercenary is still similar in the sense that it has that Corbucci surrealism to it, which was a big part of his directing obviously. It’s his twisted take on The Good, The Bad and The Ugly with a splash of Quien Sabe? in it.

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3137

Well said …

It is the political Spag that would have fitted Leone’s narrative style better than Giu la testa. But with Leone directing The Mercenary would have run twice as long.

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3138

For sure, but I wonder however if it would lean more towards a revolution / war drama than a western? Corbucci succeeded 100% with making an Italian Western set during the Mexican Revolution, while Leone ended up making a Revolution/War movie inside of an Italian Western, and that is it’s weakness. Leone obviously wanted to do something else, but was forced to work the western formula. I really like the film but in the end the film never reaches it’s full potential because it’s identity is too weak. It’s neither a rabbit or a hare. I personally would rather have a movie about the life and story of John Mallory…

3139

:rofl: Indeed

Can’t say I agree. I like that Leone made another film that wasn’t a million miles away but wasn’t just another western either. After damn near perfecting the genre in his previous three films I love that he went for another approach in a similar medium. I would agree though that it feels like his heart wasn’t with it 100% though.

3140

He did not want to direct Giu la testa himself, but wanted instead to produce the film with a director who directed it in his style. That failed and he was forced to enter the directing chair, but later tried it again with My Name Is Nobody.
Whatever really happened around Giu la testa, it seems that he was not fully convinced of the film. Before Leone’s SWs were always ahead of all others, but with Giu la testa he was plowing a field that was already well prepared by others. Namely by Quien sabe? and The Mercenary.

3141

No totally I agree. I still think it’s a really good if flawed film though. It’s a long way from The Mercenary, which I think is one of the most underrated films ever, but I think it’s way ahead of Quien Sabe?. Really wish I could like that one but every time I’ve tried to watch it I just can’t.

3142

Has the top20 been updated in the SWDb proper? I may have missed out, haven’t checked this topic in a while

3143

@stanton will have to confirm, but I believe he did update it earlier this year - maybe Jan or Feb.

3144

Might aswell make it a Top 21 with the constant battle between Run Man Run and Sartana :wink:

3145

The last update is from February.

I had done another one if we had reached the 200 lists mark, but that did not happen yet.

The next is planned for Jan next year, or maybe a bit earlier if the 200 happens before.

And at the bottom of the list there is always a note when the latest update happened, with a link to that update in this thread here.

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3146

I shall do a shout out to get the 200 happening :slight_smile: