Circle of Death

Tumbleweeds.

I have seen only three of Sergio Leone's movies - For a Few Dollars More; The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly; and Once Upon a Time in the West.

Amazing films, all of them. It is rare that I recommend anyone see a movie of any kind because people's tastes are too variant to predict something so personal as a favorite film. Movies touch us all in different ways, and it is hard for me to gather how one film would affect one person in a particular way. But there are exceptions that I feel transcend personal tastes and offer enough substance to cover just about everyone. My top three movies of all time are must sees.

Everyone living in the world today needs to sit down for an hour and forty five minutes to watch Network. It is not only a timeless classic, it is eerily and accurately prophetic. Kung Fu Hustle is just such a fun, hilarious, and beautiful movie that is perfect for people who just like to see a lot of cool action. At the same time, it is a full on homage to classic Hollywood with references to Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers, The Shining, Looney Tunes (most notably the Roadrunner and Wile E. Coyote), and the classic John Ford hero entrance where we first see our protagonist from the ground up. As for the third, I need say no more than The Shawshank Redemption.

Sergio Leone is the Godfather of Italian Western cinema. He made Clint Eastwood a star and Henry Fonda a villain. He made Eli Wallach a Mexican, Jason Robards a washed up gunslinger, Lee Van Cleef a classic, troubled cowboy hero in one movie and the classic, sinister cowboy villain in the next, and he put Charles Bronson on the map as a leading actor. He did all that in these three movies.

The greatest thing about Leone's films is that they tend to be precise and deliberate. Another way to describe them is slow. Painfully slow. They are all at least two and a half hours long, and there is not a lot of dialogue. They might almost be considered elaborate mood pieces because Leone uses imagery, camera angles, lighting, subtle movements, natural and embellished sound to tell the story. It is always very hard to tell what is happening until after something actually happens. He gives us time to think about it, then hits us with it full force in magnificent shootouts and improbable escapes.

They tend to drag a bit in the middle, which is usually when most of the story is fleshed out. We discover motivations, character backgrounds, plot points, and all the boring stuff that moves a movie forward. Those sequences are usually meaningless in the grand scheme of the film, and only distract from the overall experience. I'll usually catch the Simpsons or Stargate SG-1 during those sections.

Sergio Leone tends to use thematic devices, as well. He will introduce an innocuous object (a musical locket, a harmonica) at the very beginning, and he uses it so much throughout the movie that the audience, I suppose, is meant to take it for granted. We know that it is important because he keeps showing it to us, but maybe it is just a part of the character and maybe it only means something to him. Invariably, it becomes the latch that encloses a giant circle, reminiscent of that other classic adventure film, The Princess Bride. "Hello. My name is Inigo Montoya."

That moment of closure always takes place within the boundaries of a circle of stone, when the antagonist and protagonist finally face off for their quick draw show down (although in Once Upon a Time..., it was a half circle). Again, the set up is painfully slow, and the pay off is mind-numbingly quick. The long pause and camera shots pull the viewer into the tension, everyone waiting for something bad to happen. The points of view flash between extreme closeups of dirty faces and steady fingers hovering over cocked six-shooters. We sit and wait, never blinking. Before you hear the sounds of gunshots, the villain falls dead in the circle of death.

David Stern might not make a good Henry Fonda, but Steve Nash is a fine alternative to Charles Bronson. Maybe even Clint Eastwood, although Stern would still make for a terrible Lee Van Cleef (bad ass actor - look him up).

Kurt Thomas, a washed up gunslinger. Amare Stoudemire, a superstar in the making. Shawn Marion, a Mexican to do all the dirty work. Boris Diaw, good guy one year, villain the next. It goes on and on.

I wonder how this particular trilogy versus the Spurs will end. To end the final installment of "the man with no name" trilogy, The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly, Leone had a white-hatted Eastwood gun down Van Cleef in his Sunday blackest. The same Van Cleef who, in the second installment, For a Few Dollars More, played the gunslinger with the vendetta against the outlaw, and who took the young gunslinger under his tutelage. I haven't seen the first film, Fist Full of Dollars, but I did see the 2005 Western Conference Finals.

Maybe all that doesn't matter, because in Once Upon a Time in the West, a young Charles Bronson found his revenge on the former John Ford poster child for the all American cowboy hero, Henry Fonda. In one fell swoop and horrible act of unheard of violence, Fonda shed his glimmering good guy image and became the consummate villain, capable of deeds none thought possible - deeds like shooting a ten year old boy to death as his character's introductory action.

He played dirty, and Harmonica exorcised his demons in quick draw, shot clock expiring fashion.