Sergio Leone (Presentation Script)

Transnational Cinema and Sergio Leone

The question I decided to pursue and as a subsequent result of that, the question I shall answer is question three or as its also known ‘Discuss the concept of the ‘Transnational’ in contemporary film, with specific reference to TWO film texts with a European director’. So without wondering why that sentence doesn’t end in a question mark, I chose Sergio Leone. I will be looking at ‘Per Un Pugno Di Dollari’ and ‘Per Qualche Dollaro In Piu’ also known as ‘A Fistful of Dollars’ and ‘For a Few Dollars More’ for those whose Italian is as good as mine. I will occasionally be referencing other material. Leone commenced existence in Rome, 1929 born to a Silent film actress and a director. At 18 he began working in the industry, writing screenplays and occasionally acting as assistant director. In 1964 he released his first western film ‘A Fistful of Dollars‘. At the time there was no TV in southern Italy resulting in cinema attending being commonplace. In comparison to here where the average person attends the cinema 3 or 4 times a year, then and there it was 2 or 3 times a week. Going to the cinema was a very different experience; people would talk, express boredom and the films would have frequent intervals. When the rotoscoped ‘Bond’esque titles appeared with Ennio Morricone’s score audiences were silenced. Sergio wanted to create a new west, he felt the Hollywood western had become dull, unrealistic and was too clean in terms of the look and morality.

I’m going to start by looking at the story itself, it is a remake of Akira Kurosawa’s ‘Yojimbo’ which was released three years earlier. The tale of a lone Ronin playing two rival criminal organisations against each other was itself influenced in part by American westerns. Samurai stories translate well into the western setting, normally a singular hero upholding justice while advocating violence with great skill requires little adjustments in the new setting. As no one bothered to ask Akira if they could remake is film he demanded payments. In his defence Leone citied the Italian playwrights Carlo Goldoni’s ‘Servant of Two Masters’ as a strong influence on Yojimbo.

When it came to casting Sergio wanted a number of American actors for the lead notably Charles Bronson or Henry Fonda. He simply couldn’t afford them or they turned it down. He was informed of the show Rawhide and after watching an episode requested the star, a young actor named Clint Eastwood. Due to his television contract Clint was prohibited from making films in America but could in Europe. He arrived in Rome bringing his own jeans, boots, guns and even belt. The film was shot in Spain, which at the time was 25% percent cheaper than filming in Italy. Southern Spain gave A Fistful of Dollars locations that have become as iconic as the Poncho. Desolate towns, rough terrain, even the glare of the sun forced Eastwood’s trademark squint.

One of the major collaborators to these films and a prime example of an effective filmmaker/composer relationship is Ennio Morricone. He supplied his former primary school friend with a score like no other. They wanted to create a new sound for the west so utilised whip cracks, natural sounds, choir vocals, odd instrumentation, mariachi trumpets and the fender stratocastor: A guitar regularly associated with surf rock, a clear influence here. The budget hindered Morricone from using a full orchestra should he have wanted to. Sergio has stated that sound is 40% of the film experience, resulting in him paying close attention to sound post production. Gunshots sound like explosions, natural sounds are exploited and exaggerated for effect. On set it was a very different story, on major Italian pictures its common to overdub the sound after. Everyone was speaking their own languages, meaning on some days English, Italian, Spanish and German could be heard while people told jokes and played Frisbee off set, this came as a culture shock to Eastwood. He spoke little Italian and Leone’s English was limited, this led to a lot of ‘Singe qui voit, singe qui fait’ or monkey see monkey do style of directing with Sergio’s few phrases being ‘Watch me Clint’ before acting out what he wanted the actor to do. This means that the American actor start to behave in a very roman way. When the film moved to post-production each actor waxed lyrical in their own tongue relating to the appropriate dub, the rest of the cast being voiced over accordingly. This is why a number of the Mexican gang members cackle after sentences purely as a way of maintaining a level lip sync. This was a low budget film, with money coming from West Germany, Spain and of course Italy. The budget constraints led to them using Techniscope which allows you to use two frames for the price of one. A benefit of this that became apparent was that it kept extreme close-ups in sharp focus, birthing one of Leones signature traits.

A Fistful of Dollars is a multi-national funded, re-invention of the west, with a multi-cultural cast, distinct score, unofficially based on a Japanese film which in turn, might be based on an American novel and an Italian play. To limit this simply as an Italian film would be absurd. However, there’s  two elements I feel illustrates this: The first being the way faces are shot and lit. Where in classic Hollywood cinema a close-up would be used to show expressions and reactions to push the narrative, here they serve a different purpose. A face in these films are used to add to the overall visual style, another element to the screen. How light is treated on these faces is familiar to Renaissance Art. They are shot like portraits. This art movement was big in Europe, especially Italy in the 1400’s and its influence can still be seen in the architecture. The Second being its use of strong catholic imagery. Leone himself isn’t particularly religious. In order to use a crane on set he borrowed one from a nearby film set who had halted filming due to a catholic holiday. Yet still his films retain a level of Catholic influence, The Man with No Name saves an archetype of the Virgin Mary, Joseph and the little baby Jesus. Ramon has a last supper, even the violence is seen as a form of liturgy, Ramon could have easily shot ‘Joe’ in the head but constantly aims for the heart out of ritual. It has been argued that this is done simply to give the original intended southern Italian audience something familiar but I feel its much deeper. While many westerns feature strong symbols of death; the Hangman’s Noose for example, here it is exaggerated beyond standard conventions. You are given this entire town of death adorned with crosses, graves, massacre and widows. San Miguel is a town that fully illustrates the balance between life and death, Eastwood even hides in a coffin and his ‘resurrected’ in a sense for the finale.

This film displays all the stylistic elements that would later become more prominent in his subsequent films. Which moves us onto ‘For A Few Dollars More‘. Regarding the ‘Transnational’ it is worth noting at this point that in the opening credits everyone is using their real names where prior a number of them had adopted pseudonyms. Bob Robertson for Leone, Dan Savio for Morricone and Johnny Wels for Volonte. As the first one was literally the first of its kind American style names were used. No need for that no more as the first one was such a success.


This time round everything is more defined. The Man With No Name was a name that was used on the original posters for A Fistful Of Dollars, there is no mention of it in any of the films. Here Eastwood’s character is going by the name of Manco, a bounty hunter. Where in the first film he wears the poncho at the start and the final scene, he sports it more here. You also see more of the characters sharp wit come into play. Clint was asked to star in the sequel before he had even seen the first but after being sent a rush Italian version he agreed. It is here, from listening to the Italian voice over artist of his character he adopts the signature tone to the role.

For A Few Dollars More would cast another American for a lead role, Lee Van Cleef. He had asked similar actors to before but they turned it down (A Fistful Of Dollars hadn’t been released in America yet). The story goes that he recognised Lee
across a bar in a long black coat and ushered him over and signed him Two day later he was shooting the scene where he’s spies out the window with the telescope.

Once again you get Morricone onboard. Here he has become far more confident. The main theme is much more dramatic, stronger. He utilises the simple melody of the watch, using it to express paranoia, reflect the past, build tension and uses it as a tool of pure expression and drama conclusion and duel in the track ‘La Resa Dei Conti’. With the budget to use a larger orchestra he uses strings but compliments them with the Mariachi horns creating an epic, somehow hopeful march of the death.
These were some of the first westerns to show someone actually getting shot rather than cuts. Opera is also a more prominent influence. Leone as a director wanted these films to have the same magic in them he felt when he watched cinema as a child. The music becomes much more experimental with characters having stronger themes that develop and evolve, though not quite as grand as Once upon a time in the west.

It’s this film that Leone really comes into his own. Like Ennio his style has grown in confidence, longer shots, the close-ups are now far closer to the face and we have the first real circular duel that would become iconic in ‘The Good, The Bad and the Ugly’. You also start to see the way he displays male relationships. Occasionally analysed with homosexual undertones, Sergio disagrees with this, as an only child he felt the absence of siblings and these relationships reflect that yearning for a brother. His sense of humour is also integrated into the film. There’s more jokes in this picture, often at the expense of the official figures which is very common in Italian comedy. Black comedy is also here, notably the last few lines of dialogue. Catholic symbols are for more apparent, Van Cleef is reading a Bible, El Indio massacres A Joseph, Jesus and Virgin Mary even a church organ appears on the score. In a key scene Volonte stands in a church as if administering a sermon only to convince his gang to rob a bank, the secret to which comes from a carpenter. This could all be interpreted as a way of saying religion cannot save you in this west, salvation is not there, morals aren’t easily defined that black and white. However, he possesses strong morals for family which results in the films adhering to the classic Hollywood ideology of ‘No women, no Kids’. When Manco rides into El Paso he interacts with the youth albeit not in a overtly healthy way but in contrast to El Indio’s gang’s arrival where they are treated as pests it’s a bit more positive.

Leone would later dismiss the classification of his films as ‘spaghetti westerns’ as this was being attributed to any western coming out of Italy, including many films of poorer quality. There is a subtext to this, by not wanting his films classified in a title that defines it by its nationality you are being asked to look at it as a piece of cinema rather than a national product. As a result I would argue that Sergio Leones films are a perfect example of why ’Transnational Cinema’ is a more apt way to classify certain films culturally, as even with the civil war setting to ‘The Good, The Bad and The Ugly’ and the end of an era elements displayed in ‘Once Upon a Time in the West’ Leone’s westerns have always been a world of their own. Think that’s about ten minutes, the end.

Carl