Welcome to episode 35. Today, we discuss the 70′s long ass western, “Duck You Sucker”.
Not familiar with the movie? Take a look at IMDB for more information.
Join Scott, Randy, Brian and Ibbott as we load up in our 6 wheeled wagon and sing “Shum Shum Shum” all the way to the revolution.
Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
- Direct MP3 Download
- iTunes Link
- RSS Feed
As usual, a HUGE thanks to Scott Fletcher, the official announcer of Film Sack Central.
Hey! Why not leave us a nice review on iTunes if you like the show?
Up next episode? Revenge of the Nerds.
I haven’t yet listened to you guys this week but, in relation to the movie…
Why the hell do they show a shadow of his penis in the first 2 minutes of the movie?!?
You guys are hilarious and I hope you continue for a long time to come. As to why this movie may not have been as good as some of Sergio Leone’s other westerns. I saw an old interview once where Sergio explained he didn’t want to do anymore westerns but due to the success of the Fist Full of Dollars trilogy the studio wanted another western before they would fund anything else. So you get Duck You Sucker.
Anyways keep the episodes comming!
Did Ibbott drop an F-bomb around the 52 minute mark?
I’m thinking this is the funniest yet! I was laughing like crazy at work. Also, this movie sounds like it totally sucked.
Shh-shh-sh*t-shh!
Turns out that “greaser” does make sense in this movie.
Greaser was a derogatory term for a Mexican in what is now the U.S. Southwest in the 19th century. The slur likely derived from what was considered one of the lowliest occupations typically held by Mexicans, the greasing of the axles of mule carts. It was in common usage among U.S. troops during the Mexican-American War.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greaser_(derogatory)
I’m surprised how much you all disliked this movie. I thought it was pretty good.
I don’t think Leone ever really cared about accurate overdubs, since he could barely speak English himself (he came up with the title Duck You Sucker, didn’t he?). Also, being Italian, he was probably aware that the international market has always been a lot more forgiving about bad overdubs than American audiences.
This was a long movie, but not nearly his longest. The Good The Bad and The Ugly is longer by about 30 minutes. (And has even worse dubbing. Remember the alcoholic Union general near the end?) His last movie, Once Upon a Time in America is four hours long (and a two-parter on dvd too, Brian). It’s a gangster movie, not a western though, and I don’t recommend it unless you like movies with lots of gratuitous rape and awkward sex scenes.
Leone is a great director, but he was never concerned with too much realism in his movies, which make them so much more interesting than the old American-made westerns. I think a lot of Europeans have a very romanticized idea of the Wild West, and don’t realize how boring and dirty it actually was. This is to their benefit, as Leone made better, more memorable westerns than anything John Wayne was ever involved in, IMO.
My take on the thee-way kiss flashback near the end was that the woman was a prostitute the two men shared, not a lover (a sort of twist ending, as it shows them being affectionate throughout the flashbacks). I didn’t read into any homosexual subtext at all. According to IMDB the audio commentary on the DVD indicates that they were just involved in an old-fashioned love triangle.
The score did not seem too out of place for one composed by Ennio Morricone. He tends to incorporate a lot of weird sounds for his Leone compositions. While they may be remembered more for being bizarre than beautiful, it serves to remind the viewer of the highly stylized setting the movie takes place in. Also, I thought the Shon-shon-shon motif was a reference to John’s alias. Didn’t he first introduce himself as Sean, but settled for John when Juan couldn’t pronounce it?
I was surprised by how little you enjoyed the movie. I thought that it had a lot of interesting and complex characters stuck in complicated situations. It reminded me a lot of the unsteady alliance between Blondie and Tuco in The Good the Etc… (which is my favorite western). I liked the plot turns, the story arcs, and I thought there were some pretty cool explosions too: The bridge, the locomotive collision at the end, and whenever John felt like blowing something up. Also, I thought it was funny when Juan shot Gunther’s corpse across the ground with the gatlin gun, while it was clearly just being dragged with a wire.
None of you guys have ever seen “In The Heat Of The Night”? Steiger was the cop and Poitier was the northern detective in the south. The movie won Best Picture and Steiger won Best actor. Seriously Scott? All you remember is rose colored glasses?
I do love the p-cast. You guys are awesome.
That was the 1967 Oscars (held in ’68). Other Best Picture nominees were “Bonnie and Clyde”, “Doctor Dolittle”, “The Graduate”, “Guess Who’s Coming To Dinner” (another Poitier film – he wasn’t even nominated that year.)
Best Actor nominees were Warren Beatty (“Bonnie and Clyde”), Dustin Hoffman (“The Graduate”), Paul Newman (“Cool Hand Luke”), Spencer Tracy (“Guess Who’s Coming To Dinner”) and Steiger.
I cannot believe you guys made me watch this movie!
I can’t even that I watched it – I pretty much zoned out halfway through and stopped watching it with 40 FRIKKIN minutes to go.
Watching the first scene with the Mexican takeover of the wagon and the introduction of the Irish terrorist, I thought this was going to be a pretty epic movie.
It turned out to be a boring, drawn-out Western with absolutely no drive.
Seriously, stick to the overly-cheesy stuff, and try not to choose a movie that’s nearly 3 HOURS LONG!
Man I could barely make it thru this one…had it ended when they blew up the bridge, that might have been OK…but nooooooooooooooo….
The ‘cast was great per usual, even if the movie was kinda painful lol
But I’m thrilled for next week’s, Nerd Ho
@danny great points. I didn’t hate the movie. I just hated certain aspects of the movie. One more close up of someone’s eyes and I was going to scream. This should have been called “Look Sucker.”
I know Leone was trying to make some sort of commentary. However, I am so far removed from that era and society that I failed to find the point he was trying to make. Politically, morally or societal.
The love triangle for instance. I needed more explanation for it’s place in the film to understand that it was indeed a love triangle. This was far too important of an aspect of the character not to clarify. I like some things left open to interpretation but this was one I would have liked explained without having to scour the internet for people’s opinions.
It mostly came down to expectations. We thought we were going to get a spaghetti western and instead we got this hybrid that was interesting to watch at points but not what we were expecting.
Once again. I did not hate the movie. As a matter of fact it is quite a good film artistically speaking.
Thank to all of you guys and gals. I love these kind of discussions. Thanks @danny
If you really want some classic Coburn…check out his “FLINT” series. “Our Man Flint”, “In Like Flint”
BTW/ Scott..you need to give a shout out to my friends website
wwww.suitupscene.com
Scott, as a fan of westerns, I highly recommend that you check out Once Upon a Time in the West. Jason Robards, Charles Bronson, Claudia Cardinale, and Henry Fonda as a fantastic bad guy! Cross type casting worked really well in this case. Also appearances by Keenan Wynn and Jack Elam. Yeah, it is also long, but personally, I think it may be Leone’s best.
On another note, I love the show! I especially love having to refrain from yelling (good naturedly) at my iPhone on the commuter bus when you guys get a name or title wrong. I feel like I’m hanging out with some good friends talking film and get frustrated that I can’t just chime in.
Great episode, as always. It’s refreshing to see folks who really love the movies looking at them with their own perspectives. There are plenty of film critics who would have blanched at Scott’s comment that Leone is over-rated. But I see Scott’s point.
One thing about this particular episode…you guys pointed out that it was anachronistic, since Mallory, an Irish nationalist, was out of his proper time, being in the Wild West and all. The Mexican Revolution took place in 1920-1925, at the same time as the Irish revolution, so Mallory’s being an IRA guy in the Mexican revolution was possible, if perhaps implausible.
For the record, Sun Tzu wrote “The Art Of War.” In any case, keep up the great work. “There’s a hole in the roof!” is totally going to be my new catch phrase.
Let’s address the love triangle flashback. I may be mistaken, but I believe the other guy is the traitor he shot in the pub.
Now that you’ve covered Zardoz — big name star (Sean Connery) in unintelligible future apocalypse, you should look at Quintet. Big name star (Paul Newman) in unintelligible future apocalypse on ice.
John Mallory (James Coburn) was an early Irish Republican in the film, it did not say he was a member of the IRA. The Republican movement started centuries before the IRA was formed. For all we know he could have been a member of the Irish Republican Brotherhood which was founded in the 19th century or any other of number of groups.
It is not unbelievable that he could have been an Irish Republican in 1913.
Maybe you could make changes to the page name title Film Sack #35: “The one about Duck You Sucker†| The Film Sack Podcast! to more suited for your subject you make. I enjoyed the blog post even sononetheless.