The worst of the worst Leone Westerns.
Leone destroyed the Westerns with his garbage, but the blame goes on to the critics who praised his lack of motivation, lack of inspiration, lack of credibility, lack of entertainment value, lack of strategy, just a total lack.
This is the worst of his stupid Westerns. It's the most contrived of his contrived Westerns.
It's another "classical Greek hero" story of gods, demigods, and cannon fodder. The more of a homicidal maniac you are, the more of a god you are. Great message.
Here, we have a traditional Greek demigod hero who is out for revenge, the usual Hollywood formula.
He wants to kill Frank, whose only motivation is sadistic killing, because Fank killed his brother.
So, what does our traditional hero do? He kills everyone else but Frank, including men who are trying to kill Frank (Henry Fonda).
I told you it was stupid, and that there was no way to buy into the motivation for the characters.
This one is the dumbest of the dumb Westerns. What's more, it's also worse because of all the waste. Why waste actors like Fonda, Robards, Bronson, Elam, and Strode on this stupid screenplay?