Tuesday, September 02, 2008

Grudge Match: The Leone-Off

As electric guitar music plays on the soundtrack, two men stand at opposite ends of a dusty field, each watching the other to figure out when to draw their guns.

An extreme close-up of one man, with a stubble of beard and a sardonic stare. It's Blondie (Clint Eastwood), aka The Man With No Name, from The Good, The Bad and the Ugly.

Cut to an even more extreme close-up of the other guy, with cold, expressionless eyes. Yes, it's Harmonica (Charles Bronson) from Once Upon a Time In the West.

It's the final shoot-out between two indestructible, nearly superhuman Sergio Leone leads. What will be the final outcome, after the 10 minutes of close-ups?

(Note: Since Eastwood really didn't play the same exact character in his three Leone movies -- except insofar as all Leone's characters are pretty much the same -- let's restrict this discussion to his character from TGTBATU.)

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I give it to Harmonics, unless there's an undisclosed detail about the location that would make it possible for Blondie to somehow cheat.

Then again, after ten minutes of tense close-ups and appropriately screeching Morricone chords, Harmonica might call out to Blondie, "Why are we doing this? We're the same guy!" They'd holster their guns, and go get a drink.

Anonymous said...

Since they both are the best, they draw their guns at the same time, fire at the same time, and the bullets hit each other. Both are still standing THEN they holster their guns and go get that drink.

Rich