Duck, You Sucker (1971) (2024)

Popular reviews

• Review by Will ★★★★ 3

  I don't get why this film isn't talked about.
  I know that Sergio Leone has created some of the most iconic films of all time and it's kind of hard to make films that live up to that statement, but this is great. It's full of good comedy, great cinematography, brilliant performances, an amazing score and a really fun story.

  This is a hidden gem for sure.

• Review by matt lynch ★★★★ 1

  "To me you are just a naked son of a bitch."

  Leone makes his arena of honor, the corrida circle, into the scene of a rape, the bank into a political prison, and lets a revolutionary and a criminal repeatedly swap positions. underneath it all there's just a cave full of dead people.

• Review by reibureibu ★★★★★ 13

  Acts of solidarity contain love, and likewise love leaves signs of solidarity. The two are intertwined such that loving another is also enacting in solidarity with them, and once this happens you carry them with you in your life, you live with them instead of simply adjacent with them. The prior way of living has now fundamentally changed, and one cannot go back. True love is violent; revolution is violent. A real encounter (whether the stakes are one's love or one's life) is an act of violence that never lets one forget, that changes the presuppositions of one's existence.

  Miranda signifies the Mexican Revolution (whether he likes it or not) and Mallory is a Fenian revolutionary; both typify those who…

• Review by ji*zzmonkey ★ 4

  I was looking for the '70s (bush era) p*rno classic "Suck, You Ducker". But found this instead. Bad move watching it. It's a boring, awful film. The p*rno outclasses it in every way, especially musical score.

• Review by theriverjordan ★★★½ 37

  “Duck You Sucker!” is Sergio Leone immolating the spaghetti Western with a pack of matches he pocketed off Jean-Luc Godard.

  Beginning with an all-caps quote from Mao, it’s clear from the outset that “Duck” is not mucking around. Or maybe - it is. Maybe mucking around is all that it is.

  The least-loved and least-discussed entry of Leone’s nearly flawless filmography, “Duck” is monumental for its unfettered bitterness. Leone - post “Once Upon a Time,” had grown tired with the direction of Italian Westerns — frustrated with how they had been appropriated as a political tool.

  So what did Leone do? He pissed all over them.

  No, really. “Duck” opens with its main character pissing over a hive of ants…

• Review by Diloo ★★★★½ 6

  The 'ugly' forgotten duck-ling of the "Once Upon a Time" trilogy.
  
  This is the most unique Western by Sergio Leone, tons of dynamite and blending two unlikely narratives of the the IRA and the Mexican Revolution. A story about friendship, sacrifice and betrayal, this is a heartfelt swan song of "fully-directed by Leone" Westerns.

• Review by Rafael "Parker!!" Jovine ★★★★½ 12

  Action! - Spaghetti alla Sergio: Il Leone del Western

  It's hard to argue from a purely objective standpoint that this isn't Leone's most overlooked film; in fact, I'd be willing to bet that until just a few seconds ago, very few of you even knew it existed.

  And in many ways, this movie seems like something Corbucci would have made, and did make, during his last period directing Westerns. It's a humorous and very violent picture set in during the Mexican Revolution, in which an odd couple are forced to band together to fight the enemy and learn some valuable lessons in the process. However, here, Leone delivers that particular ambition he always aims for to the film with some…

• Review by 🇵🇱 Steve G 🇵🇸 ★★★★ 13

  There's a thread on the IMDb message board for this film that's entitled 'Was Rod Steiger's accent the inspiration for Pacino's Tony Montana?' and I might not be able stop laughing all night.

  Once you hear it though, you will see why it's so funny. Because it is just as dreadful as Al Pacino's Scarface accent and similar in the way it mispronounces things in ways that no Mexican or Cuban has ever mispronounced them. I really couldn't tire of hearing Steiger pronounce 'America' as "Amarica" even though it was somewhat distracting in an otherwise fine film.

  Fortunately for Steiger, he's in good bad accent company. James Coburn comes up with a little beauty himself, further adding to my theory…

• Review by Ethan Colburn ★★★★ 1

  They gave Sergio Leone dynamite, he had some fun.

  While the plot is lacking slightly in comparison to the other Sergio Leone westerns, it's still incredibly fun and well directed as you'd expect from Leone. He really exploded a lot of stuff, and the explosions were massive. Considering I don't think they were ever using miniatures, they looked extremely impressive.

  Rod Steiger is a face I always feel I should recognize, yet I never do until I look at the cast list. This movie was no different, yet it might be my favorite performance of his. Despite his over-the-top Mexican accent, he showcases a lot of range, and is super charismatic. James Coburn plays well opposite him as well, though I was somewhat confused by his constant flashbacks.

  If you love the Dollars trilogy, you'll like this too, it's slightly more lighthearted than the rest of the films, making it an easy watch despite the long runtime.

• Review by DavidNeedToKnow ★★★★½ 2

  This modern western by Sergio Leone offers a revolution, a bromance and a lot of explosions. In tone it is reminiscent of his Dollars Trilogy and also manages to strike a balance between humor and cruelty. The director's trademarks include his storytelling and dialogues, the extreme close-ups and wide shots are omnipresent. The whole thing is not a masterpiece, but what makes this film great is the perfect first half, the score by Ennio Morricone and Rod Steiger's performance. A lot of fun even if the runtime is a bit too long and in my opinion this is an underrated piece of cinema that should get way more attention.

• Review by Darren Carver-Balsiger ★★★★½ 8

  3000 Followers Celebration

  Picked by: Cinemaverse Official.

  Glorious revolution. Sergio Leone's Duck, You Sucker is the perfect deconstruction of romanticised revolutions. To fight for what is right is violent and tough. Perhaps no film so carefully examines a revolution in its raw form, whilst remaining an accessible genre piece. It is a bold political movie that will dishearten those who just want a fun western, but it also reveals those who were unable to critically consider Leone's best film Once Upon a Time in the West, which is a fierce depiction of frontier capitalism. Leone, across his films, grew from a naïve director attempting to recreate a western to the most mature artist in that genre. From A Fistful of…

• Review by Slig001 ★★★★ 3

  Sergio Leone's "forgotten" Western adventure makes its political leanings clear from the outset - a quote from Mao leading into a sequence where the rich demigrate the poor in disgusting fashion (Leone's trademark closeup is put to particularly good use) before "might is right" wins over. The title "A Fistful of Dynamite" is obviously meant to call back to Leone's earlier success, but this film is a totally different animal. There's no major driving force behind the narrative - it's basically a couple of characters with different aims hanging around during the Mexican Revolution. Rod Steiger and James Coburn both sport overblown silly accents but make for a likable pair of leads. The film starts off like a goofy comedy…