Born on 3 January 1929[8] inRome, Leone was the son of the cinema pioneerVincenzo Leone (known as Roberto Roberti or Leone Roberto Roberti) andsilent film actressEdvige Valcarenghi (known as Bice Waleran). His mother was ofMilanese and remoteAustrian descent.[9] During his schooldays, Leone was a classmate of his later musical collaboratorEnnio Morricone in third grade.[10][11][12] After watching his father work on film sets, Leone began his own career in thefilm industry at the age of 18 after dropping out of law studies at the university.
Working inItalian cinema, he began as an assistant toVittorio De Sica during the production for the movieBicycle Thieves in 1948. Leone began writing screenplays during the 1950s, primarily for the "sword and sandal" (orpeplum) historical epics, popular at the time. He also worked as an assistant director on several large-scale international productions shot at theCinecittà Studios in Rome, notablyQuo Vadis (1951) andBen-Hur (1959), financially backed by the American studios.[13]
When directorMario Bonnard fell ill during the production of the 1959 Italian epicThe Last Days of Pompeii (Gli Ultimi Giorni di Pompei), starringSteve Reeves, Leone was asked to step in and complete the film.[14] As a result, when the time came to make his solo directorial debut withThe Colossus of Rhodes (Il Colosso di Rodi, 1961), Leone was well-equipped to produce low-budget films that looked like larger-budget Hollywood movies.
Italian:Il cinema deve essere spettacolo, è questo che il pubblico vuole. E per me lo spettacolo più bello è quello del mito. Cinema must be spectacle, that's what the public wants. And for me the most beautiful spectacle is that of the myth.[15]
In the mid-1960s, historical epics fell out of favor with audiences, but Leone had shifted his attention to a subgenre which came to be known as the "spaghetti Western", owing its origin to the AmericanWestern. His filmA Fistful of Dollars (Per un pugno di dollari, 1964) was based uponAkira Kurosawa'sEdo-erasamurai adventureYojimbo (1961).[16] Leone's film elicited a legal challenge from the Japanese director, though Kurosawa's film was, in turn, probably based on the 1929Dashiell Hammett novel,Red Harvest.A Fistful of Dollars is also notable for establishingClint Eastwood as a star.[17] Until that time, Eastwood had been an American television actor with few credited film roles.
The look ofA Fistful of Dollars was established by its Spanish locations, which presented a violent and morally complex vision of theAmerican Old West. The film paid tribute to traditional American Western films, but significantly departed from them in storyline, plot, characterization, and mood. Leone gains credit for one great breakthrough in the Western genre still followed today; in traditional Western films, many heroes and villains looked alike as if they had just stepped out of a fashion magazine, with clearly drawn moral opposites, even down to the hero wearing a white hat and the villain wearing a black hat[18] (except for the most successful of the "traditional western cowboys" –Hopalong Cassidy, who wore a black outfit upon a pale horse). Leone's characters were, in contrast, more "realistic" and complex: usually lone wolves in their behavior; they rarely shaved, looked dirty, and sweated profusely, with a strong suggestion of criminal behavior. The characters were also morally ambiguous by appearing generously compassionate, or nakedly and brutally self-serving, as the situation demanded. Relationships revolved around power and retributions were emotion-driven rather than conscience-driven. Some critics have noted the irony of an Italian director who could not speak English, and had never even visited the United States, let alone the American Old West, almost single-handedly redefining the typical vision of the Americancowboy. According toChristopher Frayling's bookSomething to do with Death, Leone knew a great deal about the American Old West. It fascinated him as a child, which carried into his adulthood and his films.
Leone's next two films,For a Few Dollars More (Per qualche dollaro in più, 1965) andThe Good, the Bad and the Ugly (Il buono, il brutto, il cattivo, 1966), completed what has come to be known as theMan with No Name trilogy (or theDollars Trilogy), with each film being more financially successful and more technically accomplished than its predecessor. The films featured innovative music scores byEnnio Morricone, who worked closely with Leone in devising the themes. Leone had a personal way of shooting scenes with Morricone's music ongoing. In addition, Clint Eastwood stayed with the film series, joined later byEli Wallach,Lee van Cleef, andKlaus Kinski.
Based on the success of the Man with No Name trilogy, Leone was invited to the United States in 1967 to directOnce Upon a Time in the West (C'era una volta il West) forParamount Pictures. The film was shot mostly inAlmería, Spain, andCinecittà in Rome. It was also briefly shot inMonument Valley,Utah. The film starredCharles Bronson,Henry Fonda,Jason Robards, andClaudia Cardinale.Once Upon a Time in the West emerged as a long and violent dreamlike meditation upon the mythology of the American Old West, with many stylistic references to iconic Western films. Audience tension is maintained throughout this nearly three-hour film by concealing both the hero's identity and his unpredictable motivation until the final predictable shootout scene. The film's script was written by Leone and his longtime friend and collaboratorSergio Donati, from a story byBernardo Bertolucci andDario Argento, both of whom went on to have significant careers as directors. Before its release, it was ruthlessly edited by Paramount, and achieved low box-office results in the United States. Nevertheless, it was a huge hit in Europe, grossing nearly three times its $5 million budget among French audiences, and highly praised among North American film students. It has come to be regarded by many as Leone's best film.[19][20]
Leone and artist Vincenzo Romano Salvia in Rome, 1971Leone during a 1975 interview
AfterOnce Upon a Time in the West, Leone directedDuck, You Sucker! (Giù la testa, 1971). Leone was intending merely to produce the film, but due to artistic differences with then-directorPeter Bogdanovich, Leone was asked to direct the film, instead.Duck, You Sucker! is aMexican Revolution action drama, starringJames Coburn as anIrish revolutionary andRod Steiger as a Mexican bandit who is conned into becoming a revolutionary.[21][13]
Leone continued to produce, and on occasion, step in to reshoot scenes, in other films. One of these films wasMy Name Is Nobody (1973) byTonino Valerii, a comedy Western film that poked fun at the spaghetti Western genre. It starred Henry Fonda as an old gunslinger facing a final confrontation after the death of his brother.Terence Hill also starred in the film as the young stranger who helps Fonda leave the dying West with style.[22]
Leone's other productions includedA Genius, Two Partners and a Dupe (1975, another Western comedy starring Terence Hill);The Cat (Il Gatto; 1977, starringUgo Tognazzi), andA Dangerous Toy (Il Giocattolo; 1979, starringNino Manfredi). Leone also produced three comedies by actor/directorCarlo Verdone, which wereFun Is Beautiful (Un Sacco Bello, 1980),Bianco, rosso e Verdone (White, Red and Verdone – Verdone means "strong green" – a pun referring to the three colors of the Italian flag, the star and to director Verdone, 1981) andTroppo Forte (Great!, 1986). During this period, Leone also directed various award-winning TV commercials for European television.[23]
Leone turned down the offer to directThe Godfather, in favor of working on another gangster story he had conceived earlier.[25][26] He devoted 10 years to this project, based on the novelThe Hoods by former mobsterHarry Grey, which focused on a quartet of New York CityJewish gangsters of the 1920s and 1930s who had been friends since childhood. The finished four-hour film,Once Upon a Time in America (1984), featuredRobert De Niro andJames Woods. It was a meditation on another aspect of popular American mythology, the role of greed and violence and their uneasy coexistence with the meaning of ethnicity and friendship. It received a raucous, record-breaking ovation of nearly 20 minutes at the1984 Cannes Film Festival (reportedly heard by diners at restaurants across the street from thePalais), at a time in Cannes's history before marathon applause became a regular occurrence.[27] Despite such a fawning reception, Warner Brothers felt it was too long. The studio drastically recut it down to two hours for the American market, abandoning its flashback structure for a linear narrative. This version suffered heavy criticism and flopped. The original version, released in the rest of the world, achieved somewhat better box office returns and a mixed critical response. When the original version of the film was released on home video in the US, it gained major critical acclaim, with some critics hailing the film as amagnum opus.[28]
According to biographer SirChristopher Frayling, Leone was deeply hurt by the studio-imposed editing and poor commercial reception ofOnce Upon a Time in America in North America. It was his last film.
A treatment for an "Americanized" Western was written by Leone, Luca Morsella, and Fabio Toncelli. It is speculated to have been Leone's last Western and was to have starredMickey Rourke andRichard Gere as the two main leads. Set during the height of theAmerican Civil War, the story focused on a Union drafter, Mike Kutcher fromGeorgia, whose job is to enroll men into theUnion Army. The other is Richard Burns, aSouthern shady businessman transplanted to theNorth after a successful heist with his ex-lover and partner, Mary. They try searching for the buried treasure left behind in an unmarked grave outsideAtlanta in "A Place Only Mary Knows". Joined by afreed slave and anItalian immigrant, Francesco, who arrives via thePort of Boston, they try desperately to avoid the battles of the ongoing war between the states.
While finishing work onOnce Upon a Time in America in 1982, Leone was impressed withHarrison Salisbury's non-fiction bookThe 900 Days: The Siege of Leningrad, and he planned on adapting the book as a war epic. Although no formal script had been completed or leaked, Leone came up with the opening scene and basic plot. According to the documentaryOnce Upon a Time, Sergio Leone, the film openedin medias res as the camera goes from focusing on aSoviet hiding from theNazis' artillery fire to panning hundreds of feet away to show theGerman ArmyPanzer divisions approaching the walls of the city. The plot was to focus on an American photographer on assignment (whom Leone wanted to be played byRobert De Niro) becoming trapped inLeningrad as theGerman Luftwaffe begin to bombard the city. Throughout the course of the film, he becomes romantically involved with a Soviet woman, whom he later impregnates, as they attempt to survive theprolonged siege and thesecret police, because relationships with foreigners are forbidden. According to Leone, "In the end, the cameraman dies on the day of the liberation of the city, when he is currently filming the surrender of the Germans. And the girl is aware of his death by chance seeing a movie news: the camera sees it explode under a shell".[32]
By 1989, Leone set the film's budget at $100 million, and had secured half of that amount in financing from independent backers from the Soviet Union. He had convinced Ennio Morricone to compose the film score, andTonino Delli Colli was tapped to be thecinematographer. Shooting was scheduled to begin sometime in 1990. The project was canceled when Leone died two days before he was to officially sign on for the film.Alex Cox offered to replace Leone as director, but was unable to secure the remaining $50 million required to produce the film.[33]
According to Frayling's biography of Leone,Something to Do with Death, he envisioned a contemporary adaptation ofCervantes' 17th-century novelDon Quixote with Clint Eastwood in the title role andEli Wallach asSancho Panza.[34] He had discussed doing the project throughout the 1960s–1970s, and he started seriously considering it toward the end of his life.[35]
In 1987, Sergio Leone contacted his old collaborators Sergio Donati and Fulvio Morsella, pitching an idea for a TVminiseries about aColt revolver that passed from owner to owner throughout the Old West, similar toAnthony Mann's filmWinchester '73 (1950). Donati indicated that Leone was interested in a more revisionist take on the genre than his earlier works, wanting to show the Old West "like it really was". Leone abandoned this project in favor ofA Place Only Mary Knows, though Donati wrote a treatment and the project remained in gestation for years after Leone's death.[36]An adaptation based on Leone's subject is currently in production.[37] Appointed director is Italian film-makerStefano Sollima.
Leone was also an avid fan ofMargaret Mitchell's novelGone with the Wind and the1939 film adaptation. His relatives and close friends stated that he talked about filming aremake that was closer to the original novel, but it never advanced beyond discussions to any serious form of production.
Leone was a fan ofLouis-Ferdinand Céline's novelJourney to the End of the Night and was considering a film adaptation in the late 1960s; he incorporated elements of the story intoThe Good, the Bad and the Ugly andDuck, You Sucker! but his idea of adapting the novel itself never got past the planning stages.
Leone was an early choice to directFlash Gordon (1980). Leone was a fan of the originalAlex Raymond comic strip, but turned down the film because the script did not resemble Raymond's work.[39]
^abFrayling, Christopher (1981).Spaghetti Westerns: Cowboys and Europeans from Karl May to Sergio Leone. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul. pp. 61,96–97, 127, 137, 145,183–185, 215, 225.ISBN0-7100-0504-0.OCLC10432313.
^Kinnard, Roy; Crnkovich, Tony (2017).Italian Sword and Sandal Films, 1908-1990. McFarland. p. 106.ISBN978-1476662916.
^Thompson, Lang."Once Upon a Time in the West".Turner Classic Movies. Turner Entertainment Network.Archived from the original on 21 July 2015. Retrieved17 July 2015.
^Duck, You Sucker, orA Fistful of Dynamite (2-disc collectors' edition, Sergio Donati Remembers) (DVD). Los Angeles, California: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. 1972.
