Sergio Leone (Italian pronunciation: [ˈsɛːrdʒo leˈoːne]; January 3, 1929 – April 30, 1989) was an Italian film director, producer and screenwriter most associated with the "Spaghetti Western" genre.
Leone's film-making style includes juxtaposing extreme close-up shots with lengthy long shots. His movies include The Last Days of Pompeii, The Colossus of Rhodes, the Dollars Trilogy (A Fistful of Dollars, For a Few Dollars More and The Good, the Bad and the Ugly), Once Upon a Time in the West, Duck, You Sucker! and Once Upon a Time in America.
Born in Rome, Leone was the son of the cinema pioneer Vincenzo Leone (known as director Roberto Roberti or Leone Roberto Roberti) and the silent film actress Edvige Valcarenghi (Bice Waleran). During his schooldays, Leone was a classmate of his later musical collaborator Ennio Morricone for a time. After watching his father work on film sets, Leone began his own career in the film industry at the age of 18 after dropping out of law studies at the university.
Plot
In Eugene, Oregon, Mercer, 19, wants to tell his wayward half-brother, 18 years older than he, that their mother has died. He has an address in Shelter Cove, so he steals a car from a car wash and heads south. Nothing is simple: his brother is gone, but he left resentment Mercer has to deal with. He gets an address in Reno and stops in Fallon to hook up with a girl he knew in middle school. Reno's a bust, but she promises sex if Mercer will drive her and two friends to Mohave. His plans go awry. From time to time, the car's owner calls him on a cell phone left in the car. Her arch but friendly voice gives Mercer needed empathy. Will he ever find his brother, and if so, what then?
Keywords: ashes, baja-california, bra-and-panties, breaking-into-a-car, brother-brother-relationship, car-thief, cell-phone, commune, cowboy-hat, cut-on-face
Life doesn't come with a roadmap.
Mercer: [First lines] I always had a problem with Huckleberry Finn. I mean, I liked the story, I read it, but the river... it made me feel stuck.
Kate: Don't try and be polite. Sound crazy or sound tough.
Joely: You are so fucking selfish!
Sergio Leone: [One of the porn actresses has stormed off the set] What use is it if she cries before she gets fucked?
Kate: [Last lines] [They are playing 20 questions] Okay I've got one.::Mercer: Is he alive? Is he a man?
Arlen: Watch yourself when you're in Louisiana. It's a third world country.
Mercer: [Repeated line] I'm looking for Arlen.
Joely: How's your mother? She was always a bit weird.::Mercer: She's good. She's on her walkabout.::Joely: What? What's a walkabout?::Mercer: She's in Australia. It's kind of like a bar mitzvah.
Mercer: [Stares at the cell phone] I think the battery's dying.::Kate: Put in the charger. You're in the car right?
Mercer: You want to come to Louisiana with me?::Kate: It's my car!
He came 'round here with his camera and some of his American friends
Where the money is immortal and the killing never ends
He set out from Cinecitta through the ruined streets of Rome
To shoot in Almeria and bring the bodies home
He said
"I'll be rich or I'll be dead
I got it all here in my head"
He could see the killers' faces and he heard the song they sang
Where he waited in the darkness with the Viale Glorioso gang
He could see the blood approaching and he knew what he would be
Since the days when he was first assisting The Force of Destiny
He worked for Walsh and Wyler with the chariot and sword
When he rode out in the desert, he was quoting Hawks and Ford
He came to see the masters and he left with what he saw
What he stole from Kurosawa he bequeathed to Peckinpah
From the Via Tuscolana to the view from Miller Drive
He shot the eyes of bad men and kept their deaths alive
With the darkness and the anguish of a Goya or Van Cleef