James Coburn and Rod Steiger are bringing the requisite Leone machismo, if not outright misogyny (why yes, I was kind of grossed out by the playful tone of the opening sequence's rape!) and as with his earlier stuff, Leone uses the dying Wild West (this time in Mexico) as the backdrop of his commentary on revolution, the rise of bureaucracy and order, and the class division at play in most historical events, the Mexican revolution included. I did really like the contrast between jaded Irish explosives expert John, already an outlaw due to his own country's revolution but still willing and invested in Mexico's, and Juan, who initally just wants to finally be rich, already, godammit. It's the whole buddy cop dynamic- one stoic, reluctant partner who's just trying to ride his motorcycle through a foreign country because he's exiled from his homeland for being an arsonist, murdering revolutionary and the other outlandish, devious partner with a big family to feed, ambitious dreams of being a proper bandito and the need for proper explosives in order to rob some banks. It's not just a war film. It's not just a Western. It's a buddy film. They learn from each other, they bond. That's always good times.
So yeah, the movie was 2.5 hours, which means that quite honestly it drags in places. I understand why Leone spent the time that he didon exposition, but we don't even see the revolution until about an hour and change into the movie and although things happen, for a lot of the film I was kind of wondering if we were still working up to the actual plot. Additionally, most of John's flashbacks to his time in Ireland are seriously slo-mo and seem almost gratuitous. There's some payoff at the end, but honestly, if I was going to sit through a Leone epic I would much rather it be The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly than this, because of its amazing final scene, the Mexican standoff. This film, well... you may find the resolution a bit anticlimactic.
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