Michele227
Michele Iovinella
July 25, 2025
The Criticism of American Mythology
Deconstruction of the Western Epic
The Dollar Trilogy operates a systematic deconstruction
of the founding myths of the classic American western. Leone does not limit
himself to proposing an alternative version of the epic of the frontier but reveals its internal contradictions and ideological mystifications.
The Leonian West is not a land of opportunity and redemption, but a theater of endemic violence where the law of the strongest reigns unchallenged. His characters are not bearers of civilizing values, but survivors in a Hobbesian universe where "homo homini lupus". This nihilistic vision reaches its peak in "The Good, the Bad and the Ugly", where the Civil War becomes a metaphor for a society that has lost all ethical reference.
War as a moral apocalypse
The setting of the third film during the American Civil
War allows Leone to develop a broader reflection on systemic violence and the
absurdity of armed conflicts. His depiction of war is ruthless and
anti-militarist: soldiers of both factions reduced to human larvae, cynical
officers who send their men to die for irrelevant tactical objectives, prison
camps that explicitly recall the Nazi concentration camp iconography.
No comments:
Post a Comment