Is this worth seeing?

[deleted]

Tempus, the other dude is spot on, and you are really too trusting of 'documentaries' which are notorious for spreading false or skewed ideas (Fahrenheit 9/11 and Bowling for Columbine are two) The quote at the beginning IS a criticism on not only communism, but violent revolution. Just listen to the words of Juan's 'speech' to Sean while Sean is reading the book 'The Patriotism' (that bad translation is what actually is on the book cover in the movie) I quote: "So the people that read the books say We Need A Change so they go to the people who don't read the books, the poor people, and start a revolution. Then the people that read the books sit around their tables and talk and talk and talk and eat and eat and eat, in the meantime, what has happened to the poor people?? THEY'RE DEAD! That's your revolution. So. Shhh. Don't talk to me about the revolutions."

Leone was criticized by the Italian and French press and student organizations for his stance - "Get Down, don't get involved" because (many) of the radical student groups that formed around the world in the late 60's considered Mao Tse Tung's writings to be almost sacred, and he was basically calling BS on them and Mao and all other instigators that use the underprivileged and ignorant for their own gains, with disastrous results, whereas ignorant yet PRIVILEGED people like you don't bother to learn anything or construct their own viewpoint, and just base their 'knowledge' of the world on 'documentaries' that can be as full of $hit as L. Ron Hubbard. So. Shh. Don't talk to me about Once Upon a Time The Revolutions.

As for your last declaration, that the movie did poor in the US because of its 'Commie' message, well, the original international prints (international from Italy's perspective, which would mean the US) cut out the Mao quote, cut out the pissin on ants, cut out a whole lot of the movie, so a lot of character development was not there, poor performance in sales would be expected if you truncate a movie like this, where there is MAJOR character development in the form of Juan, along with many other subtleties that make the movie what it is, one of the best films ever put to celluloid, and one of my personal favorites for a long time now.

.-'-.-'-.-Once it was death for prophet - now it's death for profit-.-'-.-'-.