Originality vs. Development in Mexican Standoffs

What's the best Mexican Standoff movie? Leone's original or Corbucci's development?

When I suggested that Ryan Coogler’s Sinners would have worked better without all the vampire/zombie whoop-tee-doo, but instead lead up to a Sergio Leone’s 1966 Good, Bad, and Ugly-style triangular Mexican standoff between the Southern black mobsters who’d stolen Al Capone’s money, the tommy gun-wielding Chicago mobsters come to retrieve their loot, and the Mississippi Delta KKK out to get both, a reader (J.J.S.) pointed out a subsequent Spaghetti Western that ends with a Mexican standoff that I’d never noticed, Sergio Corbucci’s 1968 The Mercenary. (Corbucci, director of the 1966 Django, is a huge hero of Quentin Tarantino.)

First question: Was there ever a triangular Mexican standoff before Leone’s 1966 movie in which Clint Eastwood (the Good), Lee Van Cleef (the Bad), and the Ugly (Eli Wallach) shoot it out in a bullring inexplicably in the American West?

Considering the countless movies made in the second third of the 20th Century, it seems like there almost certainly had to have been.

And yet, my cursory search can’t find one.

Despite the huge star power of Leone’s actors and Ennio Morricone’s famous score, the scene is a little dry and rudimentary.

In contrast, two years later, The Other Sergio (Corbucci) remade Leone’s triangular Mexican Standoff ending with Franco Nero, Jack Palance, and Tony Musante reprising the Eastwood, Van Cleef, and Wallach roles. It’s all way, way more on the nose:

Is Corbucci’s scene a cheesy parody of Leone’s?

Paywall here.

Yeah.

But is it also better?

Perhaps. After all, we are talking about a Mexican Standoff in a Spaghetti Western. Is it all that essential for it to be be subtle?

An interesting question is what we value more: originality or development? Leone’s 1966 Mexican Standoff is clearly more original, while Corbucci’s 1968 Mexican Standoff is clearly more developed.

Here’s Quentin Tarantino raving about Corbucci, director of the 1966 movie Django:

Sometimes, we value originality more. For instance, here’s Stravinsky’s 1913 Rite of Spring:

The Rite of Spring is nearly universally agreed to be one of the greatest masterpieces of 20th Century classical music due to its shocking originality. On the other hand, we don’t really adore subsequent 20th Century classical music, including Stravinsky’s own stuff, all that much. In some ways, The Rite of Spring seems less valuable as the progenitor of what came after than as the culmination of what came before.

On the other hand, I could also imagine The Rite not as the endpoint of classical music but as the beginning of metal music:

In other cases, development is valued more than originality. For example, the classical symphony began emerging from baroque music in the 1730s. Here’s Sammartini’s Sinfonia N. 1 around 1740:

It’s good, but it’s hard to tell apart from baroque polyphony. In general, the early symphony composers aren’t very famous today.

In contrast, here’s Beethoven’s finale of the Fifth Symphony in 1808 from my favorite recording in high school:

As a symphony composer, Beethoven is insanely more developed than Sammartini and his colleagues.

So, I dunno …