Blondie, The Good (Clint Eastwood), is a professional gunslinger who is out trying to earn a few dollars. Angel Eyes, The Bad (Lee Van Cleef), is a hitman who always commits to a task and sees it through–as long as he’s paid to do so. And Tuco, The Ugly (Eli Wallach), is a wanted outlaw trying to take care of his own hide. Tuco and Blondie share a partnership making money off of Tuco’s bounty, but when Blondie unties the partnership, Tuco tries to hunt down Blondie. When Blondie and Tuco come across a horse carriage loaded with dead bodies, they soon learn from the only survivor, Bill Carson (Antonio Casale), that he and a few other men have buried a stash of gold in a cemetery. Unfortunately, Carson dies and Tuco only finds out the name of the cemetery, while Blondie finds out the name on the grave. Now the two must keep each other alive in order to find the gold. Angel Eyes (who had been looking for Bill Carson) discovers that Tuco and Blondie met with Carson and knows they know where the gold is; now he needs them to lead him to it. Now The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly must all battle it out to get their hands on $200,000.00 worth of gold.
For a girl who doesn’t enjoy westerns much, this was one of the greatest films ever!
Gosh, The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly, I finally saw this film! Who hasn’t heard of it? First off, may I say that Clint Eastwood… what a hottie in his day! 😀 Sorry, had to get that off my chest. Sergio Leone from what I understood was a huge western film fanatic and in the 60’s pretty much most folks had moved onto other genre’s. I mean, I would agree that most western’s are pretty much the same and stereotypical.
Sergio however took a story and added some elements to it such as comedy, drama, and war. The story flows so well and just compliments all of it’s characters. By far my favorite character was The Good, played by Clint. He is a bounty hunter who captures The Ugly numerous times just to free him before every hanging and splits the winnings with him. When they learn of a coffin in the desert that has $200,000, they go for it. Of course we have the Bad who is a ruthless killer who also wants in on the doe.
The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly is a terrific film and I thank all the IMDb users for their useful comments and that pushed me to finally rent this western classic. Let’s give it up for Sergio!
10/10
Sergio Leone’s penultimate Italian-western; a film that gets better with each passing year…
…and though those last several words could also be attributed to Leone’s “Once Upon a Time” films (West and America) as well as the other pieces in his trilogy of films with Clint Eastwood- Fistful of Dollars and For a Few More Dollars- arguably this is the most ambitious and spellbinding one of the bunch, and one that has inspired (i.e. Quentin Tarantino, Sam Raimi, Robert Rodriguez) and will most likely continue to inspire filmmakers and fans into the 21st century. There’s something in The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly that’s nearly (or perhaps is) mythical in it’s craft, certain scenes come off as being more than relevant and exquisite for that scene/sequence- it transcends into aspects of humanity.
For example, in the first part of the film (this is after the extraordinary introductions to Tuco, played by Eli Wallach, Sentenza or ‘Angel Eyes’, played by Lee Van Cleef, and as Blondie by a 35/36 year old Clint), Joe gets Tuco out of a hanging, which is something of a regular practice for them, but Joe decides to leave his ‘buddy’ out in the desert to walk the rest of the way back into town. A little later, the situation gets reversed, as Tuco has a horse and water and Joe doesn’t, and they both go to cross the desert. Leone decides to not follow Tuco coming back to town as much as he follows in earnest Tuco and Joe going across that desert, as Joe starts to burn and dry up, going towards a story that will soon unfold. There is something to these scenes that I can barely describe, that they’re executed in the mind-set of a Western, but in the abstract Leone lets the audience know this is a story that is bold and bigger than life.
What makes much of the Good, the Bad, and the Ugly such a huge success is the trust Leone had in his own style he spun into his own after the first two westerns, his trust in his collaborators, and in his leading players as well. I, for one, had to mistakenly figure out that it is near depressing to watch this film on a regular VCR tape due to the pan & scan process. There is such a clear, distinct visual scope that Leone and camera director Tonino Delli Colli achieve that it’s practically a must to get the DVD (preferably the extended version, which was Leone’s original cut more or less). The editing, too, is unique in many sequences (the climax is the most noted and memorable). The score, with usual collaborator Ennio Morricone, is one of the landmark movie scores, and themes, of not just in the western genre but in all movie history.
And the three main players who take on the screen have their own chops to show off: Eastwood, technically, was playing a Joe that took place before Fistful of Dollars, yet by this film had it down to a T (it’s still my favorite performance from him, despite having few words and reactions); Cleef’s cold, cunning Angel Eyes steals the scenes he’s in; ditto for Wallach, who gets under the skin of his co-patriots as much as he sometimes does under the viewer’s. If anyone really stays in the mind, at least for me, it’s Wallach – especially as he gets the most ‘character’, and one of the very best scenes is between Tuco and his religious brother. Without that scene, the movie actually wouldn’t work quite as well, surprisingly enough.
Overall, The Good, the Bad and Ugly, is an entirely satisfying western, at least one of my five favorites ever made, and it’s an endearing bravo to all who were involved.
Among the finest Westerns, though not for all tastes
While I have given some pretty long reviews to Clint Eastwood’s Westerns–particularly the wonderful FISTFUL OF DOLLARS and FOR A FEW DOLLARS MORE, I will only give a brief review of this movie because there are so many reviews already I doubt if my pontificating will actually influence many people. After all, this is widely seen as one of the greatest Westerns ever made and since I liked it immensely, there isn’t much need to say more.
Well, there are actually a few Westerns I liked a bit more–I am a HUGE fan of THE BIG COUNTRY. But, when it comes to style, originality and the epic proportions of this film, none can match it, though ONCE UPON A TIME IN THE WEST comes very, very close. The acting and script are just fine and the music is intensely weird but effective. Of all the films I have seen with music by Ennio Morricone, this is his most intense and strangest. And it works perfectly in this film, but I also appreciate much of his more restrained work in other films and would never want all Westerns to have such distinctive and bizarre music as in THE GOOD, THE BAD AND THE UGLY–it would just lose its magic and might even tend to overwhelm the film.
About the only negatives about this film are the title and it is a pretty violent film that the little ones probably shouldn’t watch. There is a lot of blood and violence and you do get to see (yuck) Eli Wallach’s butt. As for the title, sure, Lee Van Cleef was truly “BAD” and Eli Wallach was cure “UGLY”, but Clint as “the GOOD”? Well, his character was far from good–but of course, who would like the title to be “The Kinda Good, The Bad And the Ugly”?! Not to be missed by any serious fan or the genre.
