15 years of age. I support a football team. It is called Partick Thistle. There is nothing funny abo...
15 years of age. I support a football team. It is called Partick Thistle. There is nothing funny about this.
Member since:19.01.2001
Reviews:12
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I’ve seen this film three times, and each time I have been blown away by it. Sergio Leone, who created this as the third in the trilogy of ‘spaghetti westerns’ (because of the largely Italian cast, crew and locations), after the inferior ‘Fistful of dollars’ and ‘For a few dollars more’. I see this as Leone’s greatest film, and certainly one of the greatest westerns ever made.
The western genre was, by 1966, becoming tired and much less popular than in its 1950s heyday. In this previous decade, morals and motives were clear and obvious. Films like ‘The magnificent seven’, also considered to be a great western, have a clear moral message, and it is obvious who is good and who is bad. By the late 1960s, westerns were losing their stringent messages and much more complex ideas were filtering in to them. The irony in the title of ‘The good, the bad, and the ugly’ is that although these roles are defined at the beginning, Clint Eastwood, Lee Van Cleef, and Eli Wallach, respectively, the ambiguity of the titles makes the journey depicted within much more intriguing.
But this is not a film mainly about moral
issues, although the deeper aspect adds, it is a showcase for stunning cinematography, magnificent direction, and, most strikingly, breathtaking music. After watching this film I went out to buy the soundtrack, not on the strength of the famous signature tune, but on the last two pieces alone. Ennio Morricone is one of cinema’s greatest composers, with hundreds of scores to his name. His long standing collaboration with Leone, however, has produced his most famous work. It is hard to describe to someone how beautiful this film looks and sounds, especially in the last scenes. Leone’s direction is so honed and so oft copied, it was unique at the time, and remains a testament to brilliant film making.
Gunshots punctuate the opening salvos of music and intensity as the famous shrieks of the signature theme thunder through the speakers and the film begins. No dialogue interrupts the first twenty minutes of footage. Lee van Cleef, the second coolest cowboy ever, simply rides towards a house in a sun drenched desert, and sits down at a table before the occupant. A vast amount of staring goes on in this opening scene, to make up for the lack of speech, and you’ll find that staring and extreme close-ups are devices frequently used in Leone’s direction. Already the scene is set for a film of amazing intensity and exposure.
Later on, Clint Eastwood, the coolest cowboy ever, appears as Wallach’s partner, as they run a scam whereby Eastwood turns in the criminal Wallach, collecting his bounty, and then rescues him just before execution. The immense distrust between the main characters is the main drive for the storyline, as all three’s paths eventually cross over the search for a horde of (the contemporary) Civil war gold.
After much mishap and more than a little farce, mainly centred around the innately amusing Wallach, the trio end up at the grave yard where the gold is supposedly buried together, and embark on one of the most amazing film endings cinema has ever produced. Before the ending comes the middle, of course, and such detours as Van Cleef’s brutal reign as a Union prison camp officer, and the battle for the bridge, question and discuss one of the main themes of the film, allegiance. Both sides in the conflict that forms the background to the tale are pictured as insane monstrosities fighting in futility in no important or interesting battles. The trio are just criminals worth nothing caught up in the war, searching for the ultimate purpose and objective, that is the only possible justifying factor in the whole film. Despite Eastwood’s obvious cool, there is no glamour attached to the occupations of these thieves. All three get it in the nuts on a regular basis (especially Wallach) and Van Cleef is in particular a very, very, nasty piece of work indeed. ‘The man with no name’, Eastwood’s anonymous character alone shows any redeeming features in his vindication of the army colonel and at the finale, but his abandoning of Wallach in the desert is one of the most antisocial things I’ve ever seen.
All three actors give perfectly judged performances, Lee Van Cleef a hateable villain, Eli Wallach a comic turn tinged with sadness (his reuniting with his brother) and Clint Eastwood – well, how many children have been named ‘Clint’ since, without serious thought (or none at all ) from their parents? It’s just too much to live up to
Anyway the film has to be seen (and heard) to be understood. The final shootout, involving extreme close-ups, thundering, incredible music and a build up of tension that is so enjoyable, that my adrenaline was pupming in time to the music. The chiselled weather-beaten features of all three stars are made to look compulsively watchable, even ‘The ugly’s. In glorious technicolour, the western landscape looks good enough to eat, all locations are chosen for their grandness, and captured perfectly. All facial hair is well chosen and placed, particularly Van Cleef’s moustache, which is undoubtably the only instance when handlebars have been made to look cool. It’s all enough to make you go out and buy a poncho.
I was riveted to my seat throughout, and listening to the soundtrack a few days later, also knocked me out. In ‘The Good, The Bad And The Ugly’, Sergio Leone has created a masterpiece of cinema.
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Production Year: 1965 - Westerns - Director: Sergio Leone - Original Language: English - Classification: 15 years and over - Starring: Clint Eastwood, Lee Van Cleef, Klaus Kinski, Mario Brega, Gian Maria Volonte, Mara Krup, Luigi Pistilli
PS. Sorry to be a pedant, but it was filmed in Spain...!
Paiceyjohn 26.07.2001 14:05
Superb review, with some excellent insights into the complex undercurrents of this movie. I thought you shied away from this a bit though when you were just about to hit us with your big theory....! You said: "...The trio are just criminals worth nothing caught up in the war, searching for the ultimate purpose and objective, that is the only possible justifying factor in the whole film. " What would you say the ultimate purpose and objective is? Is there a justifying factor? Yo're right about the music. "The Ecstasy of Gold", the piece of music that plays in the graveyard where Tuco is running past and falling over the graves and then later when they're squaring (triangling?) up for the three-way shootout is stirring and powerful and is my favourite piece in the movie too.
Connoisseur_Haggler 30.05.2001 09:39
An outstanding op. This is my all time fave ClintEastwood film, I ve seen it a few times:), and great title! ciao!
Clint Eastwood ("the Man with No Name") is good, Lee Van Cleef (named Angel Eyes Sentenza ... more
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![The Good, The Bad, And The Ugly [DVD] [1966]](http://picnicb.ciao.com/uk/78540725.jpg "The Good, The Bad, And The Ugly [DVD] [1966]")
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