The Italian epic spaghetti western, The Good, The Bad, The Ugly, with Clint Eastwood as Blondie, Lee Van Cleef as Angel Eyes, and Eli Wallach as Tuco, was released in Italy in 1966 and the United States in late 1967. “The plot centers around three gunslingers competing to find a fortune in buried Confederate gold amid the violent chaos of gunfights, hangings, Civil War battles, and prison camps.”
Sergio Leone, Italian director, noted after criticisms that film was violent, “the killings in my films are exaggerated because I wanted to make a tongue-in-cheek satire on run-of-the-mill westerns… The west was made by violent, uncomplicated men, and it is this strength and simplicity that I try to recapture in my pictures.”
Produced by Alberto Grimaldi. Music by Ennio Morricone. The music track is famous and unforgettable.
The film was shot in Spain with the Spanish Army. International array of actors spoke in their native languages. They were dubbed later. This accounts for the lack of synchronization with lip movements.
No matter. The movie has been credited as a great film.
But Leone’s mixture of seemingly incompatible elements is what makes The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly so great. Not only does he combine a Cinemascope-era outlook with an eye for grittiness, but he mingles tasteful realism with a flamboyant, self-conscious style. Freeze frames, intertitles, and point-of-view shots brilliantly co-exist with the meticulously appointed period sets and sweeping frontier vistas. This fusion, in addition to a surplus of creativity and lack of restraint, makes the third in the so-called “man with no name” series the crowning glory of his career.
The last part of the film, the Mexican Standoff, is classic. To be enjoyed thoroughly.
The Good The Bad And The Ugly (17/18)
The Good The Bad And The Ugly (18/18)
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