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THE GOOD, THE BAD, AND THE UGLY

Decades after its making and its commercially successful theatrical release, it is hard to appreciate the circumstances in which director Sergio Leone's masterpiece was made. Although the Sergio Leone/Clint Eastwood trilogy of Western movies were by far the highest-grossing Italian genre imports of their time, they were hardly created in a vacuum. Italian genre cinema was flourishing in the 60s and 70s, and no genre more so than the Western. There were a ton of cartoonish, mock-operatic Italian Westerns made during that time, often with strong, silent, handsome, stubble-faced leading men, comical sidekicks, and over-the-top violence. So why does this movie stand out from the pack?

The answer, in my opinion, is a singular gathering of talent, both behind and in front of the camera. Under Leone's passionate artistic guidance, cinematographer Tonino Delli Colli and composer Ennio Morricone created a feast for the eyes and ears, while the actors are perfectly iconic in their larger-than-life roles.

In addition, Leone's vision of the Old West was way ahead of its time. To call this movie's environment "harsh" would be an understatement. Set during the later days of the Civil War, the movie finds its three main characters -- Blondie, "The Good" (Clint Eastwood), Angel Eyes, "The Bad" (Lee Van Cleef), and Tuco, "The Ugly" (Eli Wallach) -- engaging in games of one-upsmanship and uneasily alliances that are made to be broken, leading to betrayal, torture, and one sado-masochistic clash after another. They live in a dog-eat-dog world, where a shred of decency will most likely find you stomped on. And with the war ravaging America, it's every man for himself more than ever. Even Tuco's brother, a priest, is a dour cynic who has given up all hope; in a nice twist, Tuco, who is crossing himself all the time, has more faith than his brother, despite being a shitty human being who has committed every crime under the sun. But Angel Eyes, a calculating, sadistic, mercenary bastard with ice water for blood, makes Tuco look like a saint by comparison. Blondie, despite being just as cold-blooded as the other two when he needs to be, is "The Good" only because he manages to allow himself the occassional act of kindness, such as giving his coat and a drag on his cigar to a dying soldier on the battlefield.

Leone's nihilistic view of humanity would be borderline oppressive were it not for the filmmaker's saving graces of bizarre dark humor and grandiose stylishness. And, in my opinion, he would never equal the perfect balance he achieves in this movie in any of the movies he made before or after. The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly is one of the greatest Westerns ever made, completely deserving of its lofty status.

That sounds like an excellent review of how i remember the film, though I only saw it once from start to finish. And that was on, like, TBS or TNT, so its already considerable length is inflated with interminable and nauseatingly frequent commercial breaks. I really need to see it sans commercials as intended at some point!

Thanks, Lardy.

Glad you mentioned the length. Even though its over 2 and a half hours long and there are many slow-burn scenes, the overall pace never feels slow to me. I always find that amazing no matter how many times I watch it.

Wikipedia puts it at 177 mins...just 3 mins shy of 3 hours, if that's accurate. But I should clarify that I have NO problem with the film's running time and somewhat deliberate pace. But the experience is practically RUINED watching it on commercial TV! They typically show the movie over 4 hours (or possibly more)....so that's over an hour or more worth of commercials to balloon the run-time! Now that I have DVR, at least, I can fast-forward thru them. Watching it without even that hindrance would be preferable, though.

It's probably been close to a decade since I watched this, but I remember it having a really powerful anti-war message.

Fanfie's review really nails it, and I'm glad this thread started with what is rightly considered one if the best westerns ever made (and certainly one of the best films).

Leone's first two Man With No Name movies are also quite good, though smaller in scale and gradually showing the genius of he and his partners in crime. By the time they got to GB&U, they were firing on all cylinders, having honed their craft to a place most filmmakers rarely go.

Fanfie explains it perfectly: that brutal nihilism is sizzling and distressing but held in check by the dark humor and lush cinematic style. My father has said many times he believes the civil war battle scene to be one of the best shot in film history and that is a topic is is quite thorough on. What's amazing is that it's so peripheral to the plot!

Eastwood is fantastic in his role, and clearly found his niche here. In an interview about his peers, Sydney Pollock once said that while Leone was an incredibly nice man, when he was angry, he WAS Blondie. I've always loved that.

Lee Van Cleaf is also fantastic, and I love that such a character actor of the 50's had a whole cult favorite career in the 60's and early 70's in the spaghetti westerns. He is as cold hearted as they come here, and has inspired many of the villains I've written in my own fic.

Likewise, Eli Wallach steals the show in every scene he's in--the camera loves him and so do I. It says a lot that a genuine awful scoundrel like Tuco is a personal favorite of mine.

I saw this many times in my early teens, and when DVDs first became a thing, it was the first DVD I ever bought. I've probably watched it 20 times. It has some of the best one-liners of all time, full of crass, masculine gallows humor that so many 70's and 80's films tried to copy. Back in my hell-raising drinking & fighting late teen years, I wanted to act like I was in a Leone film.

And you can't talk about the movie without taking about Ennio Morricone, who is just legendary at this point. I remember I bought my father a "best of Morricone" CD for Christmas a few years back, made a copy for myself and listened to it so much I wore it out. "The Ecstasy of Gold" is brilliant to the point where Mozart, Wagner and others would sit back and say "Holy Fuck Tits!" (Mozart especially I bet). Morricone's lead track from "Once Upon a Time in the West" is also memorable, but not quite as iconic as GB&U. I also love how Tarrantino uses a lot of old Morricone tracks in his last few films, which I could recognize immediately.

Man, thinking about the movie makes me want to watch is so bad. For some reason I have the scene where they're in the Union prison camp--which is the first time such a thing was EVER realistically portrayed for the Civil War--and Angel Eyes is beating Tuco senseless while the heartbreakingly beautiful "Soldier's Song" plays in the background. Everything about that sequence is grandiose and iconic, and it exemplifies the rest of the film.

Great thread!

And a few general comments following our initial discussion in Gym'lls:

1) As mentioned to Lardy, Deadwood by HBO is what I consider a contender for greatest television show of all time (no matter the genre). It's so damn good that my praise won't do it justice so I'll just recommend it to anyone who likes good television and good art. The only complaint is it was cancelled at Season 3 and thus had to finish a little more abruptly than they'd wish.

2) Hell on Wheels on AMC is a phenomenal show which is hugely underrated. Post-civil war, it focuses on one of the little subgenres of the western that doesn't get much play since the 50's, the expansion of the railroads, and all of the different types of people that intersected with such a game-changing event in American life.

3) Lardy mentioned Breaking Bad's western influence and I totally agree that it is very present. A lot of crime drama (and sci-fi drama) shares many motifs with westerns, and Breaking Bad clearly is one of the ones that does it, and does it very right.

Perhaps the single greatest western concept is the idea that when someone has good intentions, and is even bent on 'saving people', they have to become something terrible to do it. Clearly, that is the path of Walter White. Vince Gilligan, creator of BB, has spoken quite a bit about the influence of the movie the Searchers (another absolutely phenomenal movie) on the final season of Breaking Bad, and I think the western influence extends backwards to all of the seasons. The relationship of Walt and Jesse is a very "outlaw" partnership in tune with many prior westerns.

Just for the hell of it, I may review a few more westerns today. I don't want to, for lack of a better phrase, blow my load though, so I'll try not to go overboard.

First and foremost, the best of the 'modern westerns', is Tombstone. Hands down.

If you haven't seen it...go get it.

Retelling the story most commonly told in the entire genre, it focuses on the confrontation by the Earps and Doc Holliday with the Clanton & McClowerly Brothers at the OK Coral. What sets it apart are a few things: (A) the acting is so superb it borders on insanity; (B) the pacing and tension building are on par with the most intense films ever, even in the "quieter" moments; and (C) there is a hugely diverse cast that all have roles to play.

It helps that this movie has filmmakers who painstakingly spent time researching every little character that is somehow related to the Gunfight at the OK Coral and then the subsequent revenge killings that terrified the west for the next few years. All of the characters are real people. The level of accuracy is somewhat in question, given the large body of evidence to support that the Earps may not have been all that heroic, but filmmaker Kurt Russell (who clearly had his seminal film here) has admitted that in order to get this made in Hollywood, he had to have a clear heroic side and a clearly villainous side.

(And anyone who likes history and the Old West simply has to delve deeper into the life of Wyatt Earp and how the antagonism that build up between the two factions was a clear outgrowth of post-Civil War hard feelings which most the rest of the country shared).

Tombstone is full of much of the swagger that makes westerns so beloved: excellent, gallows humor one-liners spoken with conviction and machismo; characters having to realize that in order to live with themselves they have to actually be honest and be themselves; and the conflict between savagery and civilization that existed on the frontier. The action is explosive and the violence is sudden and final. Gunshots sound like they are going off in your eardrums, and its unnerving and distressing.

Topping that all off, you get an incredible love story that has made me in love with Dana Delaney for 20 years. Her role is critical and a phenomenal female role in a western.

And the villains, particularly a nuanced performance of Johnny Ringo by Michael Biehn and an over the top Curly Bill by Powers Boothe are beyond memorable.

Lastly, to get back to where I started, the show stealer of them all is the obvious one: Val Kilmer as Doc Holliday. To me, this is Kilmer's greatest role and he's never been this good before or since. He's the greatest Doc Holliday, even better than the awesome Victor Mature in My Darling Clementine in the 40's. The ultimate antihero who places friendship above all other things.

And that is one of my favorite themes in movies--friendship and brotherhood (or sisterhood) between two characters often who no one would ever think should be friends. Wyatt & Doc are iconic in that way, and this is the best presentation of it.

Thanks for the recommendation and review of Tombstone, Cobie. I don't remember why I didn't watch it back in the day. I'll have to correct that.

I also thought I should address the controversy regarding whether Tombstone was directed by Kurt Russell or by the credited director, George Pan Cosmatos. Sylvester Stallone has claimed that he directed Rambo First Blood Part II, which again credited Cosmatos as director, and that he recommended Cosmatos to Russell because Cosmatos was willing to take a backseat to the stars. The rumors didn't come out until after Cosmatos died about eight years ago, when he was no longer around to dispute the actors' claims. People who knew Cosmatos have said he'd never let himself be pushed around by his lead actors like that. And I dispute Stallone's claim simply because Rambo II is a very stylish and stylized movie (it's really a 90 minute R-rated episode of G.I. Joe, and I mean that in the best possible way) and it doesn't match the unimaginative directing of the films that Stallone himself has done.

Watched the Wild Bunch.

The movie where the good guys are bad guys. Where the bad guy chasing them was slightly more good than the good guys who are bad guys. Where the guy funding the chasing bad guy is a bad guy while looking like a good guy. All with a backdrop of an ending age where everyone is prone to be a bad guy if it's in their interests, and in a war where there are almost no real good guys.

But the reason I posted was that I was too tired to turn off the TV, so I watched the documentary. It turns out that one iconic scene was just made up as they were shooting and wasn't originally intended.

The Wild Bunch was a movie that changed everything. It's been copied by every genre and in every era since but none of them have been able to compete with the original.

The documentary said that Pekinpah went off somewhere quiet after the end of filming and cried. Something else else to do with the intensity of it all and the ending of shooting being like losing a loved one.

They were working insane hours, as a lot of people on great movies do.

Besides, it has a good cast including Borgnine.

I watched it recently, but I'm planning a compare-and-contrast double review with Peckinpah's 180-degree turn in his next movie, The Ballad of Cable Hogue. I'll post this weekend.

Looking forward to that!

And Thoth, I agree about Borgnine! I love him in everything he's in. He grew up in my home town and "Ernest Borgnine Park" was one block from my house.

Powers Booth is a vastly underrated actor. And one of the best movies I've seen him in was a modern at the time western with Nick Nolte called Extreme Prejudice. Take away the 80's feel, and you get a tight, tense modern take on the western.

I haven't seen the movie in years, I'd love to see it again if I could find it, though.

It was dirty, sweaty, gritty and just pure damn fun.

And you're sure this was a Western?

I had to check wiki for Powers Boothe. Very familiar, but I didn't recognise anything he's been in. He's certainly had a full, varied career too.

Ever since he parachuted in to help the Wolverines battle those filthy Commies in Red Dawn, Boothe has been an actor I've loved seeing on screen. His role as Curly Bill in Tombstone is probably my favorite thing he's ever done. It's not his most complex performance, but it certainly is a performance, and it's awesome to behold.

He also is playing Senator Roark in the Sin City movies, and you can tell he's just reveling in it.

Another great Powers Boothe performance is in The Emerald Forest, though that's certainly not a western.

Extreme Prejudice was directed by Walter Hill, who also directed The Long Riders, which I'll be reviewing in this thread soon.

I LOVE me some spaghetti westerns! The "Man With No Name" trilogy is among the best trilogies of all time. The fact that "The Good, The Bad and The Ugly" is actually a prequel blew my mind when I first saw it. (we get to see where Eastwood got his signature poncho) The civil war segment seemed like such a distraction to me when I first saw it as a youth, but it's actually totally germane to the message of the film.

Speaking of Leone, "Once Upon a Time in the West" is also great, (no spoilers) if only for the opening sequence and also how they reveal the bad guy.

Bonanza could seem light hearted but it was WAY ahead of it's time socially. Women and minorities, both leads and special guests were given meaty roles that defied the stereotypes. Had great influence on me as a kid. Okay, Hop Sing maybe was a bit of a stereotype but that character had its moments too.

More modern, "Deadwood." Dirty and gritty is where it begins.

THE GOOD, THE BAD AND THE UGLY was a slow burn for me. Didn't really care for it the first time I saw it. It's gotten better each time (I think I've seen it 4 times over the years). The thing is, it's my least-favorite of those 3 films. Not a knock, I simply like the shorter stories better.

It took me ages to realize the same actor played different lead villains in both FISTFUL OF DOLLARS and FOR A FEW DOLLARS MORE. Heck, I feel sure a number of actors turns up in several of these as different roles each time.

About 18 years ago, I wanted to see if I could watch a Clint Eastwood marathon WITH my Dad, starting with FISTFUL. But just to be funny, we actually started with YOJIMBO. And somehow, both my parents watched that-- and FISTFUL the following week. Imagine my delighted surprise, when both of them said they liked the Japanese film better! (Among other things, it's FUNNIER.)

One should also check out THE WARRIOR AND THE SORCERESS, the Corman-produced (I think) sci-fi remake, which starred David Carridine as the sword-wielding hero named... I'm not making this up... "Kane". (It was a sort-of follow-up to BATTLE BEYOND THE STARS. You can understand that, right?)

My favorite of the 3 is FOR A FEW DOLLARS MORE. Several times, back when I still had cable, I'd just happen to turn on the first half-hour of this film at random, and could not shut it off. Well, until about a half-hour in. That first half-hour was so well-done, so well-constructed, so perfectly shot and edited and everything... it was mezmerizing. And it was only the lead-in.

One of my favorite aspects of the film is Lee Van Cleef is actually the HERO of the movie. I saw GB&U before this, so seeing him as a good guy was a surprise. (The first time around, I thought his character might be the same guy, before be turned bad!)

"When two bounty hunters go after the same target, they usually wind up shooting each other in the back, and WE don't want to shoot each other in the back, DO we?"

There was one minor detail in the film that baffled me for years, because somehow, I missed it more than once-- where did the stolen money go? You have to pay close attention. As they're climbing down from the roof of the building, Eastwood very quickly hides it in a tree branch. If you happen to MISS that-- as I somehow did, TWICE-- you'll be lost wondering what happened.

It's funny to watch ESCAPE FROM NEW YORK where Van Cleef is the head of the cops, and Kurt Russell goes thru the entire film "doing" Clint Eastwood. (Later, in BIG TROUBLE IN LITTLE CHINA, Russell spent the entire film "doing" John Wayne!)

Somebody elsewhere reminded me of a very good movie that had a cowboy merc theme, the Professionals. This was a fantastic movie with Lee Marvin, Burt Lancaster and Jack Palance.

For funny, I like Support your Local... Sheriff/Gunfighter.

And there was one with Dean Martin and others that was a spoof I guess, where one guy ran out of bullets, threw his pistol, and
"Killed" six guys at once or something like that. There was a line "I'd walk a mile for these camels" that was a direct pickup from a cigarette ad, but I don't remember the name of the movie.