Review of The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (1966) by Dave J — 28 Jan 2015

Monday, August 23, 2010.

(1966) The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly.

WESTERN/ ACTION/ COMEDY.

The last of the Eastood/ Leone successful on- screen collaborations and by far the best of the Spagetti trilogy! Simplistic storyline having the three leads, the good, Blonde (Eastwood), the bad Angel Eyes(Lee Van Cleef) and the ugly, Tuco (Eli Wallash) searching for gold during the civil war era used as a backdrop. What's so brilliant about this film is that the three leads do not take any sides with this civil war or on anything else except to find this gold as their main goal. The character "Angel Eyes" played by Lee Van Cleef is not the same charcter as "For A Few Dollars More"- two characters playing two different roles since Leone has a habit of always reusing all of the same actors- all with different roles with different names in all three of his films. This film is full of coincidences which happens in real life all the time. Excellent musical score of course by Ennio Morricone! This film was never felt long despite it's running time- not a single moment. Epic-like film making using thousands of extras.

The scenes that were cut out on the US print and were on the European print can also be found on DVD.

Masterpiece.

4/4.

(Contains spoils).

After watching this film for the umpteenth time, this movie has grown on me every time I see it. And I just wanted to say that it was also my one of dads favorite movie of all time. There's not much to say except to say except that I'm interpreting this film differently than perhaps how other viewers had seen it. I wanted to address a few things, such as despite it's inaccuracies in terms of guns and so forth. That those are very minor indiscretions that have nothing to do with the plot. There are two crucial scenes that I seem to pick up that need more examining which occurs right at the beginning and then toward the end. Pointing out that the two scenes appear to be linked.

At the beginning, showcases Blonde(Eastwood) saving the life of a savory character with a bounty on his head from three men who only wanted to collect the bounty. Blonde does this is so that he can split the bounty with his capture.. But by the time he successfully does this, his capture, Tuco demands a bigger cut since he has to take the biggest risk. Blonde neither agrees nor disagrees and allows Tuco to say whatever he wants but does say "That there's two types of people my friend- those with ropes around their necks and those that do the cutting? But Tuco answers back saying "that if you miss, you better miss good, because no one double crosses him and leaves him alive." It is now a different town, and while Tuco does have a rope on his neck, Blonde singes the rope, while Tuco is hanging on a little before he falls to the ground because of his weight. Blonde picks him up on his saddle while Tuco was attempting to run away. And as expected Tuco complains, and Blonde lets him off. I then want to jump to near the end, when right after the dup between "The Good, The Bad And The Ugly". when the bad guy is the only one who was shot and killed, leaving with the ugly, Tuco and Blonde still alive. And Tuco becoming upset after suddenly discovering that his gun had been emptied by Blonde. And before he was able to answer Tuco's question about when he unloaded it. Blonde says last night. He then goes back to his expression of saying that theirs two kinds of people again. This time he says, "Those with loaded guns and those who dig" meaning that he expects Tuco to dig up the gold. After Tuco becomes all excited again after seeing all the gold bags. Blonde then shows him a hang mans' rope with Tuco's head expected to go into that noose. And after he takes his 4 bags and says 'seems like old times, 4 four you and four for me' leaving Tuco's share behind. Blonde then rides away from the cemetery while Tuco is screaming out his name. It was at a very far distance, Tuco suddenly sees Blonde taking out his rifle again to cut down his noose. By the time Blonde is able to cut Tuco down from such a far distance. Tuco then realizes that when Blonde singed the rope sometime in the beginning. That Blonde singed the rope on purpose so that Tuco would get angry. So after he was freed this time around, Tuco runs out screaming with hands still tied behind his back " Hey Blonde!!" "You know what you are!!" Just a dumb son of a...".