Review of The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (1966) by Cael M — 04 Jul 2013

The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly is both easily my favorite western, and my favorite movie of all time. It's the final part of the Dollars trilogy, and in my opinion, the most epic, entertaining, and flat out awesome of the three, and its influence on both western and films in general is still clear today. Usually, trilogies progressively get worse as the series continues, but with the Dollars trilogy, Sergio Leone managed to improve each time. With each film, you can see his direction improve and mature, and by the time he made The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly, he was already crowned as one of the kings of the western genre, but he managed to combine all of his talents and created both this movie and the more serious, darker Once Upon a Time in the West, and later, the overlooked Fistful of Dynamite. The western genre is my favorite genre- both spaghetti and American ones-, but my love for the genre all started with the Dollars trilogy. It's an incredibly iconic movie, with both its title and its many different memorable aspects sinking into pop culture and western stereotypes.

One of those stereotypes is The Man With No Name, played by Clint Eastwood, who played the same role for the past two movies, and in my opinion, his role is probably my favorite movie character ever. However, the conflicts that he faces throughout the trilogy are not linked- the only reason this is even considered a trilogy is because they're all directed by Sergio Leone and they star Clint Eastwood. It wasn't Leone's intention to make this a trilogy, but it's referred to as a trilogy for convenience purposes anyways. Here, he played "The Good", who although isn't really a "good" person, is a lot smarter and accurate at shooting than the others in the trio. The next person is The Bad, played by Lee Van Cleef, who is perfect, and his role in this movie and For A Few Dollars more, the predecessor, rose Lee Van to fame. He's ruthless, cold blooded, and chilling, and his facial expressions alone define his personality perfectly. He has a straight, menacing face, and he's always one step ahead. What makes me sad is how overlooked Lee Van Cleef is as an actor, and although for many of the westerns he played in, he did play a somewhat similar role, I feel like he should be more recognized because of how cool he is. Last but not least is The Ugly, played by Eli Wallach, who's is a bandit that is absolutely hilarious and pretty dumb as well, and later forms a sort of bond with The Good. Arguably, he's equal in terms of quality and likability to The Good in this movie. However, if there's one thing that connects these three characters the most, is their greed for the hidden cache of gold.

This trio- The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly (hence the title) are all rivaling against each other to search for the cache of gold hidden in a graveyard, while caught up in the Civil War. The opening of this film is perfection, introducing the three leads of the movie. However, the part where The Bad interrogates a former soldier has plenty of tension. In fact, Quentin Tarantino even used a similar style for the opening of Inglourious Basterds, where Hans Landa interrogates a French farmer. Later, The Good meets The Ugly, and they participate in a trick where The Ugly, who is a wanted bandit, is turned in by The Good, and right when he's about to get hanged, The Good shoots the rope and he's freed. They keep repeating this tactic to exploit the bounty hunter business, and overtime, they slowly form a bond in the hunt for the gold. The Ugly is hilarious and pretty stupid as well, with tons of awesome quotes. In fact, everyone in this movie has great, memorable quotes that each reflect their personalities. From there on, the plot progresses and the movie becomes more epic by the second, up until the haunting finale, which is probably my favorite movie scene ever.

However, how good would this movie be without Ennio Morricone's score? Ennio, who is my favorite movie composer, has conducted tons of western soundtracks (and movie soundtracks in general) that I all love, but here, I think he topped his music. It's iconic and beautiful, and without it, many scenes wouldn't be anywhere as epic, and would lack lots of the tension that defined the film. His music for this movie pretty much created the stereotype and current imagery of the West. The cinematography is also brilliant, with wide, beautiful shots showcasing the dry, grainy desert landscape, and you can tell that the production values of the film were higher than the first two in the trilogy. That being said, this is not an extremely serious movie, and as I stated previously, there's tons of hilarious humor, especially through the "partnership", which is sort of a love/hate one between The Good and The Ugly. With Once Upon a Time in the West, Leone made a far more gritty, realistic, and dark western, with pretty much no humor but an atmosphere and an insane amount of tension that makes it nearly as good as this movie.

Overall, I could go on forever and ever, praising this film with no limits, but I'm sure you can understand as to why this is my favorite movie of all time. For me, at least, there will never be a movie better than this one, and I love this movie to no end. It's both the definitive western and the definitive spaghetti western, and it's a film that even non-western fans can appreciate. It's influence is to be seen anywhere, even if you don't notice it, and its had a legacy that has barely been matched since. I've watched this film countless times, and upon each viewing, it's just as entertaining as the last time. This is not only the perfection of the western genre, but of movies in general.