Review of The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (1966) by Paul A — 13 Jun 2012

What can I say about this movie that hasn't already been said? This movie has a wicked sense of humor. Any movie where "the good" guy is a guy who kills and tortures people is coming from a dark mind.

Lee Van Cleef's portrayal of "Angel Eyes" makes my "top 10 villains of all time" list. Eli Wallach's performance made the audience care (a little) about the character that represented "the ugly".

This was the greatest of the three "Man with No Name" movies. It has arguably the greatest score in movie history (with three iconic pieces of music and several other strong ones). Other than a couple of minor continuity issues, I can't think of a way to improve it.

Even the minor characters are interesting: Tuco's brother, the Civil War commander, the dying prison commander, and the shop owner all brought interesting elements to the story.

If first two movies in this series invented the concept of "gratuitous violence", this movie perfected it. It's easy to forget that this movie offended the sensibilities of many 1960s movie critics. "Sophisticated" people - today's equivalent of "artsy" people - saw it as a sign of moral decline - a kind of modern day Gladiator games for the unwashed masses. Many (including Roger Ebert) eventually retracted their negative reviews.

If you haven't seen this movie, go get it. Everything about it is awesome.