Review of The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (1966) by David A — 26 Dec 2011

I just love everything about this film, the writing, the cinematography, the cast, Ennio Morricone's score, everything.

Even the title gives the film more depth as the film has to prove to you that Blondie is the good, Tuco is the ugly and Angel Eyes is the bad. Each is proved in a different way. With Blondie, we have serious doubts when we first see the title "The Good" under his picture right after he leaves Tuco in the desert. As the movie goes on we slowly come to realize that though he may not be a saint, he is certainly better than his two counterparts, this is proved at the very end when he allows Tuco to keep his share of the gold, even though he could have easily taken it all for himself. This is something we cannot imagine Angel Eyes or Tuco doing. With Tuco, it's different, we first see "The Ugly" title when we first see him and we are not even sure what it means, the best conclusion we can come to perhaps is that he certainly doesn't look very attractive in the scene. But we later see that 'ugly' is meant to mean pitiful in this situation, because although Tuco is a vile character, we pity him because we find out about his past. Finally there's Angel Eyes, with him we have no doubts about the text "The Bad" which appears after he murders his employer, this certitude of his evil nature is reaffirmed throughout the film. So the character development in this film seems not so much to be with the characters but with our own perception of them.

Opinions vary about what the film really is. Is it a satire of westerns? Is it a an antiwar film? Is it camp? Is it art? Is it all of these things maybe? I think perhaps Leone left the film to the viewers own interpretation, and that, I suppose, is the way art is.

This films has a few small flaws: 1.The Ecstasy of Gold scene is a little unbelievable, could a person like Tuco, who seems to struggle with reading, find the name on a grave while running through a graveyard in circles? This scene is also a little hard to watch because the camera follows Tuco very fast, causing the screen to blur. This does work artistically however as it seems to have present a "blinded with greed" metaphor. 2. There are a few other unrealistic scenes, such as the one where Tuco and Blondie walk through an abandoned town and kill Angel eyes men, conveniently placed cannon shots aid them and they kill men shooting from the hip, while the Angel Eyes men carefully aim and miss. The flaws in this film are easily outweighed by it's strengths however: 1. The characters are very well written and portrayed. 2. The pacing is superb (it seemed no longer then A Fistful of Dollars really). 3. The story, while not one of the films stronger aspects, is still very good. 4. The dialog is brilliant. 5. It has one of the greatest scores of all time. 6. The cinematography is stunning.

Il buono, il brutto, il cattivo is truly a cinematic masterpiece.