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The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (Italian: Il buono, il brutto, il cattivo) is a 1966 Italian/Spanish epic spaghetti western film directed by Sergio Leone, starring Clint Eastwood, Lee Van Cleef, and Eli Wallach in the title roles.[2] The screenplay was written by Age & Scarpelli, Luciano Vincenzoni and Leone, based on a story by Vincenzoni and Leone. Director of photography Tonino Delli Colli, was responsible for the film's sweeping widescreen cinematography and Ennio Morricone composed the famous film score, including its main theme. It is the third and final film in the Dollars Trilogy following A Fistful of Dollars (1964) and For a Few Dollars More (1965). The plot revolves around three gunslingers competing to find a fortune in buried Confederate gold amid the violent chaos of gunfights, hangings, American Civil War battles and prison camps.[3] In a desolate ghost town during the American Civil War, bandit Tuco Benedicto Pacifico Juan Maria Ramirez ("The Ugly," Eli Wallach)
narrowly shoots his way past three bounty hunters to freedom, killing
two but only badly wounding the third. Miles away, Angel Eyes ("The
Bad," Lee Van Cleef) interrogates a former soldier called Stevens (Antonio Casas) about a missing man named Jackson who has taken on the name "Bill Carson" (Antonio Casale) and a cache of stolen Confederate gold.
He brutally guns down Stevens and his eldest son after the
interrogation, but not before Stevens pays Angel Eyes to kill Angel
Eyes' employer, another former soldier named Baker. Angel Eyes later
collects his fee for Stevens' killing from Baker, and then shoots and
kills him too.
Meanwhile, during Tuco's flight across the desert he runs into a
group of bounty hunters who prepare to capture him when they are
approached by Blondie ("The Good," Clint Eastwood),
a mysterious lone gunman who challenges the hunters to the draw, which
he wins with lightning speed. Initially elated, Tuco is enraged when
Blondie delivers him up to the local authorities for the reward money of
$2,000. Hours later, as Tuco awaits his execution, Blondie surprises
the authorities and frees Tuco by shooting the execution rope; the two
later meet to split the reward money, revealing their lucrative
money-making scheme. After Tuco's bounty is raised to $3,000, the two
repeat the process at another town before Blondie, weary of Tuco's
incessant complaints about the dividing of the profits from their
scheme, abandons him in the desert, keeping all of the money. A livid
Tuco manages to make it to another town and rearm himself with a
revolver. Some time later in another town, Tuco enlists three outlaws to
come with him to kill Blondie. As the three men break into Blondie's
room, Blondie shoots and kills all three of them, but to Blondie's
surprise Tuco climbs up through his back window and aims his gun at
Blondie in the middle of a skirmish between Union and Confederate
troops. As Tuco prepares to kill Blondie by fashioning a noose and
forcing Blondie to put it around his neck, a cannonball hits the hotel
and demolishes the room, allowing Blondie to escape.
Following a relentless search, Tuco captures Blondie using the same
scheme with another partner (Tuco doesn't allow Blondie to shoot the
rope this time and the unfortunate "Shorty" is hanged) and marches him
across the harsh desert. When Blondie finally collapses from dehydration
and heatstroke, Tuco prepares to kill him but pauses when a runaway
ambulance carriage appears on the horizon heading their way. Inside,
while looting the dead soldiers, Tuco discovers a dying Bill Carson, who
reveals that $200,000 in stolen Confederate gold is buried in a grave
in Sad Hill cemetery but falls unconscious before naming the grave. When
Tuco returns with water, he discovers Carson dead and Blondie slumped
against the carriage beside Carson's body. Before passing out, Blondie
says that Carson told him the name on the grave. Tuco takes Blondie
(both disguised as Confederate soldiers) to a Catholic mission run by
Tuco's older brother Father Pablo. Tuco nurses Blondie back to health,
and the two leave, still disguised. They inadvertently encounter a force
of Union soldiers (who they take for Confederates due to thick coatings
of grey dust on their uniforms). They are captured and marched to a
Union prison camp.
At the camp, Corporal Wallace (Mario Brega)
calls the roll. Tuco answers for Bill Carson, catching the attention of
Angel Eyes, now disguised as a Union Sergeant stationed at the camp.
Angel Eyes has Wallace viciously beat and torture Tuco into revealing
Sad Hill Cemetery as the location of the gold, but Tuco also confesses
that only Blondie knows the name on the grave. Angel Eyes offers Blondie
an equal partnership in recovering the gold. Blondie agrees and rides
out with Angel Eyes and his posse. Meanwhile, Tuco, chained to Corporal
Wallace, is transported by train to his execution. During the trip, Tuco
tells Wallace he has to urinate and distracts Wallace long enough to
grab him and jump off the train, taking the Corporal with him. He then
beats Wallace's head on a rock, killing him, and uses another train to
cut their chain taking the dead Wallace with it, freeing him.
We next see Blondie, Angel Eyes and Angel Eyes' gang arriving in a
town that's rapidly being evacuated due to heavy artillery fire. Tuco,
wandering aimlessly through the wreckage of that same town, is oblivious
of the bounty hunter that survived at the start of the movie (Al Mulock),
who tracks and ambushes Tuco who is taking a bath in an abandoned
building. Despite the surprise, Tuco shoots and kills the bounty hunter.
Blondie investigates the gunshot, finding Tuco and informing him of
Angel Eyes's involvement. The two resume their old partnership, stalking
through the wrecked town and killing Angel Eyes' henchmen before
discovering that Angel Eyes has escaped and left an insulting note for
them.
Tuco and Blondie find their way to Sad Hill Cemetery, but it is
blocked by large Union and Confederate forces who are separated only by a
narrow bridge. Each side is preparing to fight for it, but apparently
both sides have been ordered not to destroy the bridge. Reasoning that
if the bridge were destroyed "these idiots would go somewhere else to
fight", Blondie and Tuco wire the bridge with dynamite.
During the process, the two trade information, Tuco revealing Sad Hill
Cemetery as the gold's location and Blondie saying that the name on the
grave is Arch Stanton. The two then take cover as the bridge blows up
and the two armies resume their battle. The next morning, the
Confederate and Union soldiers have gone. Tuco abandons Blondie (who has
stopped to tend to a dying young Confederate soldier) to retrieve the
gold for himself at the cemetery. Frantically searching the sea of
make-shift tombstones and grave markers, Tuco finally locates Arch
Stanton's grave. As he digs, Blondie appears (now clad in his trademark
poncho) and tosses him a shovel. A second later, the two are surprised
by Angel Eyes, who holds them at gunpoint. Blondie kicks open Stanton's
grave to reveal just a skeleton. Declaring that only he knows the real
name of the grave, Blondie writes it on a rock in the middle of the
graveyard and tells Tuco and Angel Eyes that "two hundred thousand
dollars is a lot of money. We're going to have to earn it."
The three stare each other down in the circular center of the
cemetery, calculating alliances and dangers in a famous five-minute Mexican standoff
before suddenly drawing. Blondie shoots Angel Eyes, who tries to shoot
Blondie while he is down only to be shot by Blondie again and roll into
an open grave, dead. Tuco also tries to shoot Angel Eyes, but discovers
that Blondie had unloaded his gun the night before. Blondie directs Tuco
to the grave marked "Unknown" next to Arch Stanton's. Tuco digs and is
overjoyed to find bags of gold inside, but is shocked when he turns to
Blondie and finds himself staring at a noose. Seeking a measure of
revenge for what Tuco has done to him, Blondie forces Tuco to stand atop
a tottery grave marker and fixes the noose around his neck, binding
Tuco's hands before riding off with his share of the gold. As Tuco
screams for mercy, Blondie's silhouette returns on the horizon, aiming a
rifle at him. Blondie fires a single shot and severs the noose rope,
just like old times, dropping Tuco face-first onto his share of the
gold. Blondie smiles and rides off as Tuco, who has his gold but no
horse, curses him in rage by shouting "Hey Blondie! You know what you
are? Just a dirty sonofabitch!".
- The Trio
- Clint Eastwood as "Blondie": The Good, a.k.a. the Man with No Name, a subdued, cocksure bounty hunter who teams with Tuco, and Angel Eyes temporarily, to find the buried gold. Blondie and Tuco have an ambivalent
partnership. Tuco knows the name of the cemetery where the gold is
hidden, but Blondie knows the name of the grave where it is buried,
forcing them to work together to find the treasure. In spite of this
greedy quest, Blondie's pity for the dying soldiers in the chaotic
carnage of the War is evident. "I've never seen so many men wasted so
badly," he laments.
- Rawhide
had ended its run as a series in 1966 and at that point neither of
Clint Eastwood's Italian films had been released in the United States.
When Leone offered him a role in his next movie, it was the only big
film offer he had; however, Eastwood still needed to be convinced to do
it. Leone and his wife traveled to California to persuade him. Two days
later, he agreed to make the film upon being paid $250,000 and getting
10% of the profits from the North American markets – a deal with which
Leone was not happy.
- Lee Van Cleef as Angel Eyes: The Bad, a ruthless, unfeeling and sociopathic mercenary named "Angel Eyes" (Sentenza
- Sentence - in the original script and the Italian version), who
always finishes a job he's paid for (which is usually finding...and
killing people). When Blondie and Tuco are captured while posing as
Confederate soldiers, Angel Eyes is the Union sergeant who interrogates
and tortures Tuco, eventually learning the name of the cemetery where
the gold is buried, but not the name on the tombstone. Angel Eyes forms a
fleeting partnership with Blondie, but Tuco and Blondie turn on Angel
Eyes when they get their chance.
- Originally, Leone wanted Charles Bronson to play Angel Eyes but he had already committed to The Dirty Dozen
(1967). Leone thought about working with Lee Van Cleef again: "I said
to myself that Van Cleef had first played a romantic character in For a Few Dollars More. The idea of getting him to play a character who was the opposite of that began to appeal to me."[4]
- Eli Wallach as Tuco:
The Ugly, Tuco Benedicto Pacífico Juan María Ramírez, a comical, oafish
(though proven also very dangerous as seen throughout the film), fast
talking bandit
who is wanted by the authorities for a long list of crimes. Tuco
manages to discover the name of the cemetery where the gold is buried,
but he does not know the name of the grave - only Blondie does. This
state of affairs forces Tuco to become reluctant partners with Blondie.
- The director originally considered Gian Maria Volonté
for the role of Tuco, but felt that the role required someone with
"natural comic talent". In the end, Leone chose Eli Wallach based on his
role in How the West Was Won (1962), in particular, his performance in "The Railroads" scene.[4]
In LA, Leone met Wallach, who was skeptical about playing this type of
character again, but after Leone screened the opening credit sequence
from For a Few Dollars More, Wallach said: "When do you want me?"[4]
The two men got along famously, sharing the same bizarre sense of
humor. Leone allowed Wallach to make changes to his character in terms
of his outfit and recurring gestures. Both Eastwood and Van Cleef
realized that the character of Tuco was close to Leone's heart, and
director and Wallach became good friends. They communicated in French,
which Wallach spoke badly and Leone spoke well. Van Cleef observed,
"Tuco is the only one of the trio the audience gets to know all about.
We meet his brother and find out where he came from and why he became a
bandit. But Clint's character and Angel's remain mysteries."[4]
- In the theatrical trailer, Angel Eyes is referred to as The Ugly and
Tuco, The Bad. This is due to a translation error; the original Italian
title translates literally to "The Good, the Ugly, the Bad".
[edit] Supporting cast
- Aldo Giuffrè
as the Union Captain: A drunken Union officer who befriends Tuco and
Blondie. He feels that the bloody confrontation his men are involved in
is a futile waste, and dreams of destroying the bridge — a wish carried
out by Blondie and Tuco. Mortally wounded in the Battle of Branstone
Bridge, he dies smiling just after hearing the bridge's destruction.
- Giuffré was an Italian comedian who had become an actor.
- Mario Brega
as Cpl Wallace: A thuggish prison guard who works for Angel Eyes and
brutally tortures Tuco to get him to reveal the hidden location of the
treasure. Angel Eyes turns Tuco over to Wallace so that he can turn Tuco
in for the reward money; Tuco, however, kills Wallace.
- A butcher turned actor, the imposing, heavyset Brega was a mainstay in Leone's films and Spaghetti Westerns in general.
- Luigi Pistilli as Father Pablo Ramirez: Tuco's brother, a Catholic friar. He holds Tuco in contempt for his choice of life as a bandit, but ultimately loves him.
- Pistilli was a veteran of many Spaghetti Westerns, usually playing a villain (as in Leone's For a Few Dollars More).
- Al Mulock
as One-armed Bounty Hunter: Wounded by Tuco in the early part of the
film, he loses his right arm. He seeks revenge, only to be shot and
killed by Tuco, leading to the line: "When you have to shoot, shoot!
Don't talk."
- Mulock was a Canadian actor who later appeared in Once Upon a Time in the West as one of the three gunmen in the film's opening sequence. He committed suicide on the set of the latter film.
- Antonio Casas as Stevens: Killed by Angel Eyes, who was paid to carry out the killing by Baker.
- Casas was a Spanish footballer turned actor.
- Antonio Casale as Bill Carson/Jackson
- Sergio Mendizábal as blond bounty hunter. One of three bounty hunters killed by Blondie during an attempted arrest of Tuco.
- John Bartha as Sheriff. Captures Tuco. Hat shot off by Blondie.
- Claudio Scarchilli as Pedro, a member of Tuco's Gang. Killed by Blondie.
- Sandro Scarchilli as 'Chico, a member of Tuco's Gang. Killed by Blondie.
- Antonio Molino Rojo as Captain Harper. The good captain at the Union prison camp whose leg is slowly deteriorating due to gangrene.
Harper warns Angel Eyes not to be dishonest on his watch, but Angel
Eyes holds him in contempt and deliberately ignores his orders.
- Rojo usually played henchmen in Leone's films and other Spaghetti Westerns, but here he played a more sympathetic character.
- Benito Stefanelli as Angel Eyes Gang Member. Henchman killed by Tuco.
- Leone's stunt coordinator who frequently had bit parts in Spaghetti Westerns.
- Aldo Sambrell as Angel Eyes Gang Member. Henchman killed by Blondie.
- Sambrell was a Spanish actor whose initially small parts in Spaghetti Westerns made him somewhat famous in his home country.
- Lorenzo Robledo
as Clem, henchman sent to follow Blondie when he leaves Angel Eyes'
hideout, after Tuco kills the bounty hunter. Blondie discovers him and
shoots him in the stomach.
- Enzo Petito as the guileless store keeper robbed by Tuco.
- Livio Lorenzon
as Baker. The Confederate soldier involved in the money scheme with
Stevens and Carson, he sends Angel Eyes to kill Stevens and extract
information from him. However, Baker himself is killed by Angel Eyes,
who was paid by Stevens to kill Baker before his death.
- Chelo Alonso as Stevens' Wife.
- An Italian star of the sword and sandal films in the 50s and early 60s, she had worked with Leone on several of his films as an assistant director.
[edit] Development
After the success of For a Few Dollars More, executives at United Artists
approached the film’s screenwriter, Luciano Vincenzoni, to sign a
contract for the rights to the film and for the next one. He, producer
Alberto Grimaldi and Sergio Leone had no plans, but with their blessing,
Vincenzoni pitched an idea about “a film about three rogues who are
looking for some treasure at the time of the American Civil War.” [4]
The studio agreed but wanted to know the cost for this next film. At
the same time, Grimaldi was trying to broker his own deal but
Vincenzoni’s idea was more lucrative. The two men struck an agreement
with UA for a million dollar budget with the studio advancing $500,000
up front and 50% of the box office takings outside of Italy. The total
budget would eventually be $1.3 million.
Leone built upon the screenwriter’s original concept to “show the
absurdity of war...the Civil War which the characters encounter. In my
frame of reference, it is useless, stupid: it does not involve a 'good
cause.'"[4] An avid history buff, Leone said, “I had read somewhere that 120,000 people died in Southern camps such as Andersonville.
I was not ignorant of the fact that there were camps in the North. You
always get to hear about the shameful behavior of the losers, never the
winners.”[4]
The Batterville Camp where Blondie and Tuco are imprisoned was based on
steel engravings of Andersonville. Many shots in the film were
influenced by archival photographs taken by Mathew Brady.
While Leone developed Vincenzoni’s idea into a script, the
screenwriter recommended the comedy-writing team of Agenore Incrucci and
Furio Scarpelli to work on it with Leone and Sergio Donati. According
to Leone, "I couldn’t use a single thing they’d written. It was the
grossest deception of my life."[4] Donati agreed, saying, "There was next to nothing of them in the final script. They only wrote the first part. Just one line."[4]
Vincenzoni claims that he wrote the screenplay in 11 days, but he soon
left the project after his relationship with Leone soured. The three
main characters all contain autobiographical elements of Leone. In an
interview he said, "[Sentenza] has no spirit, he's a professional
in the most banal sense of the term. Like a robot. This isn't the case
with the other two. On the methodical and careful side of my character,
I’d be nearer il Biondo (Blondie): but my most profound sympathy always goes towards the Tuco side...He can be touching with all that tenderness and all that wounded humanity.”[4]
The film’s working title was I due magnifici straccioni (The Two Magnificent Tramps). It was changed just before shooting began when Vincenzoni thought up Il buono, il brutto, il cattivo (The Good, the Ugly, the Bad) which Leone loved.
[edit] Production
The Sad Hill cemetery Mexican stand off finale which Leone ordered
should sound like "the corpses were laughing from inside their tombs"
Filming began at the Cinecittà studio in Rome again in mid-May 1966,
including the opening scene between Clint and Wallach when The Man With
No Name captures Tuco for the first time and sends him to jail.[5] The production then moved on to Spain's plateau region near Burgos in the north, which would double for the southwestern United States, and again shot the western scenes in Almeria in the south.[6] This time the production required more elaborate sets, including a town under cannon fire, an extensive prison camp and an American Civil War
battlefield; and for the climax, several hundred Spanish soldiers were
employed to build a cemetery with several thousand grave stones to
resemble an ancient Roman circus.[6]
The Spanish government approved production and provided the army for
technical assistance; the film's cast includes 1,500 local militia
members as extras.[citation needed]
Eastwood remembers, "They would care if you were doing a story about
Spaniards and about Spain. Then they’d scrutinize you very tough, but
the fact that you're doing a western that’s supposed to be laid in
southwest America or Mexico, they couldn’t care less what your story or
subject is."[4] Top Italian cinematographer Tonino Delli Colli
was brought in to shoot the film and was prompted by Leone to pay more
attention to light than in the previous two films; Ennio Morricone
composed the score once again. Leone was instrumental in asking
Morricone to compose a track for the final Mexican stand-off
scene in the cemetery, asking him to compose what felt like "the
corpses were laughing from inside their tombs", and asked Delli Colli to
creating a hypnotic whirling effect interspersed with dramatic extreme
close ups, to give the audience the impression of a visual ballet.[6]
Eastwood was not initially pleased with the script and was concerned
he might be upstaged by Wallach, and said to Leone, "In the first film I
was alone. In the second, we were two. Here we are three. If it goes on
this way, in the next one I will be starring with the American
cavalry".[7] As Eastwood played hard-to-get in accepting the role (inflating his earnings up to $250,000, another Ferrari[8]
and 10% of the profits in the United States when eventually released
there), Eastwood was again encountering publicist disputes between Ruth
Marsh, who urged him to accept the third film of the trilogy, and the
William Morris Agency and Irving Leonard, who were unhappy with Marsh's
influence on Clint.[7]
Eastwood banished Marsh from having any further influence in his career
and he was forced to sack her as his business manager via a letter sent
by Frank Wells.[7] For some time after, Eastwood's publicity was handled by Jerry Pam of Gutman and Pam.[5]
Wallach and Eastwood flew to Madrid together and between shooting scenes, Eastwood would relax and practice his golf swing.[9]
Wallach was almost poisoned during filming when he accidentally drank
from a bottle of acid that a film technician had set next to his soda
bottle. Wallach mentioned this in his autobiography[10]
and complained that while Leone was a brilliant director, he was very
lax about ensuring the safety of his actors during dangerous scenes.[4]
For instance, in one scene, where he was to be hanged after a pistol
was fired, the horse underneath him was supposed to bolt. While the rope
around Wallach's neck was severed, the horse was frightened a little
too well. It galloped for about a mile with Wallach still mounted and
his hands bound behind his back.[4]
The third time Wallach's life was threatened was during the scene where
he and Mario Brega - who are chained together - jump out of a moving
train. The jumping part went as planned, but Wallach's life was
endangered when his character attempts to sever the chain binding him to
the (now dead) henchman. Tuco places the body on the railroad tracks,
waiting for the train to roll over the chain and sever it. Wallach and,
presumably, the entire film crew were not aware of the heavy iron steps
that jutted one foot out of every box car. If Wallach had stood up from
his prone position at the wrong time, one of the jutting steps could
have decapitated him.[4]
Blondie and Tuco shortly before blowing up the bridge.
The bridge in the film was reconstructed twice by sappers of the
Spanish army after being rigged for on-camera explosive demolition. The
first time, an Italian camera operator signaled that he was ready to
shoot, which was misconstrued by an army captain as the similar sounding
Spanish word meaning "start". Luckily, nobody was injured in the
erroneous mistiming. The army rebuilt the bridge while other shots were
filmed. As the bridge was not a prop but a rather heavy and sturdy
structure, powerful explosives were required to destroy it.[4] Leone has said that this scene was, in part, inspired by Buster Keaton’s silent film, The General.
As an international cast was employed, actors performed in their
native languages. Eastwood, Van Cleef and Wallach spoke English, and
were dubbed into Italian for the debut release in Rome. For the American
version, the lead acting voices were used, but supporting cast members
were dubbed into English. The result is noticeable in the bad
synchronization of voices to lip movements on screen; none of the
dialogue is completely in sync because Leone rarely shot his scenes with
synchronized sound. Various reasons have been cited for this: Leone
often liked to play Morricone's
music over a scene and possibly shout things at the actors to get them
in the mood. Leone cared more for visuals than dialogue (his English was
limited, at best). Given the technical limitations of the time, it
would have been difficult to record the sound cleanly in most of the
extremely wide shots Leone frequently used. Also, it was standard
practice in Italian films at this time to shoot silently and post-dub.
Whatever the actual reason, all dialogue in the film was recorded in
post-production. The relationship between Eastwood and Leone had
remained strained from their previous collaboration and it only worsened
during the dubbing sessions for the US version because the actor was
presented with a different script than the one they had shot with. He
refused to read from this new version, insisting on using the shooting
script instead.
Leone was unable to find an actual cemetery for the Sad Hill shootout
scene, so the Spanish pyrotechnics chief hired 250 Spanish soldiers to
build one in Carazo near Salas de los Infantes, which they completed in two days.[11]
Set of The Good, the Bad and the Ugly with the distinctive rugged terrain in the background
By the end of the film Eastwood had finally had enough of Leone's
perfectionist directorial traits, who, often forcefully, insisted on
shooting scenes from many different angles, paying attention to the most
minute of details; which would often exhaust the actors.[9]
Leone, a glutton, was also a source of amusement for his excesses, and
Eastwood found a way to deal with the stresses of being directed by him
by making jokes about him and nicknamed him "Yosemite Sam" for his bad temperament.[9] Eastwood would never be directed by Leone again, later turning down the role as Harmonica in Once Upon a Time in the West (1968) in which Leone had personally flown to Los Angeles to give him the script for, which eventually went to Charles Bronson.[12] Years later, Leone would exact his revenge upon Clint during the filming of Once Upon a Time in America
(1984) when he described Eastwood's abilities as an actor as being like
a block of marble or wax and inferior to the acting abilities of Robert De Niro,
saying, "Eastwood moves like a sleepwalker between explosions and hails
of bullets, and he is always the same - a block of marble. Bobby first
of all is an actor, Clint first of all is a star. Bobby suffers, Clint
yawns."[13]
[edit] Release
The Good, the Bad and the Ugly was not released in the US until December 1967.[14]
The original Italian domestic version was 2 hours, 57 minutes long; but
the international version was 2 hours, 41 minutes - 16 minutes shorter.
Given that the Italian Il buono, il brutto, il cattivo literally translates to the English: The Good, the Ugly, the Bad, reversing the last two adjectives, advertisements for the original Italian release show Tuco before Angel Eyes, and, when translated into English, erroneously label Angel Eyes as "The Ugly" and Tuco as "The Bad".
[edit] Box office
Opening on December 15, 1966 in Italy and in the United States on December 23, 1967, the film grossed $6.3 million.[15]
[edit] Critical reception
The Good, the Bad and the Ugly was criticized for its depiction of violence.[16] Leone explains that "the killings in my films are exaggerated because I wanted to make a tongue-in-cheek satire
on run-of-the-mill westerns... The west was made by violent,
uncomplicated men, and it is this strength and simplicity that I try to
recapture in my pictures."[17] To this day, Leone's effort to reinvigorate the timeworn Western is widely acknowledged:[18]
Critical opinion of the film on initial release was mixed as many reviewers at that time looked down on spaghetti westerns. In a negative review in The New York Times, critic Renata Adler said that the film "must be the most expensive, pious and repellent movie in the history of its peculiar genre."[19] Charles Champlin of the Los Angeles Times wrote that the "temptation is hereby proved irresistible to call The Good, The Bad and the Ugly, now playing citywide, The Bad, The Dull, and the Interminable, only because it is."[20] Roger Ebert, who later included the film in his list of Great Movies,[21]
retrospectively noted that in his original review he had "described a
four-star movie but only gave it three stars, perhaps because it was a
'spaghetti western' and so could not be art".[22]
Ebert also points out Leone's unique perspective that enables the
audience to be closer to the character as we see what he sees.
Sergio Leone established a rule that he follows throughout The Good, the Bad and the Ugly.
The rule is that the ability to see is limited by the sides of the
frame. At important moments in the film, what the camera cannot see, the
characters cannot see, and that gives Leone the freedom to surprise us
with entrances that cannot be explained by the practical geography of
his shots. There is a moment, for example, when men do not notice a vast
encampment of the Union Army until they stumble upon it; a moment in a
cemetery when a man materializes out of thin air even though he should
have been visible much sooner; the way men walk down a street in full
view and nobody is able to shoot them, (maybe because they are not in
the same frame with them).[22]
Today, the film is regarded by many critics as a classic. It remains
one of the most popular and well known westerns and is considered to be
one of the greatest of its genre. It is in Time's "100 Greatest movies
of the last century" as selected by critics Richard Corliss and Richard Schickel.[18] In addition, it used to be one of the few films which enjoyed a 100% certified fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes, although the rating has since been changed to 98% due to the inclusion of a single negative review by Time Magazine on February 9, 1968.[23][24] The Good, the Bad and the Ugly has been described as European cinema's best representation of the Western genre film,[25] and Quentin Tarantino has called it "the best-directed film of all time."[26]. This was reflected in his vote for a 2002 Sight & Sound magazine poll, in which he voted for The Good, the Bad and the Ugly as his choice for the best film ever made.[27]
Empire magazine added The Good, the Bad and the Ugly to their Masterpiece
collection in the September 2007 issue and in their poll of "The 500
Greatest Movies," "The Good, the Bad and the Ugly" was voted in at
number 25.
[edit] Home media
The film was first released on DVD by MGM
in 1998. The special features contain 14 minutes of scenes which were
cut for the film's North American release, including a scene which
explains how Angel Eyes came to be waiting for Blondie and Tuco at the
Union prison camp.
In 2002, the film was restored with the 14 minutes of scenes cut for
US release re-inserted into the film. Clint Eastwood and Eli Wallach
were brought back in to dub their characters' lines more than 35 years
after the film's original release. Voice actor Simon Prescott
substituted for Lee Van Cleef who had died in 1989. Other voice actors
filled in for actors who had since died. In 2004, MGM released this
version in a two-disc special edition DVD.
Disc 1 contains an audio commentary with writer and critic Richard Schickel. Disc 2 contains two documentaries, "Leone's West" and "The Man Who Lost The Civil War", followed by the featurette,
"Restoring 'The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly'"; an animated gallery of
missing sequences entitled, "The Socorro Sequence: A Reconstruction"; an
extended Tuco torture scene; a featurette called "Il Maestro"; an audio
featurette named, "Il Maestro, Part 2"; a French trailer; and a poster gallery.[28]
This DVD was generally well received, though some purists complained
about the re-mixed stereo soundtrack with many completely new sound
effects (notably, all the gunshots were replaced), with no option for
the original soundtrack. At least one scene which was re-inserted had
been cut by Leone prior to the film's release in Italy, but had been
shown once at the Italian premiere. It is generally believed[by whom?] that Leone willingly cut the scene for pacing reasons; thus, restoring it was contrary to the director's wishes.[citation needed]
The 1998 DVD with the original US version of the mono soundtrack is
still available in stores, although the sound quality is vastly inferior
to that on the restored DVD. (Unlike the original DVD releases of the
other two "Dollars" films, the transfer is anamorphically enhanced for
16:9 televisions.)
MGM re-released the 2004 DVD edition in their "Sergio Leone
Anthology" box set in 2007. Also included were the two other "Dollars"
films, and A Fistful of Dynamite.
On May 12, 2009 the extended version of this movie was released on
Blu-ray. It contains the same special features as the 2004 special
edition DVD, except that it includes an added commentary by film
historian Sir Christopher Frayling.
[edit] Deleted scenes
The following scenes were originally deleted from the theatrical
version of the film but re-inserted following the release of the 2004
Special Edition DVD.[28]
- After being betrayed by Blondie, surviving the desert on his way to
civilization and assembling a hybrid revolver from parts of various
original makes, Tuco meets with members of his gang in a distant cave,
where he conspires with them to hunt and kill Blondie.
- During his search for Bill Carson, Angel Eyes stumbles upon an
embattled Confederate outpost after a massive artillery bombardment.
Once there, after witnessing the wretched conditions of the survivors,
he bribes a Confederate NCO for clues about Bill Carson.
- The sequence with Tuco and Blondie crossing the desert has been
extended: Tuco mentally tortures a severely dehydrated Blondie by eating
and drinking in front of him.
- Tuco, transporting a dehydrated Blondie, finds a Confederate camp
whose occupants tell him that Brother Ramirez's monastery is nearby.
- Tuco and Blondie discuss their plans when departing in a wagon from Brother Ramirez's monastery.
- A scene where Blondie and Angel Eyes are resting by a creek when a
man appears and Blondie shoots him. Angel Eyes asks the rest of his men
to come out (all are hidden as well). When the five men come out,
Blondie counts them (including Angel Eyes), and concludes that six is
the perfect number.
Angel Eyes asks him why, mentioning that he had heard that three was
the perfect number. Blondie responds that six is the perfect number,
because he has six bullets left in his revolver.
- The sequence with Tuco, Blondie and the Union Captain has been
extended: the Captain asks the pair questions about their pasts, which
they are reluctant to answer.
Additional footage of the sequence where Tuco is tortured by Angel
Eyes' henchman was discovered. The original negative of this footage was
deemed too badly damaged to be used in the theatrical cut, but the
footage appears as an extra in the 2004 DVD supplementary features.
Lost footage of the Socorro Sequence where Tuco continues his search
for Blondie in a Texican pueblo while Blondie is in a hotel room with a
Mexican woman (Silvana Bacci) is reconstructed with photos and
unfinished snippets from the French trailer. Also, in the documentary
"Reconstructing The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly," what looks to be
footage of Tuco lighting cannons before the Ecstasy of Gold sequence
appears briefly. None of these scenes or sequences are in the 2004
re-release, however.
The score is composed by frequent Leone collaborator Ennio Morricone, whose distinctive original compositions, containing gunfire, whistling (by John O'Neill), and yodeling permeate the film. The main theme, resembling the howling of a coyote
(which blends in with an actual coyote howl in the first shot after the
opening credits), is a two-note melody that is a frequent motif, and is used for the three main characters. A different instrument was used for each: flute for Blondie, ocarina for Angel Eyes and human voices for Tuco.[29][30][31][32] The score complements the film's American Civil War setting, containing the mournful ballad, "The Story of a Soldier", which is sung by prisoners as Tuco is being tortured by Angel Eyes.[3] The film's climax, a three-way Mexican standoff, begins with the melody of "The Ecstasy of Gold" and is followed by "The Trio."
The main theme was a hit in 1968 with the soundtrack album on the charts for more than a year,[32] reaching No. 4 on the Billboard pop album chart and No. 10 on the black album chart.[33] The main theme was also a hit for Hugo Montenegro, whose rendition was a No. 2 Billboard pop single in 1968.[34] In popular culture, the American New Wave group Wall of Voodoo performed a medley of Ennio Morricone's movie themes, including the theme for this movie. The only known recording of it is a live performance on The Index Masters. Punk rock band the Ramones played this song as the opening for their live album Loco Live as well as in concerts until their disbandment in 1996. The British heavy metal band Motörhead played the main theme as the overture music on the 1981 "No sleep 'til Hammersmith" tour. American thrash metal band Metallica has run "The Ecstasy of Gold"
as prelude music at their concerts since 1985 (except between
1996–1998), and recently recorded a version of the instrumental for a
compilation tribute to Morricone.[35] XM Satellite Radio's The Opie & Anthony Show also open every show with "The Ecstasy of Gold". The American punk rock band The Vandals song "I want to be a Cowboy" begins with the main theme. A song from the band Gorillaz is named "Clint Eastwood", and features references to the actor, with the iconic yell featured in The Good, the Bad and the Ugly's score heard at the beginning of the video.[36]
The film itself has been widely sampled: Punk band Big Audio Dynamite
used an audio clip from the movie in its song "Medicine Show"; the audio
was taken from the scene in which a judge, after reading a long list of
criminal charges, sentences Tuco to be "hanged from the neck until
dead." Also, the song "You Know What You Are" from the 1988 album The Land of Rape and Honey by industrial metal group Ministry repeats the song title (a portion of Tuco's final epithet at Blondie) as a background sample.
[edit] In popular culture
The film's title has entered the American English language as an
idiomatic expression. Typically used when describing something
thoroughly, the respective phrases refer to upsides, downsides and the
parts which could, or should have been done better, but were not.[37][38]
The film was novelized in 1967 by Joe Millard as part of the "Dollars
Western" series based on the "Man with No Name". The South Korean
western movie The Good, the Bad, the Weird (2008) is inspired by the film, with much of its plot and character elements borrowed from Leone's film.[39] In his introduction to the 2003 revised edition of his novel The Dark Tower: The Gunslinger, Stephen King
revealed that the film was a primary influence for the Dark Tower
series, and that Eastwood's character specifically inspired the creation
of King's protagonist, Roland Deschain.[40]
Saharon Shelah penned a theorem in PCF theory which describes three possible situations named "Good, Bad and Ugly"[citation needed]
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