The Good, The Bad And The Ugly - An unmatchable classic western movie

by Dan Gabriel
(Romania)

And A Star Rises..!

The Good, the bad and the Ugly is the definitive classic western movie and a spaghetti western. Director Sergio Leone's epic end to the Clint Eastwood "Dollars" trilogy is a stunning, panoramic view of the West during the Civil War. The Good, the bad and the Ugly is a deceptively simple story detailing the efforts of three drifters, thttp://build30.sitesell.com/dyn/C2/EditSubmission
Content 2.0 - Move/Edit Submissionhe "Good" (Clint Eastwood), the "Bad" (Lee Van Cleef), and the "Ugly" (Eli Wallach), to find a fortune hidden in the unmarked grave of a man named Bill Carson.


Leone's narrative structure is incredibly complex: the characters' paths intersect and intertwine repeatedly until the Civil War impinges upon their lives and dwarfs their petty crimes. The war eventually involves Eastwood and Wallach in a massive battle for an unimportant bridge in which hundreds of soldiers march to pointless doom. The scale of violence shocks these two violent men; Eastwood, whose character begins to show a humanity only hinted at in the previous two films, states that he has "never seen so many men wasted so badly."


*The last sequence of The Good, the Bad and the Ugly is shot in a unique and larger than life manner. Eli reaches the graveyard where the gold is hidden and you see one of the seven sins called 'Greed' at its peak. He runs wild in the graveyard to find the right grave and camera zooms out to show the magnanimous graveyard. Sergio Leone shot this sequence with Ennio Morricone's legendry western score in a way that you will feel yourself running with Eli and dying to find the gold. Some of the best camera experiments are seen in this legendry sequence from this classic western movie. Leone no doubt had a distinct style to show the inner quest of his characters with a blend of his camera work and western background scores. In all his western movies you find this treatment repeatedly executed so meticulously that it became the trademark of his work. This spaghetti western film did not only make Clint Eastwood an instant international star but also established a huge fan following of Lee Van Cleef and Eli Wallach. Clint Eastwood exhibited this reticent spaghetti style throughout his entire career either he played Dirty Harry or William Munny. -Editor


This is Leone's most violent film, but also one of his most compassionate. One of its most memorable scenes shows the Union troops organizing an orchestra of Confederate prisoner-musicians to play in order to cover the noise as Van Cleef tortures his prisoners. The effect is haunting, and recalls stories of similar incidents in Nazi death camps. A touching moment occurs when Eastwood comes across a dying young soldier, covers the shivering man with his duster, and helps him smoke his final cigarette. Though not up to the standards of Leone's masterpiece Once Upon a Time in the West, in which the director synthesizes scale, narrative, casting, and style, The Good, the bad and the Ugly is a massive, many-faceted film that continues to hold up, viewing after viewing that features one of Ennio Morricone's finest western scores.


*A few lines are added by editor to enlarge this nice review to the required length.