The Good, the Bad and the Ugly
There's no honor among thieves. The Good, the Bad and the Ugly is a "Spaghetti Western" directed by Sergio Leone about three frontier ne'er-do-wells: the cool-headed grifter, "Blondie" (Clint Eastwood), so named by the cagey bandit, Tuco (Eli Wallach), as well as the sinister mercenary called "Angel Eyes" (Lee Van Cleef); all three seek out a stolen bounty of two hundred thousand dollars in gold. Their interests convene after Blondie and Tuco cross paths with the ill-fated Bill Carson (Antonio Casale), who reveals the name of graveyard where the gold is buried to Tuco, but only Blondie hears the name of the grave where it is hidden. This forces an uneasy alliance as each treasure hunter exploits opportunities to get the upper hand over the others.
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The Good, the Bad and the Ugly is considered a deconstruction of the Westerns that popularized the genre decades earlier, stripping away the romance and portraying the Wild West as dirty and unforgiving. None of the three main characters could be described as wholesome or honorable, despite the credits intimating that Blondie is "the good", with Angel Eyes as "the bad" and Tuco as "the ugly". What Blondie is good at is shooting his pistol or rifle with unerring accuracy--a skill he uses in a running con wherein he "captures" the frothing mad Tuco for the bounty on his head, and subsequently shoots out the hangman's rope before Tuco's neck is stretched out from the short drop. The duo bicker about the divide of their take, but it is Blondie who is actually the first to betray Tuco, leaving him stranded in the desert. But Tuco is alarmingly resilient and plots his revenge, putting him and Blondie at odds for the first third of The Good, the Bad and the Ugly. Their back and forth is the driving conflict of the film; just as Tuco seems ready to execute his vengeance against Blondie, some event comes along that becomes more important--be it to their survival or the promise of wealth, as with the lightning bolt of fate that is Bill Carson's carriage. Compounding the irony is that were it not for Tuco and Blondie collectively learning of the last resting place of the stolen Confederate gold, Angel Eyes would have had no inkling of its location at all, despite his unscrupulous efforts to track it down himself. Angel Eyes is portrayed as a force of malevolence--in spite of his gentle-sounding name--like when he visits the homestead of someone who knows that Bill Carson is an alias for a man called Jackson. It is a tense scene as Angel Eyes--silent and with his eyes narrowed--sits down in the deathly silence with the man; they share a light meal, moments before Angel Eyes proves that he is the faster draw. Blondie's true name is never given, in keeping with Eastwood's persona of "the Man with No Name", featured in A Fistful of Dollars and For a Few Dollars More. Blondie's personality shows in how he reacts to others' attempts to provoke or incite him. He is generally aloof, but has a dry and even sardonic wit, and is adept at turning a situation to his advantage after finding his opponent's weakness. On the contrary, Tuco is quick on his feet and a fierce shot; he knowledgeable about guns and almost never lets his guard down. But Tuco comes across as frantic--scattered even--as though it were a combination of luck and grit that gives him the strength to wriggle out of more difficult situations. His past is explored more than the other two men, such as his confrontational reunion with his brother, Pablo (Luigi Pistilli), who has since become a priest. If there is a central character in The Good, the Bad and the Ugly, it is arguably Tuco, since he gets the most screen time. These three men are far from "amigos"; given the chance, they would cheat the other two out of the gold as soon as look at them--a sentiment built up so successfully in The Good, the Bad and the Ugly, that it gives the ultimate "Mexican standoff" a climactic resonance.
The music in The Good, the Bad and the Ugly was scored by Ennio Morricone, and has become synonymous with the Western genre. The iconic tribal howl in the opening credits represents the primal drive pulsing within these three men who are willing to do whatever it takes to triumph over the others. The influence of The Good, the Bad and the Ugly can be felt in the works of many modern filmmakers. For instance, Angel Eyes is a killer in black who follows his own creed, like Anton Chigurh in No Country for Old Men. There is little in the way of exposition in The Good, the Bad and the Ugly; the way of life for the residents of this world is conveyed through the environment. This is a hard and brutal world, where the rugged mountains surround ramshackle towns--the wind whips through them, as if whispering ill omens. The sweaty and stony countenances of outlaws, gunslingers, and assassins are weathered by the dusty badlands; they roam through the mud-soaked streets like jackals looking for prey to pounce upon. The Good, the Bad and the Ugly is set during the Civil War, and Blondie and Tuco are forced to adopt disguises to skirt the war effort, finding themselves in the thick of battle or incarcerated when they cannot. Their determination to claim the filthy lucre is so powerful that they adopt outlandish and dangerous tactics, even devising a way to blow up a bridge located in the middle of a skirmish between the Union and Confederate armies by carting a crate full of dynamite on a stretcher. The Civil War backdrop speaks to the futility of killing for abstract ideal with cold brutality; Blondie comments on this to Tuco, although the irony is lost on his greedy partner, who is always scheming to cut Blondie out of his share. The Union Army is headed by the inebriated Captain Harper (Antonio Molino Rojo), who declares that the only thing his force and the enemy have in common is the smell of alcohol--war is no kind of work for a sober man. Tuco and Blondie always seem ill at ease among the soldiers; conversely, Angel Eyes appears quite at home on the battlefield; it represents a venue for him to indulge in his sadistic desires to torture and abuse his prisoners--he even forces a group of soldiers to play music to avoid alerting his virtuous commander of his indulgences. Despite being crooks and thieves, Blondie and Tuco never actively assault any "innocent" people in The Good, the Bad and the Ugly; Tuco frequently threatens and steals from them, though. They become the default "heroes" of the film--used loosely at best--where the only virtue in the Wild West is to be one step ahead of your opponent, where capitalizing on your enemy's weakness before they do it to you is the only way to win.
Recommended for: Fans of a tense and action-packed Spaghetti Western combining a treasure hunt with a game of cat-and-mouse between the outlaws seeking the gold. The Good, the Bad and the Ugly boasts an iconic musical score and plot that leads the characters on a thrilling adventure toward an exciting (and inevitable) final confrontation.
The music in The Good, the Bad and the Ugly was scored by Ennio Morricone, and has become synonymous with the Western genre. The iconic tribal howl in the opening credits represents the primal drive pulsing within these three men who are willing to do whatever it takes to triumph over the others. The influence of The Good, the Bad and the Ugly can be felt in the works of many modern filmmakers. For instance, Angel Eyes is a killer in black who follows his own creed, like Anton Chigurh in No Country for Old Men. There is little in the way of exposition in The Good, the Bad and the Ugly; the way of life for the residents of this world is conveyed through the environment. This is a hard and brutal world, where the rugged mountains surround ramshackle towns--the wind whips through them, as if whispering ill omens. The sweaty and stony countenances of outlaws, gunslingers, and assassins are weathered by the dusty badlands; they roam through the mud-soaked streets like jackals looking for prey to pounce upon. The Good, the Bad and the Ugly is set during the Civil War, and Blondie and Tuco are forced to adopt disguises to skirt the war effort, finding themselves in the thick of battle or incarcerated when they cannot. Their determination to claim the filthy lucre is so powerful that they adopt outlandish and dangerous tactics, even devising a way to blow up a bridge located in the middle of a skirmish between the Union and Confederate armies by carting a crate full of dynamite on a stretcher. The Civil War backdrop speaks to the futility of killing for abstract ideal with cold brutality; Blondie comments on this to Tuco, although the irony is lost on his greedy partner, who is always scheming to cut Blondie out of his share. The Union Army is headed by the inebriated Captain Harper (Antonio Molino Rojo), who declares that the only thing his force and the enemy have in common is the smell of alcohol--war is no kind of work for a sober man. Tuco and Blondie always seem ill at ease among the soldiers; conversely, Angel Eyes appears quite at home on the battlefield; it represents a venue for him to indulge in his sadistic desires to torture and abuse his prisoners--he even forces a group of soldiers to play music to avoid alerting his virtuous commander of his indulgences. Despite being crooks and thieves, Blondie and Tuco never actively assault any "innocent" people in The Good, the Bad and the Ugly; Tuco frequently threatens and steals from them, though. They become the default "heroes" of the film--used loosely at best--where the only virtue in the Wild West is to be one step ahead of your opponent, where capitalizing on your enemy's weakness before they do it to you is the only way to win.
Recommended for: Fans of a tense and action-packed Spaghetti Western combining a treasure hunt with a game of cat-and-mouse between the outlaws seeking the gold. The Good, the Bad and the Ugly boasts an iconic musical score and plot that leads the characters on a thrilling adventure toward an exciting (and inevitable) final confrontation.