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      • Be Natural: The Untold Story of Alice Guy-Blache
      • Elevator to the Gallows ('58)
      • Days of Heaven
      • Ferris Bueller's Day Off (1986)
      • Incindies (2010)
      • In the Mood For Love (2000)
      • Last Picture Show Teaser Intro
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    • The 1910's >
      • The Lubitsch German Silents
    • The 1920's >
      • The Odessa Steps Sequence as Continuing Film History
      • Sunrise (1927)
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      • Becky Sharp (1935)
      • Blonde Crazy
      • Bombshell ('33)
      • The Cheat
      • The Conquerors
      • The Crowd Roars
      • The Divorcee
      • Frank Capra & Barbara Stanwyck: The Evolution of a Romance
      • Heroes for Sale
      • The Invisible Man (1933)
      • L'Atalante (1934)
      • Let Us Be Gay
      • My Man Godfrey
      • No Man of Her Own (1932)
      • Platinum Blonde ('31)
      • Reckless ('35)
      • The Sign of the Cross (1932)
      • The Sin of Nora Moran (1932)
      • True Confession ('37)
      • Virtue ('32)
      • The Women
    • The 1940's >
      • Casablanca (1942)
      • The Story of Citizen Kane
      • Criss Cross (1949)
      • Double indemnity
      • Jean Arthur in A Foreign Affair
      • The Killers 1946 & 1964 Comparison
      • The Maltese Falcon Intro
      • Moonrise (1948)
      • My Gal Sal (1942)
      • Nightmare Alley
      • Notorious Intro ('46)
      • Overlooked Christmas Movies of the 1940's
      • Pursued (1947)
      • Remember the Night ('40)
      • The Red Shoes (1948)
      • The Set-Up ('49)
      • They Won't Believe Me (1947)
      • The Third Man
    • The 1950's >
      • The Asphalt Jungle Secret Cinema Intro
      • Cat on a Hot Tin Roof ('58) Intro
      • The Crimson Kimono (1959)
      • A Face in the Crowd (1957)
      • In a Lonely Place
      • A Kiss Before Dying (1956)
      • Mogambo ('53)
      • Niagara (1953)
      • The Night of The Hunter ('55)
      • Pushover Noir City
      • Rear Window (1954)
      • Rebel Without a Cause (1955)
      • Red Dust ('32 vs Mogambo ('53)
      • The Searchers ('56)
      • Singin' in the Rain Introduction
      • Some Like It Hot ('59) >
        • Some Like it Hot Intro (Beyond the Bay)
    • The 1960's >
      • The April Fools (1969)
      • Bonnie & Clyde (1967)
      • Cape Fear ('62)
      • Cool Hand Luke (1967) Intro
      • Dr Strangelove Intro
      • For a Few Dollars More (1965)
      • Fistful of Dollars (1964)
      • The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (1968)
      • The Hustler ('61) Intro
      • The Man With No Name Trilogy
      • The Misfits ('61)
      • The Umbrellas of Cherbourg/La La Land
    • The 1970's >
      • Beyond the Valley of the Dolls (1970)
      • American Graffiti Introduction
      • Chinatown Introduction
      • The Friends of Eddie Coyle ('73)
      • Jaws Intro
    • The 1980's >
      • Blood Simple ('84)
      • A Christmas Story Intro
      • Scarface (1983)
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      • The General (1998)
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      • Belfast (2021)
      • Blonde (2022)
      • Hunger (2008)
      • In Bruges (2008)
      • Joy Division
      • Mank (2020)
      • No Man's Land (2001)
      • Portrait of a Lady on Fire (2019)
      • Wall-E
      • Y Tu Mama Tambien (2001)
      • The Top 10 Films I watched in 2020
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The Good, the Bad & the Ugly (1968) 

The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (1968)

Taken from a larger piece on The Man With No Name Trilogy
While many count For a Few Dollars More as the pinnacle of the Man with No Name Trilogy, nothing beats the epic quality of The Good, The Bad and The Ugly (’68). If we are to believe what Leone always said about his films, that they were “fairytales for adults,” then the final film in his trilogy takes on a mythic quality, augmented by its nearly three hour run time.  Standoffs are elongated to build tension, close-ups are even more extreme, often capturing nothing more than the gunfighter’s eyes, and the film moves from a simple hunt for buried treasure to encompass the horrors of war in a panoramic overview of the American Civil War. As the title indicates, Leone and his co-screenwriters maintained the triangulated storyline from the earlier films, this time having Eastwood’s “Blondie” partner with criminal Tuco (Eli Wallach) against a cold-blooded killer (Van Cleef) to locate $200,000 in gold stolen from the Union Army.  The on again, off again partnership begins as a scam with Blondie turning Tuco in for a reward, then shooting his noose before he can hang, but relies on mis-trust and betrayal.  Leone noted that while the title and the title sequence defines the characters, there are no absolutes in their personalities, giving the film an even richer texture than the early two. 
 
Leone also felt he was able to make the film he wanted, free from budget restrictions and doubts about his talent and style.  The immense success of the earlier films lured American film distributor United Artists in as a financier, providing what would become a $1.3 million dollar budget, more than six times that of Fistful of Dollars.  In fact, UA bought the film on the basis of a one sentence story idea of “three rogues looking for some treasure at the time of the American Civil War” (Frayling, p.202).  Leone utilized the extra money to create a sweeping and tragic comment on the futility and barbary of war, culminating in the amazing destruction of a bridge dividing the two warring sides, used to maintain a cruel stalemate of deadly attack and retreat death marches. 
 
The bridge itself was actually blown up twice for the production, with the first explosion not captured on film, due to over eagerness of a Spanish army major misinterpreting Leone’s hand gestures.  Eastwood and Wallach were to be positioned right near the bridge at the time of the explosion, but after seeing the immense explosion insisted on being right near the camera, just in front of their intrepid director.  Once the Spanish army rebuilt the bridge, at their own expense, the crew returned to the site to capture what is seen in the film, complete with flying debris that still nearly engulfs the position where Wallach and Eastwood actually hid and obliterating the location Leone originally wanted them.  The scene, complete with the deterministic death of the Union officer, enforces the film’s sentiments towards war and foreshadows the location of the final, iconic scene of the film.
 
While the enormous scope of the film elevates it from the other two, it is Ennio Morricone’s stylistic and memorable score that sets the film apart.  Although Morricone had scored the earlier films, using his unique blend of instruments, vocalizations and styles, it is in The Good, The Bad, that his score blends perfectly with the story and the images to create mood and emotion in an unparalleled manner.  The iconic melody is repeated throughout, creating tension and anticipation.  Morricone was finally recognized with an Oscar in 2016 for his score for Quentin Tarantino’s The Hateful Eight (’15), among his more than 500 film scores, none would be more recognizable than The Good, the Bad and the Ugly. 
 
An additional thread running through all three films, but carrying larger weight in The Good, the Bad, is Leone’s subversion of religious iconography to color the space around the story with doom and godlessness.  Nowhere is this more pronounced that in the iconic final scene in the Civil War cemetery.  Surrounding by the evidence of man’s inhumanity towards his fellow man, the three protagonists duel for the right to take the buried gold.  Murder surrounded by murder.  Leone uses intense movement as Tuco searches for the grave, creating a dizzying effect for the viewer, an overwhelming sense of the infinite nature of the cemetery and the graves themselves.  Even when the three rogues gather in the circle at the center of the cemetery there is no sense of calm because as the music and editing increase so too does the tension and anticipation.  Cutting in closer and closer to the rogues, ultimately showing their eyes only, editing more quickly to again create a similarly dizzying effect, Leone creates one of the most intense and beguiling climax in movie history.  The final gunshots jerk the viewer into stillness as the one rogue falls.
 
In a film full of futility, dishonor, betrayal and double-crosses, The Good, the Bad and the Ugly becomes perfection in the sum of all its parts.  It is the culmination of Leone’s trilogy because it best captures and refines the tone and perspective that defined his style.  Eastwood’s Man with No Name is the perfect anti-hero, the brother Leone never had, and the antithesis of the traditional Western hero.  As noted, there are pieces of the historic Western, but they are circumvented and twisted to form something new, from top to bottom, not just for changes sake, but to expand the very generic definition of a Western.  In the generations since Leone launched the Italian Western worldwide, there have been Westerns and action films that have riffed on what Leone created, but none have done it better than the original!  Taken together, The Man with no Name trilogy may be the greatest piece of Western film ever created and taken separately, The Good, the Bad and the Ugly itself stands among the 10 best Westerns ever made.
 
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  • Home
  • Top 10 Lists
    • My Top 10 Favorite Movies
    • Top 10 Heist Movies
    • Top 10 Neo-Noir Films
    • The Top 10 Films of the Troubles (1969-1998) >
      • The Troubles Selected Timeline
    • Top 10 Films from 2001
    • Director Top 10's >
      • Top 10 Film Noir Directors
      • Top 10 Coen Brothers Films
      • Top 10 John Ford Films
      • Top 10 Samuel Fuller Films
      • Top 10 Alfred Hitchcock Films
      • Top 10 John Huston Films
      • Top 10 Fritz Lang Films (American)
      • Val Lewton Top 10
      • Top 10 Ernst Lubitsch Films
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      • Top 10 Nicholas Ray Films
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      • Top 10 William Wellman Films
      • Top 10 Billy Wilder Films
    • Actor/Actress Top 10's >
      • Top 10 Joan Blondell Movies
      • Top 10 Clark Gable Movies
      • Top 10 Ava Gardner Films
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      • Top 10 Miriam Hopkins Films
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      • Top 10 Carole Lombard Movies
      • Top 10 Myrna Loy Films
      • Top 10 Marilyn Monroe Films
      • Top 10 Robert Mitchum Noir Movies
      • Top 10 Paul Newman Films
      • Top 10 Robert Ryan Movies
      • Top 10 Norma Shearer Movies
      • Top 10 Barbara Stanwyck Films
    • Top 10 Noir Films (Classic Era)
    • Top 10 Pre-Code Films
    • Top 10 Actresses of the 1930's
  • Reviews
    • Quick Hits: Short Takes on Recent Viewing >
      • Be Natural: The Untold Story of Alice Guy-Blache
      • Elevator to the Gallows ('58)
      • Days of Heaven
      • Ferris Bueller's Day Off (1986)
      • Incindies (2010)
      • In the Mood For Love (2000)
      • Last Picture Show Teaser Intro
      • Le Silence De La Mer ('49)
      • The Princess Bride ('87) Intro
      • Pulp Fiction ('94) Intro
    • The 1910's >
      • The Lubitsch German Silents
    • The 1920's >
      • The Odessa Steps Sequence as Continuing Film History
      • Sunrise (1927)
      • Wild Orchids ('29)
    • The 1930's >
      • Becky Sharp (1935)
      • Blonde Crazy
      • Bombshell ('33)
      • The Cheat
      • The Conquerors
      • The Crowd Roars
      • The Divorcee
      • Frank Capra & Barbara Stanwyck: The Evolution of a Romance
      • Heroes for Sale
      • The Invisible Man (1933)
      • L'Atalante (1934)
      • Let Us Be Gay
      • My Man Godfrey
      • No Man of Her Own (1932)
      • Platinum Blonde ('31)
      • Reckless ('35)
      • The Sign of the Cross (1932)
      • The Sin of Nora Moran (1932)
      • True Confession ('37)
      • Virtue ('32)
      • The Women
    • The 1940's >
      • Casablanca (1942)
      • The Story of Citizen Kane
      • Criss Cross (1949)
      • Double indemnity
      • Jean Arthur in A Foreign Affair
      • The Killers 1946 & 1964 Comparison
      • The Maltese Falcon Intro
      • Moonrise (1948)
      • My Gal Sal (1942)
      • Nightmare Alley
      • Notorious Intro ('46)
      • Overlooked Christmas Movies of the 1940's
      • Pursued (1947)
      • Remember the Night ('40)
      • The Red Shoes (1948)
      • The Set-Up ('49)
      • They Won't Believe Me (1947)
      • The Third Man
    • The 1950's >
      • The Asphalt Jungle Secret Cinema Intro
      • Cat on a Hot Tin Roof ('58) Intro
      • The Crimson Kimono (1959)
      • A Face in the Crowd (1957)
      • In a Lonely Place
      • A Kiss Before Dying (1956)
      • Mogambo ('53)
      • Niagara (1953)
      • The Night of The Hunter ('55)
      • Pushover Noir City
      • Rear Window (1954)
      • Rebel Without a Cause (1955)
      • Red Dust ('32 vs Mogambo ('53)
      • The Searchers ('56)
      • Singin' in the Rain Introduction
      • Some Like It Hot ('59) >
        • Some Like it Hot Intro (Beyond the Bay)
    • The 1960's >
      • The April Fools (1969)
      • Bonnie & Clyde (1967)
      • Cape Fear ('62)
      • Cool Hand Luke (1967) Intro
      • Dr Strangelove Intro
      • For a Few Dollars More (1965)
      • Fistful of Dollars (1964)
      • The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (1968)
      • The Hustler ('61) Intro
      • The Man With No Name Trilogy
      • The Misfits ('61)
      • The Umbrellas of Cherbourg/La La Land
    • The 1970's >
      • Beyond the Valley of the Dolls (1970)
      • American Graffiti Introduction
      • Chinatown Introduction
      • The Friends of Eddie Coyle ('73)
      • Jaws Intro
    • The 1980's >
      • Blood Simple ('84)
      • A Christmas Story Intro
      • Scarface (1983)
    • The 1990's >
      • The General (1998)
    • 2000's >
      • Belfast (2021)
      • Blonde (2022)
      • Hunger (2008)
      • In Bruges (2008)
      • Joy Division
      • Mank (2020)
      • No Man's Land (2001)
      • Portrait of a Lady on Fire (2019)
      • Wall-E
      • Y Tu Mama Tambien (2001)
      • The Top 10 Films I watched in 2020
  • Artists
    • Actors/Actresses >
      • Joan Blondell
      • Faye Dunaway: 1967-1976
      • The Noir Villainy of Dan Duryea
      • Clark Gable Bio
      • Jean Harlow Bio
      • Veronica Lake
      • Norma Shearer
    • Directors/Producers/Cinematographers >
      • Founders Series: Alice Guy-Blache
      • John Alton
      • Joan Harrison-Producer/Writer
      • Hitchcock & Cary Grant
      • William Wellman
    • Books >
      • Book Reviews >
        • Book Review: Clark Gable by D. Bret
      • Pre-Code
      • Actor Bios
      • Film Noir
      • Director Bios
      • Studio Head Bios
      • Hollywood History
    • Studio
  • Resources
    • Sight & Sound Top 100 2022
    • NOTES >
      • American Graffiti Notes
      • Anatomy of a Murder Notes
      • The Asphalt Jungle Outline
      • Breakfast Club Notes
      • Citizen Kane Notes
      • It's A Wonderful Life Notes
      • Rebel Without a Cause Notes
      • Singin' in the Rain Notes
    • CMBA Interview/Profile
    • Bay Cinema Society Press
    • Hollywood History >
      • Production Code
      • Film Noir
  • Video Introductions
    • Video Introductions
  • Last Picture Show Notes
  • Paul Verhoeven