The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly (film)

• Release Date: 1966
• Director(s): Sergio Leone
• Writer(s): Age & Scarpelli; Sergio Leone; Luciano Vincenzoni
• Principal Actors and Roles: Clint Eastwood (Blondie); Lee Van Cleef (Angel Eyes); Eli Wallach (Tuco); Antonio Casale (Jackson / Bill Carson)

The Good, the Bad and the Ugly is a famed 1966 film directed by Sergio Leone. The film launched Clint Eastwood as an international star and Leone’s style influenced Eastwood in his later films as director such as High Plains Drifter (1973) and Unforgiven (1992).

The Good, the Bad and the Ugly is often referred to as the finest example of the "spaghetti western" genre. As the name suggests, the genre contains elements of the traditional Hollywood western but the filmmakers, including Leone and his coscreenwriters, were Italian. Although initially met with mixed reviews, The Good, the Bad and the Ugly is considered a masterwork today because of Leone’s dazzling direction, the musical score by Ennio Morricone and the film’s indelible three main characters, especially Eli Wallach’s Tuco.

The film was the third in the Dollars trilogy following Leone’s A Fistful of Dollars (1964) and For a Few Dollars More (1965). While his film contains western elements he is clearly subverting the genre, particularly the notion of the clearly defined hero versus villain. Although he is the "Good" of the title, Eastwood’s character, usually referred to as "The Man with No Name," is primarily an enigma. He is generally ruthless and obviously motivated by greed, yet he is also appalled by the wastefulness of the Civil War that is raging around him and, in one of the film’s most memorable scenes, treats a dying soldier with compassion. In an example of the film’s seamlessness, his sardonic attitude mirrors that of the film, especially the wry musical refrain that Leone uses whenever there is an ironic plot twist.

Plot

The Man with No Name and Tuco share an odd relationship. Tuco, the "Ugly" of the title, is a Mexican bandit, and The Man with No Name turns him in for the reward money, then rescues him as he is about to be hanged. Throughout the film they are alternately helping and battling each other as they seek $200,000 in gold coins that a soldier buried in a cemetery. The two need each other because Tuco knows the name of the cemetery whereas The Man with No Name knows the name of the grave.

Also in pursuit of the money is a sadistic army officer, Angel Eyes, the "Bad" of the title who is played by Lee Van Cleef. In the film’s most famous sequence the three men square off against each other in a gunfight. The Man with No Name kills Angel Eyes but then Tuco learns that The Man with No Name emptied the bullets from his gun. The Man with No Name forces Tuco to submit to a hangman’s noose, then fires a bullet through the rope, rescuing Tuco in the same manner in which he saved him earlier. The Man with No Name rides away, leaving Tuco with half of the money that he left behind.

Significance

Leone’s film is often noted for his strikingly original camerawork. He often juxtaposes wide-angle shots of harsh terrain with close-ups of his characters’ weather-beaten faces. In the climactic shoot-out he accelerates the editing as his three central characters inch closer to the decisive moment when they draw their pistols, focusing on minute details like the twitch of an eye or the movement of a hand.

Because Leone was more comfortable with visuals as opposed to the spoken word, it is possible to overlook the importance of the film’s screenplay, credited to Leone and three other screenwriters. The epic narrative is well structured and moves inexorably toward the conclusion when the fate of the hidden cache of gold is revealed. The dialogue includes such classic lines as when Tuco says to a man who nearly killed him, "When you have to shoot, shoot. Don’t talk."

While The Good, the Bad and the Ugly initially had a mixed critical reception the film’s reputation has grown substantially since it was released. Richard Schickel and Richard Corliss, Time magazine critics, placed it on their list of the "All-Time100 Best Movies" along with Leone’s Once upon a Time in the West. Corliss explained the decision to include both films by saying, "Schickel preferred the first film, and I love the second, and neither of us would budge." Roger Ebert was also a great admirer of the film, although in his original review he gave it three rather than four stars. Currently, the film has a 97 percent positive rating on Rotten Tomatoes, the film compendium review website. It has influenced many filmmakers, including Quentin Tarantino, whose Django Unchained (2012) is obviously indebted to it.

The film’s production was notable for its international nature and the variety of languages that were spoken on the set. All of the dialogue in the film was dubbed, a common practice in films that were produced in Italy at the time. For the version of the film released in the United States the three lead actors each spoke their own parts while the remainder of the actors were redubbed. For the Italian version, however, the opposite occurred: Eastwood, Van Cleef, and Wallach were not used and Italian actors dubbed their voices.

In 1998 Metro Goldwyn Mayer released a DVD version of the film that contains seven scenes that were omitted from the original American release. These seven scenes increase the running time from 162 to 176 minutes.

Leone died in 1989 but The Good, the Bad and the Ugly remains one of the most remarkable films in his oeuvre, a testament to its maker’s skill and vision.

Bibliography

Corliss, Richard. "That Old Feeling: Secrets of the All-Time 100." Time. Time, 3 Oct. 2011. Web. 26 Aug. 2015. <http://entertainment.time.com/2005/02/12/all-time-100-movies/>.

Cumbow, Robert. The Films of Sergio Leone. Lanham: Scarecrow, 2008. Print.

Eliot, Marc. American Rebel: The Life of Clint Eastwood. New York: Three Rivers, 2010. Print.

Hughes, Howard. Aim for the Heart. London: Tauris, 2009. Print.

McGilligan, Patrick. Clint: The Life and Legend. New York: St. Martin’s, 2002. Print.

Munn, Michael. Clint Eastwood: Hollywood’s Loner. London: Robson, 1992. Print.

The Good, the Bad and the Ugly. Dir. Sergio Leone. Perf. Clint Eastwood, Lee Van Cleef, and Eli Wallach. 1966. Metro Goldwyn Mayer, 1998. DVD.