The Good, the Bad and the Ugly

This is a review of one of the all time greats(click to view list) , THE GOOD, THE BAD and THE UGLY.

The first thing you notice about this movie is the initial credits at the start, in a colorful setting that keeps revolving around 3 colors. RGB. The movie's title is shown as cannon ball shots - The Good followed by the Bad and then Then ugly. The three main actors are clearly identifed to be Clint Eastwood, Lee Van Cleef(click to read wiki) and Eli Wallach(click to read wiki). Only on my second watch of this film I realized that that we don't really know who the good, bad or ugly are in the movie before it actually starts. It is only implied in the credits.

But Sergio Leonne(click to read wiki) is one clever director, he gives ample credit to his primary cast and specifically identifies the Ugly to be Tuco (Eli Wallach) and the Bad (after he commits a heinous crime) to be Lee von Cleef's character (called Angel Eyes) and with some style gives the title of good to Clint Eastwood (the man with no name). All this happens over the course of 30 mins of the movie and Sergio Leonne is just getting started. With some classy music from Ennio Morricone(click to read wiki), this movie is one of the best I have ever seen and I believe is the best movie in the Dollar (Man with no name) trilogy (other two being Fistful of Dollars and For a Few Dollars more).

Basic plot for this movie is a treasure hunt for 200 thousand in gold. All three characters are headed towards where the treasure is hidden. That's all I will reveal about the plot.



This movie was released in 1966, as a Spagetti Western, mind you. So we see lots of the old western gunfights with several silent periods in the movie. But the best parts of the movie are also the parts with the best music. The music for this movie (and most of Sergio Leonne's movies) is provided by Ennio Morricone. I'm sure many of the people reading this article would have listened to "The Ecstasy of Gold" by Metallica. It is a cover of the song created by Ennio Morricone for this movie.

The most memorable character is Tuco, played by Eli Wallach. Tuco is the verbose, gun slinging marksman who kills some people while delivering gem-like dialogues, the most famous being, "While you are here to shoot, shoot, don't talk." Tuco is someone who tries to be the bad guy but ends up doing good things. So I will label him has the Ugly one here, though he is anything but the traditional ugly. Angel Eyes, played by Lee von cleef is a very scary character. He kills when paid to do it. He is a hitman for hire. He has the shiny cat eyes and is the closest thing to evil in the movie. So, I'll go ahead and label him as The Bad. That leaves the laconic "man with no name" Clint Eastwood as the Good. All in all, the movie would be incomplete without all 3 of these characters.

Personally, I want to thank Sergio Leonne for this movie as it was my first western film ever !!!
My rating is a double thumbs up all the way and a 100%..