The Good, the Bad and the Ugly
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| The Good, the Bad and the Ugly | |
|---|---|
| Image:Good the bad and the ugly poster.jpg The Good, the Bad and the Ugly movie poster. | |
| Directed by | Sergio Leone |
| Produced by | Alberto Grimaldi |
| Written by | Sergio Leone Luciano Vincenzoni Age & Scarpelli |
| Starring | Clint Eastwood Eli Wallach Lee Van Cleef |
| Distributed by | United Artists |
| Release date(s) | Image:Flag of Italy.svg December 23 1966 Image:Flag of the United States.svg December 29 1967 Image:Flag of Sweden.svg April 10 1968 Image:Flag of the United Kingdom.svg August 27 1968 |
| Running time | 161 min/179min (Directors Cut) |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $1,200,000 (est.) |
| Preceded by | For a Few Dollars More |
| All Movie Guide profile | |
| IMDb profile | |
The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (Italian: Il buono, il brutto, il cattivo) is a 1966 Italian spaghetti Western directed by Sergio Leone and starring Clint Eastwood, Lee Van Cleef, and Eli Wallach. The screenplay was by Age & Scarpelli, Luciano Vincenzoni, and Leone, from a story by Vincenzoni and Leone. The widescreen cinematography was by Tonino Delli Colli, and Ennio Morricone composed the film score. The film was the third and final entry in Leone's popular Man with No Name trilogy, following A Fistful of Dollars (1964) and For a Few Dollars More (1965).
Contents |
[edit] Overview
The Good, the Bad and the Ugly tells the story of three men seeking a fortune in buried coins, the catch being that no single one of them knows the full location of the loot. At one stage of the film, one knows the name of the grave the coins are buried in; the other two know only the name of the graveyard. The film is set in 1862 New Mexico (USA) during the New Mexico campaign of General Henry Hopkins Sibley, an officer of the army of the Confederate States of America (CSA), in the American Civil War.
The movie is particularly known for its original music score, created by Ennio Morricone. The main title theme is considered by many to be the most recognized music affiliated with the western genre [citation needed] (along with the William Tell Overture finale as used by the Lone Ranger). Morricone combined in his score a series of riffs and even unusual pieces of music like gunfire and whistling. Morricone has said the main theme was meant to resemble coyotes howling. The strains of the mournful "La Storia Di un Soldato" ("The Story of a Soldier") haunt the aftermaths of the Civil War battle scenes. The music of the film's climactic sequence in the graveyard is especially noteworthy, as the scenes are first accompanied with the enormously popular sounds of "L'Estasi Dell'Oro" ("The Ecstasy Of Gold"), and then by "Il Triello" ("The Triple Duel") for the famous three-way showdown. This epic showdown with the three participants is considered to be one of the most electrifying climaxes ever filmed, and the music is a huge part of the power of this scene. Quentin Tarantino has stated that this scene is the best one ever shot in film history, according to his own personal criteria.
The film is also notable for several Leone trademarks - namely, the sparse dialogue, long scenes that slowly build to a climax (for this film, in the form of a Mexican standoff) and contrasts between sweeping long camera shots and extremely tight close-ups on eyes and fingers. The first ten minutes and thirty-five seconds of the film have no dialogue, and the only character who frequently talks is Eli Wallach's character, who far and away has the most lines.
The film is part of a loose trilogy with Leone's earlier films A Fistful of Dollars and For a Few Dollars More. Eastwood stars in all three, with the same clothing and mannerisms, so the role is popularly dubbed "The Man With No Name." In lieu of a "name," the character is addressed by three different monikers: "Joe," by one character in the first movie; "Monco" (Italian for "man with only one hand")[1] only twice in the second movie; and "Blondie," regularly in the third. These monikers have misled some people to state that the "Man With No Name" was in fact named, but all three of these names served merely as placeholders and nicknames. "Joe", for example, is used in a similar fashion to "Mack," as a way to address a stranger, and "Blondie" is Tuco Ramirez's nickname for his fair-haired partner.
Some fans see The Good, the Bad and the Ugly as a prequel to the earlier two movies, as Eastwood's character acquires his trademark poncho toward the end of the movie. This is left to speculation, as although Angel Eyes dies, Lee Van Cleef plays a completely different character (Colonel Mortimer) in For a Few Dollars More. However, there is no solid continuity between the movies to deduce an absolute link or order. Christopher Frayling has pointed out in his massive Leone biography, Sergio Leone: Something To Do With Death, that the three films were not intended by Leone or his various script collaborators to be seen as a history of the exact same individual. Indeed, it was United Artists, not the filmmakers, who came up with the idea of specifically linking the three films together as a series by referring to the Eastwood character as "The Man With No Name" in all advertising materials for the movies.
The film was mostly filmed in Spain using 1,500 local militia members as extras for a cost of $1,600,000. It was released on December 23, 1966 in Italy and in the USA on December 29, 1967.
Since the film's release, "the good, the bad, and the ugly" has become a common phrase (helped in part by Robert F. Kennedy's use of the phrase in campaign speeches). The Italian title translates as "The Good, the Ugly, the Bad."
[edit] Plot
The story traces how three men gain, often at the expense of others, information about the location of a buried treasure of coins, and then uncover that treasure. The first character introduced in the movie is Tuco (Eli Wallach), who barely escapes an attack by bounty hunters (the lone survivor of whom appears later in the film, missing an arm and hoping to exact revenge on Tuco in a memorable sequence). The second character we see is Angel Eyes (Lee Van Cleef). We find him actively obtaining information about the coins - part of a Confederate payroll - from a man, whom he immediately kills, along with the man's son and then the employer who sent Angel Eyes in the first place. Next, we are introduced to the duo, Tuco (Eli Wallach) and The Man With No Name (Blondie) (Clint Eastwood), who are defrauding local authorities by turning in the wanted Tuco for reward money, and then, during his hanging, shooting the rope from Tuco's neck and escaping to split the reward.
Blondie grows tired of his relationship with Tuco, and leaves Tuco in the desert with no water. When Tuco returns from the desert, he steals a gun, finds Blondie, and takes him to the desert for equal punishment. However, before Tuco can complete his torture, a runaway stagecoach full of dead and dying Confederate soldiers appears. Bill Carson, the man with knowledge of the whereabouts of the gold, dying from thirst, persuades Tuco to get him a drink by disclosing the name of the graveyard where the loot is located. As Tuco goes for the water, Carson dies, but not before revealing the name on the grave to Blondie.
Now, Tuco and Blondie need each other, since each has a different piece of the gold's location. Tuco takes Blondie, near death, to the mission of his brother, a priest, where Blondie recovers. One of the movie's most touching scenes occurs when Tuco and his brother (Luigi Pistilli) confront each other about the mistakes each has made in life. When they leave the priest's mission, they dress in the clothing of the dead soldiers, trying to fool Confederate soldiers. However, the plan backfires and they are captured by Union soldiers, who take them to a Union prison camp. Angel Eyes has followed the trail of Bill Carson to the prison camp and has infiltrated the union military running the Union prison camp. Angel Eyes tortures Tuco for the information about the loot's location, and eventually gets Tuco to break, but when he learns that Blondie knows the name of the grave and not Tuco, he changes tactics. Figuring that Blondie is "smart enough to know that talking won't save you", he proposes a partnership, and, accompanied by five or six other killers, they leave to find the coins. Tuco escapes from the camp and eventually is found by Blondie. Before meeting Blondie, Tuco encounters the last bounty hunter, now a one-armed left-handed gunman. The hunter bursts in on him while he is immersed in a bathtub. He gloats over his (Tuco's) position and tells him how he (the Hunter) has prepared himself for this moment by learning to shoot with his left hand. Tuco listens silently, and without warning, shoots from a gun that he was holding under the soapy bathwater. As the hunter collapses, Tuco delivers a memorable line - "When you have to shoot, shoot, don't talk!" Blondie and Tuco resume their old partnership, and kill Angel Eyes' gunmen together, but Angel Eyes himself escapes.
Before the film's climax Tuco and Blondie stumble on a battle between the Union and the Confederates, fighting for a useless bridge. The battle is in their way, so they decide to blow up the bridge, not only to just make all the soldiers go somewhere else to fight, but also to do a favor for the drunken Union captain, who briefly befriended them before being fatally wounded in one of the many battles over the bridge. While they are setting up the dynamite, Tuco convinces Blondie to reveal the name of the grave. Blondie acquiesces and reveals that the coins are buried under the grave of 'Arch Stanton'.
After the destruction of the bridge, the two wait until the next day when the armies finally clear out after pounding each other with their cannons, then cross the river. On the Confederate side Blondie encounters a young abandoned soldier who is dying, and offers the boy some comfort. He takes off his coat and puts it over the soldier like a blanket. After the soldier dies, Blondie finds a poncho lying nearby (presumably the same one worn by the Man With No Name in the other films), and puts that on.
While he was distracted with the soldier, Tuco deserts Blondie and finally enters the graveyard as the film's climax begins.
The legendary showdown is preceded by a famous sequence known as the 'Ecstasy of Gold'. It features Tuco searching frantically around the graveyard for the grave of Arch Stanton. This scene is accompanied by Ennio Morricone's operatic score and is considered by many to be the highlight of the film. Eventually Tuco's search ends but before he can begin digging he's held at gunpoint by Blondie who in turn is held at gunpoint by Angel Eyes who has finally caught up to both of them. However it is revealed that Blondie lied to Tuco and that Arch Stanton's grave contains only a decomposing corpse.
Blondie then leads the three of them into an empty patch of land in the middle of the cemetery. He writes the name of the real grave under a stone which he places in the center of the land. The trio then each take triangulating positions. After a Mexican standoff the shootout begins... and ends in moments.
Having previously unloaded Tuco's pistol during the night after they blew up the bridge, (unbeknownst to Tuco, of course), Blondie wins the showdown by killing Angel Eyes. Blondie then reveals that the real location of the coins is an unmarked grave right next to Arch Stanton (the stone has no name on it, because there is no name on the grave). Tuco digs up the loot from the grave only to find himself staring down the barrel of Blondie's gun who holds a noose in his hand. After placing Tuco into the noose, fastening it to a nearby tree and making Tuco stand on the unstable wooden cross of one of the graves, Blondie takes half the coins and rides away while Tuco cries for help.
In a dramatic twist, Blondie turns around to shoot the rope above Tuco's head, as he used to do in their times of partnership, freeing him one last time before riding off as Tuco screams in rage.
[edit] Responses
Critical opinion of the film on initial release was mixed as many reviewers at that time looked down on spaghetti westerns.[citation needed] However, today it is regarded by many critics as a classic: it remains one of the most popular and well known Westerns and is considered to be one of the greatest of its genre. It was part of Time's 100 Greatest movies of the last century as selected by critics Richard Corliss and Richard Schickel. It is also one of Roger Ebert's Great Movies. In addition, it is one of the few films which enjoy a 100% fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes [2] Particular praise has been given to Eli Wallach for his role as Tuco, who has the most lines, and as neither "Good" nor "Bad" is the most 'morally' ambiguous and therefore interesting of the three characters.
The film is currently rated as #5 in the IMDB Top 250 List of movies and is the highest rated western and foreign (non-american movie), based on viewers' ratings. In a 2002 Sight & Sound magazine poll, Quentin Tarantino voted The Good, the Bad and the Ugly as his choice for the best film ever made.[3]
[edit] Cinematography
Fans have noted an uncommon type of cinematography used in the film. As Ebert noted,
- Sergio Leone established a rule that he follows throughout "The Good, the Bad and the Ugly." The rule is that the ability to see is limited by the sides of the frame. At important moments in the film, what the camera cannot see, the characters cannot see, and that gives Leone the freedom to surprise us with entrances that cannot be explained by the practical geography of his shots. There is a moment, for example, when men do not notice a vast encampment of the Union Army until they stumble upon it. And a moment in a cemetery when a man materializes out of thin air even though he should have been visible for a mile. And the way men walk down a street in full view and nobody is able to shoot them, maybe because they are not in the same frame with them.[4]
This enables the audience to be closer to the character as we see what he sees and it also enables the film to achieve a certain mystical feel.
[edit] Trivia
- In Italian, Eastwood's character is sometimes called "Biondo", which simply means, "The Blonde Man". Angel Eyes in the original Italian is "Sentenza" ("Verdict" or "Sentence").
- The bridge in the film had to be remade due to an army general blowing up the bridge before the cameras were rolling. The general asked a camera man if he was ready but, when the camera man replied “yes,” the general thought that meant he was ready for the bridge to be blown up. Naturally the army had to rebuild the bridge while other shots were being filmed.
- Because the Italian title translates literally as The Good, the Ugly, the Bad, reversing the last two terms, ads for the original Italian release show Tuco before Angel Eyes, and when they were translated into English Angel Eyes was erroneously labelled "The Ugly" and Tuco "The Bad".
- Clint Eastwood's classic film, Unforgiven, is dedicated to Sergio Leone (and Don Siegel).
- The film was not released in America until early 1968. The original Italian cut was 2 hours and 59 minutes long, but when released in America, it had been cut to 2 hours and 41 minutes. Since the scenes had been cut before they could be re-dubbed in English, the footage was rarely shown in North America (although MGM did include the scenes, in Italian with English subtitles, on its original US DVD release in 2000). In 2002, the film was restored and two years later re-released on DVD, with the 18 minutes of scenes cut for U.S. release edited back into the film (Clint Eastwood and Eli Wallach were brought back in to dub their characters' lines, actor Simon Prescott substituted for the now-deceased Lee Van Cleef, and other voice doubles filled in to redub for other actors who had since passed away).
- During the scene where Blondie and Tuco are planting explosives on the bridge, a car can be seen in the distance, moving right to left.
- Blondie and Tuco use dynamite to destroy the bridge, but it wasn't invented until 1866, after the end of the Civil War.
- When Tuco and Blondie are riding in the wagon towards the cemetery, they pass through enemy lines. This was cut from the American release print. Also, in that same sequence, (one which was not cut from any print) the two stumble upon dust-covered Union soldiers. Tuco mistakes them for Confederates and screams: "Hurray! Hurrah for the Confederacy! Down with General Grant! Hurrah for General... Lee! Yeah! Lee!" But, in early 1862, Grant was not yet the main commander of the forces of the North, and Lee at the time was an adviser to Jefferson Davis in Richmond. He did not assume command of the Army of Northern Virginia until the middle of the year, and did not become overall commander until 1865, only to surrender in that year.
- The battle scene at the end was somewhat anachronistic with its use of trench warfare. While such combat did become popularized later in the Civil War (specifically during the sieges of Atlanta and Petersburg in 1864-5), by the time of the film's events (early 1862) it was not, and the battle scene is fictional and not based on any historical event, although there are some similarities to the actual Battle of Peralta. Leone meant the scene to be reminiscent of World War I more than a documentary depiction of the New Mexico campaign.
- Eli Wallach was almost poisoned during filming when he accidentally drank from a bottle of acid that a film technician had set next to his soda bottle. Wallach mentioned this in his autobigraphy and complained that while Sergio Leone was a brilliant director, he was very lax about ensuring the safety of his actors during dangerous scenes.
- Wallach was endangered in another scene, where he was to be hanged after a pistol was shot and the horse underneath him was to run away in fright. While the rope around Wallach's neck was severed, the horse was frightened a little too well. The horse rode off for about a mile with Wallach still on top of the horse and his hands bound behind his back.
- The third time Wallach's life was threatened was during the scene where he and the actor to whom he is handcuffed jump out of a moving train. The jumping part was fine, but Wallach's life was endangered when his character attempts to sever the chain binding him to the (now dead) henchman. Tuco places the body on the railroad tracks, making the train roll over the chain to sever it. Wallach and, presumably, the entire film crew were not aware of the heavy iron steps that jutted one foot out of every box car. If Wallach had stood up from his prone position at the wrong time, one of the jutting steps could have decapitated him.
- The gun used by Blondie is a Colt Navy cal .36. The rifle is a Winchester, not available at the time where the movie is supposed to take place[5].
[edit] Special Edition DVD
In 2004, MGM released a special edition DVD of "The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly," which contained 18 minutes of rarely seen footage edited into the film. One of the deleted scenes explains how Angel Eyes came to be waiting for Blondie and Tuco at the Union prison camp.
The discs also contained the following features:
- Disc 1
- Audio commentary with writer and critic Richard Schickel.
- Disc 2
- "Leone's West" - Documentary
- "The Man Who Lost The Civil War" - Documentary
- "Restoring 'The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly'" - Featurette
- "The Socorro Sequence: A Reconstruction" - Animated gallery of missing sequences
- Extended Tuco Torture Scene
- "Il Maestro" - Featurette
- "Il Maestro, Part 2" - Audio Featurette
- French trailer
- Poster gallery
[edit] See also
- A Fistful of Dollars
- For a Few Dollars More
- Man with No Name
- Spaghetti Western
- Films that have been considered the greatest ever
[edit] External links
- Il buono, il brutto, il cattivo at the Internet Movie Database
- www.spaghetti-western.net The Spaghetti Western Database
- Official Site
| Films by Sergio Leone
|
|---|
| A Fistful of Dollars • For a Few Dollars More • The Good, the Bad and the Ugly Once Upon a Time in the West • A Fistful of Dynamite • Once Upon a Time in America |
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