Good, The Bad, And The Ugly
Almost any list of the most essential films for all guys everywhere is sometimes a rather short one consisting of what can be called the ābasicsā (just witness Christian Slaterās mini rant to the movie producer in True Romance), but one movie that almost always gets named by people and probably always will be as long as we have movies, blu ray, and home theatre is this 1966 release from director Sergio Leone, actually the third and final chapter in the legendary āDollarsā trilogy featuring Clint Eastwood in his career making turn as The Man With No Name, and also the most epic and badass of them all, clocking in at 3 hours long and always with something interesting going on or some sort of magnificent cinematography on display. While not the best Leone film nor truly the best Western ever made (that would be Leoneās next film, Once Upon A Time In The West, without Eastwood), itās certainly the most DEFINING of the genre ever, with nearly every Western to come after taking some sort of queue from this one, at its heart a pure adventure story no different than a Star Wars or Indiana Jones film, but one with a rugged, testosterone fueled pathology that separates it from all others, a world where women have no reasonable place, so much so that the only female speaking part on display is that of a disposable Western whore who gets slapped around for information and gives it up quickly. The plot essentially concerns three different men (hence the filmās title) on a quest for a large amount of gold, with various allegiances being formed at different times between them based on what tidbits of information they each have about the treasureās exact location. The āGoodā of course, is Eastwood, or at least his persona in these films, already well established in the previous entries and maintaining the same wry yet tough as nails mindset that we had become used to. The āBadā is Angel Eyes played by Lee Van Cleef, a professional killer so effortlessly ruthless that when visiting an unlucky soul that heās been paid to do a hit on, accepts a money offer from the frightened man to take out the guy that sent him, and winds up killing them both. And most memorably, The āUglyā, a wild eyed but lethal bandit named Tuco played in a legendary performance by Eli Wallach, so much so that he steals the entire movie outright and emerges as the best character in the film (no surprise since Wallach gets the most screen time of the three), essentially a wanted and feared outlaw with a LONG list of crimes to be accounted for, but yet still someone who is aware of his own mortality and (unlike Angel Eyes) his own soul (notice the way that he manically crosses himself whenever something particularly heavy happens), thus mixing elements of good and evil with shades of grey into a cackling, lovable scoundrel. The real treasure hunt itself doesnāt really start until an hour in, which means we get a good, drawn out period of character development from the three, most notably the āpartnershipā formed between Eastwood and Wallach where Clint brings Tuco into a town and hands him over to the sheriff for the reward money, and just as Tuco is being hanged by the neck, he shoots the rope out from around his neck, allowing Tuco to escape before he collects him again and moves on to the next town to get some more reward money which they would split. Of course, such an alliance would expectedly be an uneasy one, and soon the two have a falling out, but not before Clint leaves Tuco alone in the desert to die, only for Tuco to vow revenge before the two stumble upon a Civil War carriage and the dying man inside who gives them the info on where the treasure is located, with Angel Eyes already looking for the man that died before realizing that these two now have the intel he needs to collect the gold for himself. And so things go on, with episodes that not only makes the story more fascinating but continues to provide insight on the motives of these characters. These include stopping at a monastery where Tucoās brother happens to be the head priest in charge and they open up some old wounds in the process, and a series of Civil War outposts for both The North and The South, where Angel Eyes has infiltrated there while masquerading as a Sergeant, and the pair also meet a drunken and embittered captain as sick to death of all the fighting as anybody. All the while, we get amazing camerawork (including Leoneās legendary closeups) and a sweeping, iconic score from Ennio Morricone that in and of itself has been copied and emulated in countless films ever since. All leading up to the fantastic, final three way showdown in the cemetary where the loot is buried, with Leone building up the tension to be so thick that you can cut it with an axe, and our three leads have their final reckoning in such a way that it can only be described as unforgettable. While maybe not the Western to end all Westerns, itās still a joyous mix of great action, great acting, and great drama, a film that will continue to point the way for everything that is masculine in the world of cinema foreverā¦
10/10