You can tell so much about a person when they reveal their favorite movies. The stories that each of us connect with explain so much about our personalities. It can be a personal revelation, even when we might not agree with or understand why someone may love one particular film so much, there is a truth hidden in the choice to love it. When my good friend, Matt and I first met in high school when I was 15 and he was 16, one of the first things we connected over was movies. Over the years I would say we have disagreed over our opinions on them almost as much as we have agreed. But despite that we both recognize in the other a kindred love of the medium which has strengthened our friendship over the years.
Matt came up with the idea of these "Brilliance of . . . " columns where we would write four to five reasons about why we think a particular piece of pop culture is brilliant. I thought it would be a great way to start a discussion about our favorite movies.
I have chosen Sergio Leone's epic spaghetti western, The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly as my first entry in this series of writings about my personal favorite movies. It is a good as place as any to start, as it illustrates perfectly a type of narrative that I enjoy - the man, or group of people on a quest or mission, traveling to a destination where they will achieve something. It is the pinnacle of the western genre (I know there are a lot of other great ones out there, and many will disagree with me on this), and it is the perfect melding of writing, direction, scoring and performance. Here are five reasons it is a perfect film . . . .
1.) A Director at the Peak of his Career
One of the greatest Italian filmmakers of all time, Sergio Leone is often overlooked when people discuss the great directors in the history of cinema. It is probably because he spent most of his career making westerns. But, his movies would redefine the genre and give rise to the commonly titled "spaghetti western", in which Italian filmmakers like himself would produce cheaply made pictures that emulated the classic, popular American ones that took place in the Old West. Filmed mostly in Spain and starring C-list actors from the US, these pictures became cash cows for studios looking to make a quick windfall.
Leone was born into a family steeped in the Italian movie industry. His father was famed director Vincenzo Leone and his mother, Edvige Valcarenghi, a popular silent film actress. Movies were a part of his blood from a very young age. Toiling as an assistant director for years, he finally got his chance to take the helm when director Mario Bonnard fell fatally ill during the production of The Last Days of Pompeii (1959). He finished the movie and would go on to finally direct his first solo feature, The Colossus of Rhodes (1961).
At some point during this period, Leone discovered the films of acclaimed Japanese director, Akira Kurasawa. Like Sergio, Kurasawa was a big fan of the films of John Ford. His samurai pictures all reflected a very distinct western feel, substituting the gun slinging desperados for roaming warriors with katana blades. One film in particular caught Leone's eye, Yojimbo, starring Kurasawa regular, Tishiro Mifune as a traveling samurai who pits two warring clans against each other in order to both free a town from their ruthless control and to make a bit money as well. A Fistful of Dollars was born.
The movie was a big hit for Leone and for the sub-genre it belonged to. Unlike previous "spaghetti westerns", Dollars found distribution in the United States through United Artists. It would redefine the genre not only in Italy but in America as well, resurrecting it for a new generation. He would quickly make two sequels to it - For a Few Dollars More (1965) and finally his crowning achievement, The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (1966). By the time he made this third in the later-named Man With No Name Trilogy, he had perfected a way of filmmaking that would make his westerns unique and among the best ever made.
With The Good, the Bad and the Ugly, Leone had approximately four times the budget he had of the previous two films. He would put that money to good use by taking an intimate, small-scale story about three men and their quest to find a buried cache of money, and set it against the grandiose backdrop of the Civil War. He very much wanted to be taken seriously as a filmmaker of the same calibers as a David Lean. He melded a pop-art sensibility (just watch those titles) with a bit of pulp violence and the excess of cinema's great epics. This juxtaposition of going both small and large at the same time is mirrored in his tendency to feature intense close-ups of an actor's face along with sweeping panoramic shots of immense landscapes.
Sergio Leone would go on to make several other pictures. Some, like Once Upon a Time in the West and Once Upon a Time in America would further cement his legitimacy in cinema history. West, in particular, is another masterpiece in its own right, being his first movie fully funded by a Hollywood studio. But The Good, the Bad and the Ugly was the first film where he got to spread his wings.
Arguably, the greatest composer of film music in the history of cinema, Ennio Morricone created one of the most iconic scores of all time with The Good, the Bad and the Ugly. The sheer scope of his work is staggering as he has scored over 500 movies and television shows. Just take a look at this resume:
The Man With No Name Trilogy
Once Upon a Time in the West
Once Upon a Time in America
Cinema Paradiso
The Mission
Days of Heaven
The Untouchables
Escape From New York
Malena
Bugsy
The list goes on and on. The music he wrote for Sergio Leone's films, in particular, caught the attention with their ability to incorporate voices with loud guitars and sweeping orchestras. From the moment the opening credits assault our eyes with the garish red and white animation that has become so famous, Morricone's music heightens the experience as canon and gunfire blast apart the credits one after another.
Morricone's score for The Good, the Bad & the Ugly remains one of the most recognizable in film history. You can see it referenced or parodied in any number of other media like commercials, television shows and other movies.
Before he was internationally recognizable movie star and Academy Award winning director (Unforgiven, Million Dollar Baby), in the early 1960's, Clint Eastwood was familiar to some as Rowdy Yates on the CBS western series, Rawhide. In late 1963 he was offered the lead role in Sergio Leone's Italian-made western, A Fistful of Dollars, for a guaranteed contract worth $15,000. His "Man With No Name" would become one of cinema's great anti-hero's and foster an archetype that would be repeated time and time again. The Good, The Bad & The Ugly would be his third time playing the character and it remains his most nuanced and complex turn at a role that admittedly is not that terribly complex.
The stoic hero he portrays, called "Blondie" at times in the film, is up against two antagonists that represent more of a challenge than in the previous two movies. One of them, Tuco, actually gets the jump on him and in one extended scene has an opportunity to kill the blonde-haired gunslinger but only luck and circumstance interfere. By the end of the story though, Eastwood will once again get to prove that he has no equal in the very best "Mexican Standoff" scene ever shot. It is the perfect combination of photography, editing, music and action, stretching on so long before the first shot is fired that the tension is nearly unbearable.
Eastwood would go on to cultivate the persona he developed in Leone's spaghetti westerns and become one of the most recognizable symbols of masculinity in movie history. He would also take lessons he learned from working with Sergio Leone and become a great filmmaker in his own right.
Seminal character actor and popular bad guy, Lee Van Cleef, broke into Hollywood in the classic 1952 western, High Noon, starring Gary Cooper and Grace Kelly. But he would achieve cult status after Leone would cast him as the villainous, Angel Eyes in The Good, The Bad & The Ugly. Cleef had worked with Leone and Eastwood before in the trilogy's second movie, For a Few Dollars More in 1965. In that movie he played one of two main protagonists, alongside Eastwood's nameless hero. For TGTB&TU he would bring a calm menace to his character that would make viewers believe that "Blondie" had met his match for the first time.
As I said before, Leone loved striking faces and you would be hard pressed to find one more dynamic than Lee Van Cleef's. His eyes pierced through the screen like shiny stiletto daggers and that sharp nose gave him a profile that just screamed danger. The opening scene where we see the evil Angel Eyes ride up on an unsuspecting family's home, Morricone's beautiful music playing in the background, is one of my favorite introductions to a character of all time.
Angel Eyes is efficient and ruthless in his pursuit of money. He can gun down innocent children with impunity and also stand back and let his henchmen beat a man for information, while he silently smokes his pipe, content in his wickedness. He remains one of the most underrated villains of all time.
Despite the fact that both Clint Eastwood and Lee Van Cleef gave career-defining performances in this film, for me it is Eli Wallach as the mischievous and underestimated Tuco who steals the movie. A perennial character actor who studied under legendary acting teacher, Sanford Meisner, Wallach would make a career out of being a supporting actor. He was one of the very best. Eastwood would later say, "Working with Eli Wallach has been one of the great pleasures of my life."
In many ways Tuco is equally as main a character in TGTB&TU as Clint is. The early scenes which depict the bounty scam he and "Blondie" are partnered up in are hilarious. When Tuco is ultimately betrayed by his partner, one could argue that he is justified in getting his revenge against Eastwood for his ethically ambiguous actions Also, when he is reunited with his pious and hypocritical brother later in the film, you can't help but feel sorry for this bandit who seems to have been destined for a life of crime.
There is a scene where Tuco crawls out of the desert where "Blondie" had left him for dead. He enters a small town and heads right for the local general store where an old man has a case of old six-shooters waiting to be bought. Tuco is all intimidation with revenge on his mind as he expertly inspects the pistols and tests them in a lot behind the store. Legend has it that Wallach improvised this entire scene with ease, knowing next to nothing about guns and how to put them together. Its one of my favorites in the movie and showcases the skills of an immensely talented performer.
So, that's my take on The Good, The Bad & The Ugly, and why it is one of my very favorite movies. Its a perfect thing, created by a number of talented men in the prime of their careers. It was a unique marriage of intimate violence set against the backdrop of an historic war. It deserves to be watched again and again and again . . . .
Alright, folks, now it's Matt's turn to give us another one of his favorite movies and 5 reasons why it transcends beyond a film he simply loves into one that he considers truly great . . . .
At some point during this period, Leone discovered the films of acclaimed Japanese director, Akira Kurasawa. Like Sergio, Kurasawa was a big fan of the films of John Ford. His samurai pictures all reflected a very distinct western feel, substituting the gun slinging desperados for roaming warriors with katana blades. One film in particular caught Leone's eye, Yojimbo, starring Kurasawa regular, Tishiro Mifune as a traveling samurai who pits two warring clans against each other in order to both free a town from their ruthless control and to make a bit money as well. A Fistful of Dollars was born.
 |
| Akira Kurasawa's 1961 epic, Yojimbo, would inspire Leone to pursue making his first "spaghetti western", A Fistful of Dollars in 1964. |
With The Good, the Bad and the Ugly, Leone had approximately four times the budget he had of the previous two films. He would put that money to good use by taking an intimate, small-scale story about three men and their quest to find a buried cache of money, and set it against the grandiose backdrop of the Civil War. He very much wanted to be taken seriously as a filmmaker of the same calibers as a David Lean. He melded a pop-art sensibility (just watch those titles) with a bit of pulp violence and the excess of cinema's great epics. This juxtaposition of going both small and large at the same time is mirrored in his tendency to feature intense close-ups of an actor's face along with sweeping panoramic shots of immense landscapes.
 |
| Leone loved to cast actors with one-of-kind features, like this guy, who the director would get as close as possible to with his camera. No filmmaker has captured the landscape of the face like he did. |
2.) Il Maestro -- Ennio Morricone
Arguably, the greatest composer of film music in the history of cinema, Ennio Morricone created one of the most iconic scores of all time with The Good, the Bad and the Ugly. The sheer scope of his work is staggering as he has scored over 500 movies and television shows. Just take a look at this resume:
The Man With No Name Trilogy
Once Upon a Time in the West
Once Upon a Time in America
Cinema Paradiso
The Mission
Days of Heaven
The Untouchables
Escape From New York
Malena
Bugsy
The list goes on and on. The music he wrote for Sergio Leone's films, in particular, caught the attention with their ability to incorporate voices with loud guitars and sweeping orchestras. From the moment the opening credits assault our eyes with the garish red and white animation that has become so famous, Morricone's music heightens the experience as canon and gunfire blast apart the credits one after another.
 |
| This opening sequence is as iconic as many of cinema's other ones like Star Wars, Pulp Fiction or Halloween. Like these others, the reason is the music . . . . |
Morricone's score for The Good, the Bad & the Ugly remains one of the most recognizable in film history. You can see it referenced or parodied in any number of other media like commercials, television shows and other movies.
3.) The Good - Clint Eastwood
Before he was internationally recognizable movie star and Academy Award winning director (Unforgiven, Million Dollar Baby), in the early 1960's, Clint Eastwood was familiar to some as Rowdy Yates on the CBS western series, Rawhide. In late 1963 he was offered the lead role in Sergio Leone's Italian-made western, A Fistful of Dollars, for a guaranteed contract worth $15,000. His "Man With No Name" would become one of cinema's great anti-hero's and foster an archetype that would be repeated time and time again. The Good, The Bad & The Ugly would be his third time playing the character and it remains his most nuanced and complex turn at a role that admittedly is not that terribly complex.
The stoic hero he portrays, called "Blondie" at times in the film, is up against two antagonists that represent more of a challenge than in the previous two movies. One of them, Tuco, actually gets the jump on him and in one extended scene has an opportunity to kill the blonde-haired gunslinger but only luck and circumstance interfere. By the end of the story though, Eastwood will once again get to prove that he has no equal in the very best "Mexican Standoff" scene ever shot. It is the perfect combination of photography, editing, music and action, stretching on so long before the first shot is fired that the tension is nearly unbearable.
Eastwood would go on to cultivate the persona he developed in Leone's spaghetti westerns and become one of the most recognizable symbols of masculinity in movie history. He would also take lessons he learned from working with Sergio Leone and become a great filmmaker in his own right.
4.) The Bad - Lee Van Cleef
Seminal character actor and popular bad guy, Lee Van Cleef, broke into Hollywood in the classic 1952 western, High Noon, starring Gary Cooper and Grace Kelly. But he would achieve cult status after Leone would cast him as the villainous, Angel Eyes in The Good, The Bad & The Ugly. Cleef had worked with Leone and Eastwood before in the trilogy's second movie, For a Few Dollars More in 1965. In that movie he played one of two main protagonists, alongside Eastwood's nameless hero. For TGTB&TU he would bring a calm menace to his character that would make viewers believe that "Blondie" had met his match for the first time.
As I said before, Leone loved striking faces and you would be hard pressed to find one more dynamic than Lee Van Cleef's. His eyes pierced through the screen like shiny stiletto daggers and that sharp nose gave him a profile that just screamed danger. The opening scene where we see the evil Angel Eyes ride up on an unsuspecting family's home, Morricone's beautiful music playing in the background, is one of my favorite introductions to a character of all time.
Angel Eyes is efficient and ruthless in his pursuit of money. He can gun down innocent children with impunity and also stand back and let his henchmen beat a man for information, while he silently smokes his pipe, content in his wickedness. He remains one of the most underrated villains of all time.
5.) The Ugly - Eli Wallach
Despite the fact that both Clint Eastwood and Lee Van Cleef gave career-defining performances in this film, for me it is Eli Wallach as the mischievous and underestimated Tuco who steals the movie. A perennial character actor who studied under legendary acting teacher, Sanford Meisner, Wallach would make a career out of being a supporting actor. He was one of the very best. Eastwood would later say, "Working with Eli Wallach has been one of the great pleasures of my life."
In many ways Tuco is equally as main a character in TGTB&TU as Clint is. The early scenes which depict the bounty scam he and "Blondie" are partnered up in are hilarious. When Tuco is ultimately betrayed by his partner, one could argue that he is justified in getting his revenge against Eastwood for his ethically ambiguous actions Also, when he is reunited with his pious and hypocritical brother later in the film, you can't help but feel sorry for this bandit who seems to have been destined for a life of crime.
There is a scene where Tuco crawls out of the desert where "Blondie" had left him for dead. He enters a small town and heads right for the local general store where an old man has a case of old six-shooters waiting to be bought. Tuco is all intimidation with revenge on his mind as he expertly inspects the pistols and tests them in a lot behind the store. Legend has it that Wallach improvised this entire scene with ease, knowing next to nothing about guns and how to put them together. Its one of my favorites in the movie and showcases the skills of an immensely talented performer.
 |
| Tuco (Eli Wallach), Angel Eyes (Lee Van Cleef) and "Blondie" (Clint Eastwood) prepare to finally settle all scores in the climactic standoff near the end of The Good, The Bad & Ugly. |
So, that's my take on The Good, The Bad & The Ugly, and why it is one of my very favorite movies. Its a perfect thing, created by a number of talented men in the prime of their careers. It was a unique marriage of intimate violence set against the backdrop of an historic war. It deserves to be watched again and again and again . . . .
Alright, folks, now it's Matt's turn to give us another one of his favorite movies and 5 reasons why it transcends beyond a film he simply loves into one that he considers truly great . . . .
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