THE GOOD, THE BAD. AND THE UGLY
Clint Eastwood in The Man with No Name Trilogy
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SPECIALS:
Clint Eastwood in The Man with No Name Trilogy
Clint Eastwood in Dirty Harry Movies
IMAGES:
Clint Eastwood Posters, Prints, Photos, Framed, Mounted Images
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The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly (1966)
CAST
The Stranger, Clint Eastwood; Tuco, Eli Wallach; Setenza, Lee Van Cleef; with Aldo Ciuffre, Mario Brega, Luigi Pistilli, Rada Rassimony, Enzo Petito.
CREDITS
Produced by Alberto Grimaldi. Directed by Sergio Leone. Screenplay by Luciano Vincenzon and Sergio Leone. Music by Ennio Morricone. Film editors, NinoBaragli and Eugenio Alabiso. Director of photography, Ton-nio Delli Colli. Running time: 161 minutes. Techniscope and Technicolor. Released by United Artists.
By the time this third and last episode in the Eastwood-Leone school of offbeat westerns went before the cameras in 1965, everyone knew that its success was inevitable. Leone succeeded in securing a budget of a million dollars-far more than had been spent on the two previous Dollars westerns put together. Eastwood received two hundred fifty thousand dollars for his efforts and for the first time found himself regarded as one of the highest-paid actors around.
Leone showed that he had the skill to use his budget wisely, and The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly often appears to be an enormously expensive film. Leone fashioned an incredibly tense and engrossing film that far surpassed his earlier efforts in both technical achievements and directorial style. At times the film, running close to three hours, appears to be a virtual epic, with scenes of hundreds of men engaged in raging battles; extremely realistic art decoration and sets; and a wide use of varied locations, used to the utmost benefit.
Critics treated The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly slightly better than its two forerunners, although most reaction was still very negative. The usual arguments about excessive violence and unnecessary gore were brought out again. While some of these criticisms may have been justified, The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly contains far too many positive qualities to be dismissed as just another blood-and-guts western.
The film has many haunting and memorable moments. Among them: a nerveracking scene in which Eastwood frantically tries to load an empty pistol before a team of assassins break into his room; the torturous walk across the desert in a sun so strong that you can feel the sweat pour from your face; an epic battle that more than ably demonstrates Leone's skill at effectively handling even the most difficult of sequences; the suspense-filled final showdown that makes the viewer cringe on the edge of her or his seat; and perhaps most effective of all, a stunning scene in which Confederate prisoners of war are forced into a makeshift band in order to drown out the screams of their comrades being tortured. As a young man plays sweet love songs on his harmonica, the camera captures an unforgettable moment in which we see the tears of his disgrace and sorrow stream down his face.
Eastwood performed well in this film, although the acting requirements were not much more difficult than those of the earlier films. He perfectly invoked the personification of cool, and there was even a brief moment of humanity demonstrated by the Man with No Name, as he is briefly shown bemoaning the futility of war.
Eastwood received first-rate support from Lee Van Cleef, who managed to make his character one of the more memorable screen villains of recent years. The scene-stealing trophy, however, must go to Eli Wal-lach, who gives an outrageously hammy, yet admittedly delightful performance as the back-stabbing Tuco.
The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly may not have been a masterpiece, but it was a very fine film that scorches the memory. It is one of the finest films Eastwood has appeared in.
SYNOPSIS
At the height of the Civil War, a Mexican bandit named Tuco (Eli Wal-lach) is nearly captured by two bounty hunters. His life is saved by a mysterious stranger (Clint Eastwood), who kills both bounty hunters.
It is soon clear why this stranger, whom Tuco nicknames Joe, has saved the life of the Mexican. He wants to form a partnership in which he will collect the reward money for capturing Tuco and then rescue him before he can be hanged. The plan works, and the act is repeated over and over, with Tuco's head becoming more profitable each day.
At the same time, a terrifying bounty hunter named Setenzo (Lee Van Cleef) is following up on information that he hopes will lead him to a fortune in buried Confederate gold. Setenzo recruits a band of devoted followers and begins to menace and torture all who have come into contact with the money.
Meanwhile, Tuco and Joe have ended their partnership violently. Tuco captures Joe and drags him on a torturous walk across the desert. Just as he is about to die, Joe stumbles across a deserted stagecoach filled with dead bodies. The last survivor, a Confederate soldier, whispers to Joe the secret of the gold's location.
Joe and Tuco's partnership is reinstated when it is discovered that each man knows a necessary part of the gold's secret location.
While posing as Confederate soldiers, Tuco and Joe are captured by Union troops and sent to a prison camp run by Setenzo, who has become an army sergeant in hopes that it will lead him closer to the gold. When his torture methods fail to make his pisoners give away their secret, the three men form an uneasy alliance.
Eventually they reach a cemetery where the gold is hidden. It becomes clear upon its discovery that only a showdown will decide who will take the riches. As the three men stare each other down, Setenzo draws. Joe guns him down. Tuco looks on incredulously as he realizes that the gun he is attempting to fire has been previously emptied by his ''trusting" partner.
Joe spares Tuco's life, but not before humiliating him in a dangerous way. He ties Tuco up and places him on a shaky wooden cross with a noose tied around his neck, the noose being attached to a tree. As Tuco begs for mercy, precariously keeping himself upright for dear life, Joe fires a long-distance rifle shot that knocks Tuco safely to the ground. As the Mexican fruitlessly runs after him, swearing, Joe unemotionally rides away with the gold.
REVIEWS
The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly might serve as the film's own capsule review. The good lies in Sergio Leone's skillfull camera work. Bad is the word for the wooden acting . . . and Ugly is his insatiable appetite for beatings. Crammed with sadism and a distaste for human values that would make the ordinary misanthrope seem like Pollyanna. [Its] only possible excuse for existence [is to] make money. Somehow that isn't enough.
Arthur Knight, Saturday Review
[The film] must be the most expensive, pious, and repellent movie in the history of its peculiar genre. . . . There is scarcely a moment's respite from the pain. [Eastwood's] face and voice are expressionless throughout. Sometimes it all tries to pass for fun.
Renata Adler, New York Times
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