The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly

I'm not really a fan of Westerns.

Well, until now, anyway. Sure, I'd seen some of Clint Eastwood's Westerns before, like Unforgiven and The Outlaw Josey Wales, and enjoyed them, but it was mostly due to being an Eastwood fan. The genre itself just never really appealed to me. Then, through circumstance, I ended up with a copy of the new special edition DVD of Italian director Sergio Leone's The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly. Wow, does this movie kick ass.

If you don't know the story (which is great), here's a review.

I don’t how to describe why this movie is so awesome…it dispenses with a lot of the stereotypical Western movie crap and has a feel all its own. It's long and somewhat slow-paced, but it totally works. Composer Ennio Morricone's soundtrack is unique and distinctive (horror fans will recognise his name- he did the score for John Carpenter's The Thing). Clint Eastwood is his usual bad-ass self as The Man With No Name, and Eli Wallach was suprisingly charasmatic and hilarious as a bandit named Tuco. Then there's Lee Van Cleef, who is one sinister-looking bastard (again, Carpenter fans will recognise him from Escape From New York).

This is the first Eastwood western I've seen where the cast as a whole is what makes the movie work, as opposed to Eastwood being the stand-alone star. Everyone is completely ruthless and out for themselves. The showdown at the end is a fucking classic.

This was the third in a trilogy of films starring Eastwood by Leone (the first two being A Fistfull of Dollars and For a Few Dollars More), and I sure as hell plan on picking up the other two DVDs ASAP. TG, TB, and TU is one of the best suprises I've encountered in a long time.

"BLONDIE! You're nothing but an AYAYAYA-YAH! Wah-wah-wah."

Great flick. It's been awhile since I've seen it, so I may have misquoted the last line a bit.

Great movie, and if you are not familiar with Ennio Morricone's work do so quickly.

Hell yeah, this was a great western. Westerns never really appealed to me either, but this one was different. I picked up my DVD about a month ago. Having seen this when I was kid, probably cause of my dad (big western fan), I couldn't resist. I still have to watch the additional content on the 2nd disc.

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Originally Posted by Super-Eggroll

"BLONDIE! You're nothing but an AYAYAYA-YAH! Wah-wah-wah."

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Hehe. Close enough.

There are two types of people in this world.

Those that like The Good, The Bad and The Ugly. And flaming homosexuals and/or girls.

Dole, watch Pale Rider and Unforgiven, the casts in both of those are great as well. Pale Rider has been on Cable lately and is damn good.

Even has Skinny Chris Penn. A Rarity.

Also check out Once Upon a Time in the West.

On a related note, I watched Tombstone for the first time a few weeks back.

That too is a fucking awesome movie.

"I don't think it's nice, you all laughin at my mule."

Theres really 5 movies about the man with no name. 3 of them are the real trilogy. Good Bad and Ugly, Fistfull of Dollars and For a Few Dollars More. Then you get the two that Clint went and made himself, Pale Rider and High Plains Drifter. In both of these he's more of a force of nature, but it still works. Unforgiven isn't really the man with no name, but it does put a cap on his western career. I love how all of his westerns are about something, there is always a meaning to them.

I don't think I can name a movie that Eastwood made that sucked. Maybe bridges of madison county, but even that was good for the chicks.

How are A Fistfull of Dollars and For a Few Dollars More compared to The Good, The Bad and The Ugly? Anyone see them?

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Originally Posted by MVS

There are two types of people in this world.

Those that like The Good, The Bad and The Ugly. And flaming homosexuals and/or girls.

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I have to admit, it's a real man's movie.

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Dole, watch Pale Rider and Unforgiven, the casts in both of those are great as well. Pale Rider has been on Cable lately and is damn good.

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I'm not saying that the cast in Unforgiven wasn't great (Morgan Freeman and Gene Hackman were amazing), but it was just such a star-studded cast, you know? The Good, The Bad and The Ugly's cast has a much different feel, since you know that most of them were relative unknowns back then, so they all seemed to be on equal footing. Eastwood I was familiar with, of course, but I'd never seen Eli Wallach in anything before and I was pretty much blown away by how good he was. I'd only seen Lee Van Cleef in Escape from New York, when he was kinda of past his prime, so it was cool to see him looking so damn sinister. Everyone involved did a damn fine job.

As for Pale Rider, yeah, maybe I'll check that out at some point. Isn't that the one where he's a preacher or something?

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Originally Posted by Error

High Plains Drifter

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Ah, yes, I remember this one...it taught the children a fine lesson:

If a girl is rude to you, it's okay to drag her ass into a barn and rape her in a pile of hay. She might be mad and try to kill you at first, but eventually she'll like you.

Clint rules.

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Originally Posted by JetsToBrazil

Also check out Once Upon a Time in the West.

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I'd like to see this. I've seen clips and the cinematography looks to be really well done.