Sunday 22 June 2008

The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (Il Buono Il Brutto Il Cattivo) [1966]


One of the most enjoyable and loved movies ever made, this Segio Leone masterpiece is his brilliant tribute to the quintessential Ammerican genre of the Westerns – what with its arid and bleak landscapes infested with gold-digging gun-slingers and crack-shots. This also happens to be the final chapter of Leone’s outstanding thematically linked “Dollars” Trilogy. An astonishing tale of fortune hunting, set against the backdrop of the American Civil War, the movie pits three completely contrasting characters against each other – the Good (the iconic Clint Eastwood’s most famous role as the laconic, enigmatic loner – the Man With No Name), the Bad (Lee Van Cleef in the role of a sinister and scheming “Man of the Law”), and the Ugly (Eli Wallach, as a foul-mouthed opportunist, in what is easily the most fascinating character of the movie). This Spaghetti Western (known so because in a beautiful variation of the more morally upright Western movies, here the heroes are deliciously amoral) has everything that there can be – stylish direction, unforgettable characters, stunning visuals, Ennio Moricone’s haunting score that has entered movie lore, fabulous gunfights, great dialogues punched with wit and humour, and an explosive climax.









Director: Sergio Leone
Genre: Western/Spaghetti Western/Epic
Language: Italian
Country: Italy

3 comments:

dreamer said...

Inviting a review for "For a few dollars more" as well. Enrico's theme for that movie is another classic ...watch out for Van Cleef again.

dreamer said...

This is Soumyajit BTW

Shubhajit said...

Soumo aka Dreamer, nice to see you here. Yes, you are absolutely right, reviews of the first 2 "Dollar" movies are indeed solicited. There'r both very good movies, an both have the haunting Moricone touch in them.