Skip to main contentFew filmmakers have made more of an impact on the world of cinema than Sergio Leone. By the time his film The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly was released in 1966, the Italian director had changed everything. Two years earlier he'd reinvented the most American of all film genres, the western, with his seminal movie Fistful of Dollars. Offering a gritty, brutal look at the Old West, the film forever changed the way violence was depicted on screen, and helped to open the floodgate for European-produced westerns--known as spaghetti westerns. It was also Fistful of Dollars, followed by 1965's For a Few Dollars More, that propelled television actor Clint Eastwood to international film stardom.
Set against the backdrop of the Civil War, The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly is the final film in what's become known as Leone's "Dollars" trilogy. The simple plot follows Blondie (Eastwood), the "good," Angel Eyes (Lee Van Cleef), the "bad," and Tuco (Eli Wallach), the "ugly," a trio of ruthless, opportunistic killers searching for a fortune in buried gold. Deception, double-crosses and death await as all three men make their way to Sad Hill, a desolate cemetery where one of the greatest cinematic showdowns of all time takes place.
Easily the best-known of Leone's films, The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly is also the most closely identified with the spaghetti-western genre. Tonino Delli Colli's camera work is amazing, mixing vast, sprawling landscapes with extreme close-ups. The music by Ennio Morricone remains one of the greatest motion-picture scores of all time. And now, after three decades, Leone's masterpiece has finally been restored to its full glory. Clocking in at just over three hours, this newly remastered print adds nearly 20 extra minutes to the film. The additional footage comes from the original Italian version, and until recently, none of these extra scenes had been translated into English.
The new footage, while not integral to the story, does help to clarify certain plot points. The antagonistic relationship between Tuco and Blondie, which has always been the film's axis, is also built upon. And in one of the film's most beautifully shot sequences, Angel Eyes wanders into a makeshift Confederate hospital. Delli Colli's camera circles Van Cleef's head, offering an up-close examination of the grim visage of "the man with the gun-sight eyes."
On the surface, The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly is about three killers looking for gold. But like its predecessors, the film is also a deconstruction of the standard American hero. There are no heroes here, just morally ambiguous gunslingers, outlaws and bounty hunters. This is no doubt a reflection of Leone's own disillusioned view of the American GIs who marched into Italy during World War II, shattering his youthful image of the heroic Yankees coming to the rescue. The characters in Leone's films represent a drastic reinterpretation of heroes like John Wayne and Gary Cooper, where the line between good and bad is blurred. The most despicable character, the Mexican bandito Tuco, is also the most sympathetic.
Like so many postwar films from Italy, The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly is also a scathing comment on the futility and absurdity of war. Italy's role in World War II has long been a popular theme in spaghetti westerns, with filmmakers like Leone and Sergio Corbucci substituting the American Civil War or the Mexican Revolution. Leone's anti-war take is ultimately the film's most powerful element. In one of the most telling scenes, Blondie and Tuco casually sit back and watch as Confederate and Union soldiers clash in a devastatingly brutal battle to control a bridge. "I've never seen so many men wasted so badly," observes Blondie, a sentiment also applicable to the war in Vietnam that was waging when The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly was released. Thirty-seven years later, that message remains just as relevant.
Cinema 21, 616 NW 21st Ave. 223-4515.
7 pm Friday-Thursday,
Sept. 5-11.
Additional shows at high noon and 3:30 pm Saturday-Sunday.
Clint Eastwood and Eli Wallach recorded dialogue for the new footage, which was never released in English. Their voices were manipulated in an effort to approximate how they sounded more than 30 years ago. Simon Prescott substitutes for the late Lee Van Cleef, and if you didn't know better, you might actually think it was him.
WWeek 2015