When it comes to classic Westerns, it’s hard to top films
like 1966’s “The Good, the Bad and the Ugly.” Like most folks, I’ve seen
portions of this movie on and off throughout my life, but I couldn’t honestly say that I’d
seen the entire theatrical version from start to finish, which is why I added
this movie to my “bucket list” a couple of years ago.
Directed by Sergio Leone, this movie was released in
theaters on Dec. 15, 1966. The movie starred Clint Eastwood as “Blondie” (The
Good), Lee Van Cleef as Angel Eyes (The Bad) and Eli Wallaco as Tuco Ramirez
(The Ugly). It’s the third film is what’s known as the “Dollars Trilogy,” coming after 1964’s “A Fistful of Dollars” and 1965’s “For a Few Dollars More.”
The movie is basically about the efforts of the three main
characters to find $200,000 in buried Confederate gold. Each is seeking the
gold for his own reasons, and each character has an inside track to the gold.
“Blondie” and Tuco essentially team up to find the gold, but neither trusts the
other, mainly because they know the other is extremely dangerous.
You can also make the argument that this movie is a Civil
War movie. Set during the Civil War, the movie features a number of Confederate
and Union soldiers as well as a number of former Confederates. Throughout the
movie, the main characters are seeking lost Confederate gold, and at one point, “Blondie” and
Tuco even dress up like Confederate soldiers while Angel Eyes dons a Union uniform and works in a Union POW camp.
As you might have imagined, you’ll find “The Good, the Bad and
the Ugly” on a number of “best of” lists. One of my favorite Web sites, The Art
of Manliness, ranked the film No. 3 on its list of “17 Best Western Movies” and
included it on its list of “100 Must See Movies: The Essential Men’s Movie
Library.” The movie was also ranked No. 7 on IGN’s “Top 25 Westerns of All
Time” and No. 8 on AMC’s list of “Greatest Westerns.”
Quentin Tarantino once called the film the best directed film of
all time, and TIME magazine included it on its list of “100 Greatest Movies of
the Last Century.” EMPIRE magazine also ranked in No. 25 on its list of “500
Greatest Movies” and No. 47 on it’s reader-selected list of “301 Greatest
Movies of All Time.”
Thanks to NetFlix, I finally took the time to watch this
movie from start to finish Friday afternoon, and I thought it was great. I don’t
know if it’s the greatest Western that I’ve ever seen, but I’d rank it pretty
high. It also left me wanting to watch “A Fistful of Dollars” and “For a Few
Dollars More,” which I plan to do sometime in the near future.
In the end, how many of you have seen “The Good, the Bad and
the Ugly”? What did you think about it? Did you like it or not? Let us know in
the comments section below.
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