The Good, the Bad and the Ugly Movie Review

The Good, the Bad and the Ugly [Il buono, il brutto, il cattivo] (1966)

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Written by: Luciano Vincenzoni & Sergio Leone (story), Agenore Incrocci & Furio Scarpelli & Luciano Vincenzoni & Sergio Leone (screenplay)
Directed by: Sergio Leone
Starring: Clint Eastwood, Eli Wallach, Lee Van Cleef
Rated: NR [PG-13]
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Plot
Two men in a bounty hunting scam form an uneasy alliance against a third in a race to find a fortune in gold buried in a remote cemetery.

Verdict
This is a great movie in its own right, but it also it revived the western genre with a gritty and deliberate story. Watching this movie is a rite of passage. At its core it's a movie about greed and how much characters will compromise to that end, and it's so different from the standard western. That always intrigues, but this movie adds a visual and audio style that became synonymous with the genre.
Watch It.

Review
We're introduced to all manner of outlaws right away. There's a thief, a bounty hunter, and a drifter. Eventually they're all headed in the same direction, looking for gold. This is a harsh world with calculating characters. It's the west. There's a certain ruthlessness and scrappiness to making money. This isn't the type of story where the hero rides in to save a town in distress.

This movie certainly has its own style with many closeups on characters and wide shots of the landscapes. The musical riffs have become classics, a signifier of the western genre.

Clint Eastwood plays Blondie

Angel Eyes (Lee Van Cleef) first gets a lead about gold when a target pleads for his life, offering information. While Angel Eyes tries to track down treasure, Tuco (Eli Wallach) and Blondie's (Clint Eastwood) uneasy alliance turns sour. By chance Tuco and Blondie each get a piece of information about the location of this gold. Only together can they find it, and that's a neat bit of tension. They were ready to kill each other, but their greed postpones that desire.

It all comes down to the treasure where the three end up in a fight at a cemetery. We see plenty of the hallmarks of the genre, but we also see a skirmish during the Civil War. These characters are only concerned about themselves, wandering through the fight between the Confederates and Union. They don't care about either side.

Eli Wallach, Clint Eastwood, Lee Van Cleef play Tuco, Blondie, Angel Eyes

Part of what helped this movie revive the genre is that this world is ruled by lawlessness and greed. There are no heroes. These protagonists would destroy a town if it meant getting to the gold. Despite being released in 1966, it doesn't feel dated. It helps that this is a period piece. Eastwood plays what would become his classic stoic character.

The standoff at the end is incredibly intense as the movie cuts between closeups on eyes and guns as we wonder what will happen. This is a great story that drives tension until the very end.