The Good, the Bad and the Ugly - 1966
The granddaddy of them all.
Everything there has ever been to say about The Good, the Bad and the Ugly has been put to paper over the last 55 years. So, I'm not going to try to reinvent the wheel here. But I found some interesting structural things for analysis this time around that I believe are at least worth presenting. I'll start with this: This is a film that moves in three's. Beyond three main leads with three different names in the title, the picture also opens with an extended prologue. Each of the three top-billed Americans get a sequence in which they're introduced by firing upon, you guessed it, three people.
The action opens with the first of these vignettes as three men attempt to take down Tuco, who is hiding inside a wooded building. Right away Sergio Leone flashes his incredible signature ability to capture both the vast and the minute. Wide open, incredible picturesque landscapes and the tightest close-ups of sweaty, leathery faces. Matters proceed to Van Cleef's Angel Eyes on a paid mission to go see about a confederate man. Leone's pension for fast draw duels continues under a table. Blondie, of course, goes last and gives us more of the same.
Whatever else can be said about the picture, one thing is clear: The first 30 minutes (Blondie's little opening ends RIGHT at the 30 minute mark) and the final 25 minutes are unequivocally topnotch film-making. Overall, perhaps the film could be derided for its epic length, but I think Leone's purpose becomes clear in the TGTBTU's telling. I'm speaking undoubtedly about the performances, but also the rich characterization of the three principals, Morricone's all-time great score, the rich and grainy cinematography, and a concluding duel which may be one of the 10 greatest scenes in film history.
The question becomes - What about all the filler in the middle?On this pass through this great work, I began to see an episodic purpose to Leone's tale. The question of whether this saga runs long is really wrapped up in a deeper question of just how much time we want to spend with these three men. For each little excursis - the scene involving Angel Eyes disguised in the union camp, the entire bridge and battle sequence, the drunk Union captain, Tuco and Blondie in the convent, to name a few - increase our buy in to this story's rather simple premise of three men hunting for gold. Put simply, this time around, I became convinced that the final shootout would not have landed with NEAR the gravitas and weight that it did were it not for all the proceeding two hours of character formation in the little things.
And that final sequence...land it does! Tuco runs into the graveyard as the camera shoots a whirling dervish of a segment. Morricone's Ecstasy of Gold blares in our ears, and our hearts, our minds, our very nerve endings come alive. Having remained with these complex men who even at their best moments are as much anti- as heroes, this triangle of firepower inside the graveyard has its own entrancing magic. Leone takes several long minutes of flashing close-ups on faces, guns, belts, quivering hands, and determined eyes, before finally letting us out of his grip.
Perhaps the apogee of all Westerns, and still, to this day, an all-time banger, The Good, the Bad and the Ugly lives on.
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