The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly - Movie Review

With all these reviews of recent media I want to clarify something: I don't mind reviewing older media. Like OLDER older, even back to the black and white era of movies. We always learn from the past and for movies especially there's a lot of great content, including some truly legendary films. Maybe some of the films of today will be remembered for decades to come once enough time has passed, but right now, with how easier it has become to make movies, we're also getting... a lot of crap. From countless jump-scare horror movies to cash cows that are beating milked to death at the cost of keeping long-term fans hooked. Sometimes I have to go back to an older time where film had more majesty to it. That is why this week I decided to review a supposed (because I never saw it before) masterpiece: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly.

The story revolves around three gunslingers named "Blondie," Tuco, and Angel Eyes and their hunt for a fortune of buried gold while caught up in the conflict of the American Civil War. That's the plot, simple and to the point. It is also a story that has become the magnum opus of wild west films because over the years it's become so iconic for its western them, among many things. Gunslinging, robberies, riding horses, cowboy attire, and beautiful country scenes. While watching the film I found out that this was the third movie in a trilogy called the "Dollars Trilogy" and I raged at first because very much prefer watching films in chronological order. But soon after I also learned that this trilogy is similar in structure to Edgar Wright's "Cornetto Trilogy" (Shaun of the Dead, Hot Fuzz, and The World's End) in that it had all the same actors and director, but the stories don't connect at all. So I'm guessing that the director, Sergio Leone, kept on improving with each film until we reached the best one. So to that I can accepting a trilogy out of order.

Before I talk about anything about this film I have to talk about the music. When the film started and the music started to play with the opening credits I went, "Wait, that's where this came from?!" because the music... anyone who has seen anything western related should recognize this music. It's very well done and so iconic for the western genre that can just know where it came/ started from immediately. It filled me with a ton of excitement, getting me pumped for what the characters were doing or what they were about to do. It was also used in just the right amounts and ways, building up the scenes at certain action points while being completely silent for other darker tension-building moments. The ending especially used the music well, with the final Mexican standoff putting me on the edge of my seat as the music amped everything up more and more and all three characters were eyeing each other to see who was about to shoot first. I was just glued to screen, waiting intensely to see who fired the first shot.

There is just a masterful level of building tension. When I saw the film was free hours long I was kind of shocked, but quickly realized why it was that long: Tension. Films now would never be able to do this because films are shorter now since they need to be produced faster, so short time limit and smaller run time. We don't get these long (several to 5 minute), drawn out moments where a character is menacing another one to get information out of them, in present films it's most often a faster interrogation scene. In this film tension scenes were agonizingly slow, perfect for getting goosebumps over my skin and just locking my eyes on to the screen to see what was about to happen. And we find out this near the start of the film with Angel Eyes interrogating this man over the location of this buried gold. I was getting antsy, feeling myself begging for the scene to end because I was just getting so worried as to what Angel Eyes was about to do! That type of tension, the one that locks the viewer's eyes on the screen while making them both want and not want the scene to end is just what films now-a-days need!

And to go with this tension you need excellent cinematography. Thankfully, this film has that. In my opinion good cinematography is when I pause the film at any point and be able to frame the shot on a wall like it's a painting and people will be impressive by the framed shot. Every scene in the film has that. Plus, since this film was released in 1966, there is no CGI. The backgrounds are real places and sets! I am trying hard to find words to properly give justice to how great everything looks! I mean near the end of the film, when the three main characters meet in a graveyard, that's a real graveyard with tons and tons of unique grave markers! Additionally it uses elements like long and close-up shots very effectively. It's very professional film-making, especially when combined with some of the great physical effects like gunfire and cannonball explosions. It felt so real because a lot of it was real, something that film and film makers now a days need to remember because CGI is just a tool that shouldn't be relied upon too much.

Now the characters themselves I found great. Nothing I would say is worth studying professionally for years to come, but they all had their own charm to them and stood out with more than just their appearances. Goldie (The Good) was absolutely the good guy of the three but also wasn't all stoic and heroic. He did a few dirty things like free a bounty he just turned in so he could make more money, but he was just so intelligent for the setting, scheming one step ahead of everyone. Plus Goldie had that charisma to him that instantly made him likable to me (though he's also played by a young Clint Eastwood, so go figure). Angel Eyes (The Bad), played by Lee Van Cleef, is a character I wish I saw more out of and understood more, but he always had a dangerous presence while on the screen. It reminded me of Negan from seasons 7 and 8 of The Walking Dead, where when he appeared on screen you instantly knew worried about the other characters on the screen. He was so ruthless and sadistic, contributing to one of the most bloody beatings I've ever seen in a movie. Lastly Tuco (The Ugly), played by Eli Wallach, had the most screentime out of all three character and he was a bit funny, oafish, and talked fast. The biggest schemer of the three while being deadly while his guns, he just had the most entertainment of the three. Together they all brought about a lot of emotions throughout the movie.

All of these fantastic elements combine together to create a gripping story. It just felt so exciting to watch the story progress, giving us some fantastic moments from the bath scene to Tuco talking with his brother to the Union soldiers conscripting Goldie and Tuco into their plans. The movie is less of a long journey and more of a series of events that stitch themselves together very well. Not a style of storytelling I'm normally for, but this film is able to pull it off very well by focusing one our main characters and their goal to find this buried gold. Now, as I mentioned, Angels Eyes didn't get as much time as the other two main characters, but his involvement in the search becomes more and more and all three character paths merge together for the finale very well.

Now I do have one complaint about the film and before you rip my head off I can say that even the most die-hard fans of this film can agree with me on this: The dubbing is bad. There is just too much ADR (Automated Dialogue Replacement), which I can be fine with if it is done well. But sadly a lot of it doesn't match the lips very well and it kept distracting me. For the first third of the film I kept hearing dialogue and seeing the lips not match very well with it and I kept being pulled out of the movie. Eventually as time went on I started to notice less and less, but you can't just ignore this flaw. I do know that a lot of the cast didn't speak English as a native language and so dubbing was needed. But it's impossible to ignore this flaw. Even with this flaw though my opinion of the film is still very high.

The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly should never be remade. It just can't be done. I mean you can make more spaghetti western films (which I would like to see more of now), but never a real remake. Other than the dubbing there's nothing to improve on. It's just too legendary to try and duplicate. The music is iconic, the cinematography is incredible, the characters very likeable and badass, and all done without the magic of CGI. And I'm pretty sure you cannot redo the dubbing for this movie without treading on some toes. For the first western I've seen in a long time, The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly blew my (metaphorical) hat off!

Tentative Score: 9.5/10

Definitive Score: 9.5/10

Hollywood really needs to bring back spaghetti westerns. Some might say it's no longer a genre that's lucrative, but we haven't seen many in so long that creating a good one could bring in a lot of cash.