The Good, the
Bad and the Ugly has, over the years, stood out as a classic Western film.
The movie is the final addition to the Dollars Trilogy, starring Clint Eastwood
as the "Man with No Name" and directed by Sergio Leone. The story is
set against the backdrop of the ongoing American Civil War between 1861 and
1865. The cinematography in this movie is notably different from the previous
films, featuring many wide shots. Thanks to a bigger budget (the movie cost
twice as much to produce as For
a Few Dollars More (1965)), Sergio was able to add more effects.
The movie
focuses on three gunslingers, all trying to make a fortune from a buried cache
of Confederate gold worth $200,000. The gunslingers are a bounty hunter (Clint
Eastwood), Angel Eyes (Lee Van Cleef), and Tuco (Eli Wallach).
Lee Van Cleef
plays a completely opposite role here compared to his character in For
a Few Dollars More (1965), where he was a good guy seeking
revenge. In this film, he’s the main antagonist, killing at will and driven
purely by greed. Missing from this movie is Gian Maria Volontè, who played the
villain in the first two films (A
Fistful of Dollars (1964) and For
a Few Dollars More (1965)). His role was given to Eli Wallach
because Leone wanted the character to have a comic undertone.
The movie
made $25 million on its $1.2 million budget and has received critical
acclaim as one of the best films in history and one of the greatest Westerns
ever made.
After
introducing our leads—The Ugly: Tuco, a bandit; The Bad: Angel Eyes, a
mercenary and sergeant; and The Good: a bounty hunter whose name is never
revealed—the bounty hunter and Tuco strike a deal. Tuco is captured and turned into
the sheriff, and the bounty on his head is claimed. When Tuco is about to be
hanged, the bounty hunter orchestrates his escape so he can catch him again and
claim the bounty in another state.
Things go sour
when the bounty hunter betrays Tuco, leaving him for dead in the desert. Tuco
survives and is hell-bent on revenge. Meanwhile, Angel Eyes goes around killing
people to find out where the Confederate gold is hidden. Tuco’s quest for
revenge leads him to cross paths with the custodian of the gold. However,
Tuco’s greed causes him to lose the location of the gold to the bounty hunter,
who uses it as insurance to ensure Tuco doesn’t kill him and run off with the
money.
Eventually, all
their paths cross, with greed in their eyes.
If you haven’t decided to add this classic trilogy to your archive, then your movie collection is incomplete.
0 comments:
Post a Comment