Plot
A bounty hunting scam joins two men in an uneasy alliance against a third in a race to find a fortune in gold buried in a remote cemetery.
Release Year: 1966
Rating: 9.0/10 (225,702 voted)
Critic's Score: 90/100
Director:
Sergio Leone
Stars: Clint Eastwood, Eli Wallach, Lee Van Cleef
Storyline Blondie (The Good) is a professional gunslinger who is out trying to earn a few dollars. Angel Eyes (The Bad) is a hit man who always commits to a task and sees it through, as long as he is paid to do so. And Tuco (The Ugly) is a wanted outlaw trying to take care of his own hide. Tuco and Blondie share a partnership together making money off Tuco's bounty, but when Blondie unties the partnership, Tuco tries to hunt down Blondie. When Blondie and Tuco comes across a horse carriage loaded with dead bodies, they soon learn from the only survivor (Bill Carson) that he and a few other men have buried a stash of gold in a cemetery. Unfortunately Carson dies and Tuco only finds out the name of the cemetery, while Blondie finds out the name on the grave. Now the two must keep each other alive in order to find the gold. Angel Eyes (who had been looking for Bill Carson) discovers that Tuco and Blondie meet with Carson and knows they know the location of the gold...
Writers: Luciano Vincenzoni, Sergio Leone
Cast: Eli Wallach
-
Tuco
Clint Eastwood
-
Blondie
Lee Van Cleef
-
Sentenza
/
Angel Eyes
Aldo Giuffrè
-
Alcoholic Union Captain
(as Aldo Giuffre')
Luigi Pistilli
-
Father Pablo Ramirez
Rada Rassimov
-
Maria
Enzo Petito
-
Storekeeper
Claudio Scarchilli
-
Mexican Peon
John Bartha
-
Sheriff
(as John Bartho)
Livio Lorenzon
-
Baker
Antonio Casale
-
Jackson
/
Bill Carson
Sandro Scarchilli
-
Mexican Peon
Benito Stefanelli
-
Member of Angel Eyes' Gang
Angelo Novi
-
Monk
Antonio Casas
-
Stevens
Taglines:
A classic western! A classic music theme!
Release Date: 29 December 1967
Filming Locations: Almería, Andalucía, Spain
Box Office Details
Budget: $1,200,000
(estimated)
Opening Weekend: $10,584
(Finland)
(7 August 2003)
(1 Screen)
Trivia:
The film was budgeted at an expensive (for the time) $1.6 million.
Goofs:
Anachronisms:
Tuco examines a Belgian 10.4mm Galand revolver in the gun shop. The gun however was not invented until two years after the Civil War.
Quotes:
[first lines]
Stevens:
You're... from Baker... Tell Baker that I told him all that I know already. Tell him I want to live in peace, understand? That it's no use to go on tormenting me! I know nothing at all about that case of coins. Now that gold has disappeared, but if he'd listened, we could have avoided this altogether. I went to the Army court; there were no witnesses. They couldn't uncover any more. I can't tell Baker what happened to the money; go back and tell him that!
User Review
Brutal, brilliant, and one of the best Westerns ever made
Rating: 10/10
A sprawling Western epic that follows the adventures of three gunfighters
looking for $200,000 in stolen gold, Sergio Leone's `The Good, the Bad, and
the Ugly' is a masterpiece, one that continues to get better and better with
each viewing. In a way, it's a morality play, weighing the consequences of
good and evil, but it does so in a realistic manner. Sometimes, crime does
pay, at least in the short term, and sometimes good does go unrewarded.
This film probably signaled the death knell of the traditional John Wayne
`White Hat/Black Hat' Western.
The three main characters make the film. Lee Van Cleef (`The Bad') is evil
personified. Totally ruthless, he'll do whatever it takes to get what he
wants. Clint Eastwood (`The Good') is the Man With No Name, not really
`good' in a traditional sense . . . but he has a certain sense of honor and
tries to do the right thing. (Watch the scene when he gives a dying
Confederate soldier a puff of his cigar - powerful, and it sums up
everything that the Man With No Name is all about, without saying a single
word.) Eli Wallach (`The Ugly') is Tuco, and he's easily the most complex -
if not the best - character in the film. All impulse and rage, Tuco spins
wildly throughout the movie, stealing, lying, pretending to be Clint
Eastwood's best friend in one scene, trying to kill him in another - Tuco
truly represents `the ugly' side of people.
The movie is long, but there's not a wasted scene in the film. Each one
slowly lets the film unfold with a certain style and grace, revealing more
about each character and what's going on. The pacing is incredible, as is
the direction - Sergio Leone manages to build a lot of uncomfortable tension
in the film, keeping the film from ever getting predictable. Any typical
Western cliché that you can possibly think of is either given a unique twist
or utterly destroyed by Leone's masterful storytelling. Of special mention
is Ennio Morricone's score, which is absolutely perfect. Two scenes - one
in a Union prison camp, one in the climatic gunfight in the cemetery at the
end of the film - are amazing on their own, but they become absolutely
astonishing with combined with Morricone's powerful score.
This movie is absolutely brilliant. If you haven't seen it yet, I strongly
urge to do so. Immediately. (And then, go watch `Unforgiven' . . . in a
way, I think that `Unforgiven' is the sequel to `The Good, the Bad, and the
Ugly - it's the story of what eventually happened to the Man With No Name.)
`The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly' is easily one of the best Westerns ever
made. A++
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