Il buono, il brutto, il cattivo. / The Good, The Bad And The Ugly (1966) - An epic masterpiece for the ages - 10/10 (05/04/11)

Exactly one year ago, I wrote my first reviews on this web site and this one is my review number one hundred. To underline and celebrate this kind of anniversary, I decided to pick one of my favourite movies of all times.

Everything about this movie just seems perfect to me.

Let's start with the director's work. Sergio Leone is one of the most gifted directors of all times and he had a feeling for monumental and impressing landscapes. His images are as epic as the scripts and stories. I also adore the way he captures the emotions of its actors. The devil is in the detail as he concentrates on seemingly instinctual nervous movements and actions, the impressions of the actor's faces and especially the looks of their eyes. Even almost fifty years after the release of this monumental milestone of the western genre, his way of filming remains unbeaten and unreached. It is emotional, well crafted and perfectly organized.

The filming goes hand in hand with the majestic score of the movie. Ennio Morricone is maybe the greatest composer for cinema alive. The instruments are diversified, the melodies epic and still catchy and filled with emotions of pressure, anger, despair, hope and joy that fusion perfectly with the chosen images. Without the music, often only chosen randomly to underline a conceptual background by many others, the movie wouldn't be the same. Sergio Leone really knew what he wanted and I music has never had such an important role in a movie since the end of the age of silent films. Without the works of Morricone, there would have been no place for many grand composers such as John Williams or Hans Zimmer that create stunning soundtracks nowadays.

Another amazing thing is the acting around the three key personalities. Lee van Cleef as Angel Eyes does the best work of his career as a cold hearted, pitiless and cool villain with an eerie look. He is not the usual bad guy but a rather silent, patient and intellectual villain and this what makes him appear so cruel and dangerous. Eli Wallach as Tuco, one of my favourite actors of all times, does also the best job of his long career in this movie. He plays an ugly little bandit that seems to be naive, superficial and rude at first sight but turns out to be much more diversified and is finally a crafty, darkly humorous and brutal villain that is nevertheless very sympathetic because of his high degree of charisma and the high amount of bad coincidences that he lives throughout the whole movie. Finally, Clint Eastwood as Blondie does also an amazing job and has developed since the first two movies he had done with Sergio Leone before. In this movie, he is extremely smart, calm and thoughtful but nevertheless a mean villain that plans and organizes everything at his advantage and that never stops to surprise. Those three memorable actors at the peak of their early careers have an amazing chemistry and I have never ever seen a movie with three outstanding actors. Normally, there are one or rarely two actors that give good movies a certain kind of soul and creativity, but this movie is graced by the works of three great actors. If that was not already enough, the supporting actors such as Aldo Giuffrè as a drunk and desperate Union Captain that befriends with the characters of Wallach and Eastwood.

One must also underline the story itself. It takes the time to slowly introduce each of the characters in their own special ways. The viewer gets the time to get used and connect with them before the main plot kicks off which is an unusual and great idea. The further development reveals more and more about the characters and their past. Lee van Cleef is shown as he fulfils his dirty works and contracts, Eli Wallach meets his brother, a catholic friar that confronts him with old family problems and Clint Eastwood remains the tough vagabond and mysterious man without a name. The story is filled with many memorable and diversified situations, connecting a the elements of a treasure chase with a tale of revenge and scenes of the American Civil War. The movie is not just a western, it's has some slight social touches that look behind the brutal characters and gore or desperate war or prison scenes. The movie has some touches of a drama, an anti war movie, a satire of the usual westerns and an epic adventure flick. There is much to discover and analyze beyond the main plot that is a breathtaking treasure chase filled with cliffhangers.

Finally, this movie has also had an important influence on an entire genre. The Italian spaghetti western genre got finally accepted and boomed as well as the whole western genre. The movie made an incredible gross with a very low budget. Many critics regard this movie as a classic nowadays and even people which use to hate westerns happen to like this flick, especially women. That's why this movie is way more than just a western, it is an epic masterpiece for the ages and everybody that disagrees on that has a very subjective point of view because the artistic factor of this flick is very elevated and the acting memorable. Everybody that hasn't seen this movie yet should do this right now, it is one of those movies one should have seen at least once in a lifetime. Personally, I watch this flick at least once a year and I'm always looking forward to it and never get bored. I happen to invite friends that don't know this movie yet to open their minds and until now, I never got less than enthusiastic comments.

I would say that this movie is probably my favourite one of all times until now and will surely stay in my eternal top five.