A good theme song will worm its way into your brain and never leave which is a credit to the composer. Think John Williams and the bass strings for Steven Spielberg's JAWS (1975). Or Vangelis's synthesizer score for the Olympic runners in Hugh Hudson's CHARIOTS OF FIRE (1981). When I was a kid, the moment I heard composer Ennio Morricone's avant garde theme for Sergio Leone's THE GOOD, THE BAD, AND THE UGLY (1966), I became obsessed with its unique motif forever. I would hum it out loud walking to school or in the privacy of my bedroom. The combination of a man yodeling and howling like a coyote is perhaps the most recognizable movie theme in cinema history.
Although none of the films are connected except for the fact that Clint Eastwood stars in all three of them, THE GOOD, THE BAD, AND THE UGLY was the culmination of Italian director Sergio Leone's Spaghetti western trilogy affectionally known as "The Man With No Name" series (even though Eastwood's characters had a name in each film) that began with A FISTFUL OF DOLLARS (1964) followed by FOR A FEW DOLLARS MORE (1965). THE GOOD, THE BAD, AND THE UGLY is the biggest and baddest of the three films, the most epic, and the most intricately plotted including a massive Civil War battle set piece inspired by the Battle of Glorieta Pass during the New Mexican campaign between North and South in 1862.
But it's not just Morricone's iconic theme song that sets THE GOOD, THE BAD, AND THE UGLY apart from the usual western, it's Sergio Leone's reinvention of the western genre, relocating the American West to the desert-like, arid, scrubby badlands of Almeria, Spain. It's changing the John Wayne heroic character into a laconic anti-hero with young American television star Clint Eastwood (RAWHIDE). Leone took the classic western archetypes audiences were familiar with and twisted them with extreme close ups, three way Mexican standoffs, and supporting actors who were Italian and Spanish (dubbed in English) and not the familiar Ward Bond and Walter Brennan types American audiences were accustomed to.
With a screenplay by Agenore Incrocci, Furio Scarpelli, Luciano Vincenzoni, and Sergio Leone (special kudos to Mickey Knox for the English translation) based on a story by Luciano Vincenzoni and Sergio Leone and directed by Italian director Sergio Leone, THE GOOD, THE BAD, AND THE UGLY is a sprawling saga with double and triple crosses and shifting alliances set during America's Civil War in the Southwest around 1862 that begins with two bandits Blondie (Clint Eastwood) and Tuco Ramirez (Eli Wallach) running a bounty hunter scam in various dusty western towns and Angel Eyes aka Sentenza (Lee Van Cleef), a mercenary on the trail of a missing Confederate cash box with $200,000 in gold coins. After rescuing Tuco from bounty hunters, Blondie hauls Tuco into town to collect the $200 reward for Tuco's capture. As Tuco's about to be hung by the local sheriff and townspeople, Blondie shoots a bullet through the hangman's rope, providing cover fire as he and Tuco flee with the reward money. Angel Eyes tracks down the name of the alias that Jackson, one of the Confederate soldiers involved with the stolen cash box, is using from another conspirator Stevens (Antonio Casas) before killing Stevens and his oldest son. Jackson is using the alias Bill Carson. Angel Eyes returns to tell Baker (Livio Lorenzon), the third conspirator who hired him, Carson's name before killing Baker as well. Blondie and Tuco run their scam in a new town only Blondie misses cutting Tuco's rope the first time before hitting it on the second shot. Tuco's upset about Blondie's marksmanship and Tuco having to risk his neck every time. Blondie decides to cut ties with Tuco, riding off and leaving Tuco without a gun or horse in the middle of nowhere.
Angel Eyes learns from a double amputee informant he calls Half Soldier (Alfonso Veady) that Baker, Stevens, and Jackson/Carson were all part of a Confederate regiment escorting the $200,000 in gold. The regiment was supposedly ambushed by the Union. Only those three men survived. Two are now dead at the hands of Angel Eyes. Angel Eyes pays a visit to Jackson/Carson's new whore Maria (Rada Rassimov) who tells him Jackson/Carson rejoined the 3rd Calvary headed for Santa Fe. Tuco wanders out of the desert into a new town, takes some guns from a meek storekeeper (Enzo Petito), and recruits three pistoleros from his old gang hiding out in a cave to help him kill Blondie. Tuco tracks Blondie to a hotel in Santa Fe where the Confederates are fleeing the town as cannon fire echoes in the distance. Blondie kills the pistoleros outside his room. Tuco crashes through the window, gun drawn on Blondie. Tuco repays Blondie the favor, putting a noose around his neck, about to shoot the legs off the stool Blondie stands on when an artillery shell hits the room. The floor collapses. The dust settles and Tuco looks up at an empty noose. Blondie has escaped.
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| The Good |
Tuco tracks his ex-partner across the countryside and finds Blondie running the same bounty scheme with a new partner Shorty (Jose Terron). Tuco prevents Blondie from shooting Shorty's noose (so long Shorty). Tuco forces Blondie to march 70 miles through the desert (revenge for what Blondie did to Tuco) without water or shade. Tuco prepares to shoot the thirsty and dehydrated Blondie when a runaway horse drawn ambulance materializes out of the sand dunes carrying three dead Confederate soldiers and one barely alive soldier with an eye patch named Bill Carson aka Jackson (Antonio Casale). Carson begs for water. He tells Tuco about $200,000 gold stashed in Sad Hill Cemetery. Tuco needs the name of the grave. He races to fetch Carson water. When Tuco returns with his canteen, Carson lies dead beside Blondie. But Carson told Blondie the name of the grave where the gold is hidden before he died. Now, Tuco must keep Blondie alive. Each knows a key part to the location of the gold. They're partners again. Tuco takes Blondie to the Mission San Antonio under the guise of Confederate soldiers so Blondie can recuperate under the care of Tuco's estranged brother, Father Pablo Ramirez (Luigi Pistilli). Blondie recovers and they depart the mission (Tuco assuming Carson's identity with the eye patch) to find the stolen gold.
Blondie and Tuco come across an army troop riding toward them. The troop look like the Confederate army until they get closer. An officer brushes off the gray dust revealing a blue coat underneath. They're Union soldiers. Blondie and Tuco are brought to a Confederate Prison Camp where Angel Eyes happens to be serving as a sergeant. When Angel Eyes hears the name Bill Carson during prisoner roll call and Tuco responds, he has Tuco brought to his quarters. Angel Eyes has the sadistic Corporal Wallace (Mario Brega) torture the name of the graveyard out of Tuco. Angel Eyes knows Blondie won't give up the name of the tombstone under duress and proposes they team up. Wallace handcuffs himself to Tuco and they board a train so Wallace can collect a $300 bounty on Tuco. Tuco leaps off the train chained to Wallace, kills Wallace, and frees himself from his shackles. Angel Eyes brings five of his gang to keep an eye on Blondie. In a bombed-out town, Blondie and Tuco reunite and dispatch of Angel Eyes' henchmen. Angel Eyes gets away. Blondie and Tuco stumble into a massive battle between Union and Confederate forces fighting for a bridge. An alcoholic Union Captain (Aldo Giuffre) shows Blondie and Tuco around, lamenting the needless carnage and death on both sides. During a break in the fighting, Blondie and Tuco rig the bridge with dynamite and blow it up. They awake in a bunker the next morning to find the armies have left. Tuco tells Blondie the name of the cemetery. Blondie tells Tuco the name on the graves marker is Arch Stanton. They reach the cemetery only to find Angel Eyes waiting for them. It's a three way Mexican standoff for the cache of gold. Who will come out the winner?
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| The Bad |
There is so much to discuss about THE GOOD, THE BAD, AND THE UGLY but let's continue with composer Ennio Morricone's amazing score. Morricone's music was diverse, using fender guitars and trumpets as well as real sounds including whistles, whips, spurs, and gunfire. For THE GOOD, THE BAD, AND THE UGLY, Morricone gives each main character a distinctive theme, using the main motif but with a different sound for each character. Blondie is represented by a flute; Angel Eyes an ocarina or potato flute; and Tuco by human voices. Morricone repeated this in ONCE UPON A TIME IN THE WEST (1968) giving Henry Fonda, Claudia Cardinale, Charles Bronson, and Jason Robards their own leitmotif. Besides the main theme, three other outstanding tracks in THE GOOD, THE BAD, AND THE UGLY include "The Ecstasy of Gold" with vocals by soprano Edda Dell'Orso as Tuco races around the cemetery searching for Arch Stanton's grave and "The Story of a Soldier" played by a group Confederate prisoners of war outside a building where Tuco is nearly beaten to death for the name of the graveyard hiding the gold. Morricone ends the film with "The Trio" as Blondie, Angel Eyes, and Tuco form a triangle before dueling it out for the payoff.
For all its gunfights and battle scenes, THE GOOD, THE BAD, AND THE UGLY is an anti-war film. No where is this more evident than in the big Civil War battle scene toward the climax of the film. Both the Union and the Confederates take turns each day storming a bridge over a river, inflicting carnage and death on each other with neither side ever gaining control of the bridge. Not the most sympathetic soul, even Blondie sees the futility of this war. "I've never seen so many men wasted so badly." Blondie even comforts a dying soldier, providing the soldier with one of his cigars and a coat to stay warm before he dies. Besides needing to get beyond the fighting soldiers to locate the stolen gold, Blondie and Tuco blow up the bridge to stop the fighting and prevent men from both sides from dying. They save lives by destroying it, providing some "good news" to the mortally wounded Union captain driven to drink from leading his men to slaughter each day. Leone shows the dehumanization of soldiers in hospitals and prison camps and the toll of war on every day citizens, their towns blown up and deserted. Whether Leone was making an early statement about the recent Vietnam War in 1966 or looking back ruefully at how the Civil War forced American to fight and kill American, THE GOOD, THE BAD, AND THE UGLY for all its brutal, sometimes sadistic violence is not a proponent for war.
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| The Ugly |
By the time of release of THE GOOD, THE BAD, AND THE UGLY, Clint Eastwood had become an international movie star, thanks to his performances in Sergio Leone's previous two Spaghetti westerns A FISTFUL OF DOLLARS and FOR A FEW DOLLARS MORE. Yet, the real star of THE GOOD, THE BAD, AND THE UGLY is Eli Wallach's Tuco (the Ugly) who director Sergio Leone seems to have fallen in love with in this story. Tuco has more screen time and dialogue than either Blondie or Angel Eyes. We learn more about Tuco's back story than either Blondie or Angel Eyes. At first, Tuco justifies the description read by an Officer of the Law before one of his hangings. "...perjury, bigamy, deserting his wife and children, inciting prostitution, kidnapping, extortion..." Several scenes cut from the original release but reinserted for DVD and theatrical rereleases provide Tuco with more depth. He reunites with his old gang to help find and kill Blondie (which doesn't go well for the old gang). It reveals that Tuco's not a loner and an outcast. He had fellow bandits who were like brothers to him. Speaking of brother, Tuco will bring Blondie to his estranged brother Father Ramirez, a man of a the cloth, to heal Blondie. We learn from Tuco's brother that their mother and father have died, never reconciling with Tuco, the black sheep of the family. These added scenes give more nuance to Tuco and make him more likable and sympathetic.
By his third film, director Leone was fully confident in his storytelling and visual style he had developed in his first two films and it shows in THE GOOD, THE BAD, AND THE UGLY. With the help of his Director of Photography Tonino Delli Colli, shots jump from extreme wide shots to extreme close ups with the next cut. A pair of eyes or a weathered, sweaty face often fills the whole screen. The final Mexican standoff between the three gold seekers is a ballet of composition and movement. THE GOOD, THE BAD, AND THE UGLY is an odyssey, rife with obstacles. Setting out for Sad Hill Cemetery, Blondie and Tuco get caught by the Union (dressed as Confederates) and thrown into an Andersonville like Confederate prison camp. They manage to get out only to run into a major battle between the North and South blocking their journey. A dying man whispers the name of the cemetery where the stolen gold lies to Tuco but the name of the grave to Blondie. And the grave's name has a twist. No one ever has complete control over the situation which keeps everyone guessing until the end.
Clint Eastwood was 35 years old when THE GOOD, THE BAD, AND THE UGLY was released, a late bloomer like Harrison Ford (STAR WARS) when it came to becoming a major movie star. This would be Eastwood's third and last film with Leone in "the Man With No Name" trilogy (Eastwood did have a name in each film actually). Blondie is probably the best role of the three films. Although Eastwood's Blondie has the title "Good" of the three main characters, he's still an anti-hero. He's pretty brutal to his partner Tuco, leaving him high and dry in the desert after tiring of Tuco's complaints about the bounty reward scam they're running. Blondie kills plenty of bounty hunters, bandits and desperados (who deserve what they get). Yet, there is an angel-like quality to Blondie. He rescues Tuco from some nefarious bounty hunters. When Angel Eyes spots Blondie perched in a barn as Tuco's about to be hanged, he comments, "Even a filthy beggar like that has got a protecting angel. A golden haired angel watches over him." Blondie's the most sympathetic to the senseless slaughter he witnesses between the two armies fighting over a bridge. He even comforts a wounded soldier with his coat and a puff on his cigar before the soldier dies. Leone's influence on Eastwood as a director would carry over with some of Eastwood's westerns most notably HIGH PLAINS DRIFTER (1973), PALE RIDER (1985), and UNFORGIVEN (1992).
For Lee Van Cleef who plays Sentenza aka Angel Eyes, THE GOOD, THE BAD, AND THE UGLY was a high point for the actor after over a decade of supporting roles. Van Cleef was a connection to the classic Hollywood westerns Leone was both paying homage to and twisting the genre's conventions. Van Cleef made his film debut in Fred Zinnemann's HIGH NOON (1952) with Gary Cooper and Grace Kelly, played a baddie in John Sturges' GUNFIGHT AT THE O.K. CORRAL (1957) with Burt Lancaster and Kirk Douglas as well in John Ford's THE MAN WHO SHOT LIBERTY VALANCE (1962) with James Stewart and John Wayne. Van Cleef's first prominent role with Leone was as bounty hunter Col. Douglas Mortimer in FOR A FEW DOLLARS MORE. In THE GOOD, THE BAD, AND THE UGLY, Van Cleef's Angel Eyes is the definition of the "Bad." If Blondie is an angel, Angel Eyes/Sentenza is the devil with dark slits for eyes. He's evil incarnate. Angel Eyes kills both a father and his son, the man who hired him to find the gold, and he orders Tuco to be tortured for the name of the remote graveyard. Van Cleef would make a few more Spaghetti westerns in Europe in the late 60s and early 70s. My generation discovered Van Cleef in John Carpenter's sci-fi adventure ESCAPE FROM NEW YORK (1981) with Kurt Russell doing his best Clint Eastwood imitation as Snake Plissken.
Eli Wallach who plays Tuco Ramirez aka "the Ugly" of the trio was the most classically trained actor of the three leads, having attended the Actors Studio where Marlon Brando and Paul Newman studied. Like Van Cleef, Wallach was also a bridge for Leone to Hollywood's western past. Wallach played the Mexican bad guy Calvera in John Sturges' THE MAGNIFICENT SEVEN (1960) and was one of 25 big stars in HOW THE WEST WAS WON (1962) co-directed by John Ford and Henry Hathaway. Wallach has the flashiest role as Tuco in THE GOOD, THE BAD, AND THE UGLY and he takes full advantage of that opportunity. Tuco is part child; part maniac. As previously pointed out, Leone provides more back story for Tuco than either Blondie or Angel Eyes. We learn Tuco was the leader of a gang that he briefly reunites with. We discover that Tuco had parents (who have died) and a brother who's a priest who has disowned him for deserting their family. Even with all the despicable things Tuco does, he still believes in the Lord, genuflecting in times of crisis or to protect him.
Director Sergio Leone began his career in the Italian film industry as an assistant director on sword and sandal films in the 1950s before getting his big break to direct THE LAST DAYS OF POMPEII (1959) in the middle of production when the original director Mario Bonnard became ill. As renowned and revered as Sergio Leone became, he was not a prolific director. Besides "The Man With No Name" trilogy and ONCE UPON A TIME IN THE WEST, Leone only made two more films: DUCK, YOU SUCKER! (also known as A FISTFUL OF DYNAMITE) in 1971 with James Coburn and Rod Steiger and his final dream project, the gangster themed ONCE UPON A TIME IN AMERICA (1984) starring Robert DeNiro and James Woods. With THE GOOD, THE BAD, AND THE UGLY, Leone reached new heights with his stylized, brutal violence; his gorgeous wide screen compositions; his edits from a panoramic wide shot to an extreme close up; and a magnum opus of a story full of twists and turns of fate within a real historical event - the Civil War.
Some final THE GOOD, THE BAD, AND THE UGLY thoughts and trivia. Sergio Leone was famous for picking unique actors with unforgettable faces for large and small roles in his films. One of my favorite faces that Sergio Leone showcased in two of his films including THE GOOD, THE BAD, AND THE UGLY was Canadian actor Al Mulock (credited as Al Mulloch in TGBU). Mulock is the first person you see in THE GOOD, THE BAD, AND THE UGLY as the One Armed Bounty Hunter, stepping into frame in one of Leone's signature close ups. Mulock also appeared in Leone's ONCE UPON A TIME IN THE WEST as Knuckles, one of Frank's (Henry Fonda) gang waiting to kill Charles Bronson at the start of the film. Mulock tragically committed suicide right after filming his scenes, jumping to his death from his hotel in Guadix, Spain. One of the unique features of Leone's early Spaghetti westerns like THE GOOD, THE BAD, AND THE UGLY was that all the dialogue was done post synchronization, meaning the actors recorded their lines after the filming was done. Leone's films were fairly low budget and not recording the actual dialogue on set saved the production money. Except for the American stars of THE GOOD, THE BAD, AND THE UGLY like Eastwood, Van Cleef, and Wallach, the supporting actors were mostly Italian, Spanish, or German. Post synchronization allowed Leone (and English translator/screenwriter Mickey Knox) to translate some dialogue into more American vernacular for English audiences and to dub the supporting actors with American voices when they really had Italian or Spanish accents.
The Golden Age of the Western brought us John Ford's STAGECOACH (1939), Howard Hawks' RED RIVER (1948), and George Stevens SHANE (1953) among the best but the genre was beginning to wane in the 1960s with rising production costs and television churning out quicker and cheaper western stories. It would take an Italian director named Sergio Leone who watched those classic American westerns while growing up in Rome, Italy to redefine the western, his westerns affectionally given the nickname Spaghetti westerns. Taking a page from Akira Kurosawa's Japanese samurai films with characters that were loners and anti-heroes, Leone created an international movie star in Clint Eastwood and a stylized visual style that has been imitated and parodied countless times. THE GOOD, THE BAD, AND THE UGLY is the pinnacle of Leone's "The Man With No Name" trilogy, where all his themes and visual ideas blend into a sprawling, entertaining epic tale of greed and perseverance.
