The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly: A Primer

“The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly” was critically panned when released in the mid-60s as mindless, violent, and unbearable. Today, it is widely considered a classic.

It is the third installment of Sergio Leone’s western trilogy featuring
Clint Eastwood’s character The Man with No Name. The first of the series, “A Fistful of Dollars,” was a remake of Akiro Kurisawa’s “Yojimbo.” Leone was perhaps inspired by the popular Steve McQueen/Yul Brynner vehicle called “The Magnificent Seven” (1961), itself an earlier remake of Kurisawa’s “The Seven Samurai”.

Eastwood, Van Cleef, and Wallach

The Good is Clint Eastwood, The Man with No Name, who is called Blondie. He heralded the coming of the cinematic anti-hero in Westerns. While seemingly little more “good” than anyone else — he’s quick to shoot anyone who gets in his way, for instance — Eastwood’s character has his own relative morality. He shows moments of sympathy and mercy. His pronunciation over a bloody Civil War battlefield : “I’ve never seen such waste.” Though driven by mere profit, his judgment prevails over those who fight and kill for some higher purpose.

The Bad is the charismatic Lee Van Cleef, who played both hero and villain in previous Leone films. He is the ironically named Angel Eyes. Devious, driven, and cold, he tortures without remorse. The ultimate amoral businessman, he actually gets himself hired by each of two men to kill the other. He completes both jobs, shooting the second man after collecting the money for killing the first.

The Ugly is Eli Wallach, who played the bandito chief back in “The Magnificent Seven.” His character, Tuco, is flustered, competent, and comic. Wallach is one of the most unappreciated American actors. His eyes alone reveal countless moods and notions, and he brings all of his power to his portrayal of Tuco, the only one of the three title characters into whom the viewer is allowed any insight.

The Moral Imperative

There is none. While “The Magnificent Seven” was about 7 noble warriors coming to the aid of oppressed villagers, “The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly” is about 3 fortune hunters doggedly seeking a cache of gold. Determination and greed, abetted by luck, drive the seekers on their circuitous journey. Leone skewers the American Western, with its righteous, holier-than-thou pantheon of heroes who always do the right thing for the right reason. He questions the movie-fueled mythos of the American west and the cowboy; heroism is replaced by expedience, nobility by avarice.

Here, the protagonists are at each other’s throats from the outset. Angel Eyes tortures Tuco; Blondie leaves Tuco in the desert to die; Tuco returns the favor later. The Civil War is the backdrop for all the action, reduced to the absurd metaphor of two sides fighting to the death to defend a pointless bridge. The bridge is is quickly dispatched by Blondie and Tuco, who find it a nuisance on their mercantile quest.

Leone’s Oddities and Idiosyncrasies

The film is full of odd juxtapositions and Leone’s personal narrative techniques. For example:

*Blondie — Clint Eastwood — obviously isn’t blond. Nonetheless, he is continually referred to as blond-haired, and even called “that blond” (The original Italian script called for a blond, so…). By the way, Leone’s first choice for the role was Charles Bronson.
*Leone uses a sort of film-frame reality for his characters; if the viewers can’t see something, the characters can’t either. At one point, on a deserted dirt road, Tuco says “What nice country, Blondie. So quiet.” At which point the two are surrounded by the protruding guns of a dozen Union troops (who obviously would have been visible to the characters).
*In the same scene, the two are led a few steps through some bushes onto a full-scale battle panorama. (“So quiet” indeed!). Leone uses the technique like the scene change in theatre.
*A little later, Tuco turns to find the cemetery they’ve been seeking, which happens to be so vast that it would have been visible for miles.
Later in the same scene, Angel Eyes bursts into the frame, surprising Blondie and Tuco, even though they are standing in open country
*In a moment of kindness, Blondie uses his duster to cover a dying soldier. Conveniently folded next to the soldier is a brown poncho, which happens to be the signature garb of The Man with No Name, just in time for him to wear it in the final showdown.

The Remastered Print and Soundtrack of /The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly

Director Quentin Tarantino once called “The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly” the “greatest movie ever made.” But over the years the original print faded. The soundtrack (other than the music) wasn’t all that great anyway, having been completely dubbed, noises and all — as per most Italian films — in post-production. A staple on TV, most viewers saw the film mutilated by non-letterbox presentation and hacked mercilessly and illogically to fit time constraints.

Fortunately, in the early 2000s the film was remastered and made available on DVD. Recently, a Blu-ray version was released. The refurbished version with remastered soundtrack should be in the library of every film buff. The cinematography is superb. Indoor shots as well as grand vistas are stunning in their composition and detail. The remastered soundtrack is vibrant and crystal clear — the sound effects as well as the famous music. When viewed uncut beginning to end, the film’s continuity becomes apparent and Leone’s foreshadowing and other narrative devices are much more effective than in the familiar TV version. Ultimately, it is amazing just how funny and ironic the movie is. It runs just under three hours.

Van Cleef is the personification of “bad” as Angel Eyes. Eli Wallach is a pure comic genius in his depiction of Tuco (which evidently endeared him to Leone: the two became fast friends). And finally, with the nuance and humor that Eastwood brings to the role of The Man with No Name, it’s hard to understand that way back then — before “Dirty Harry,” “Play Misty for Me,” “Unforgiven,” and “Gran Torino,” before the acclaim of the public and the academy — he was considered merely “that guy in the spaghetti westerns.”


Sources and Further Reading

* “Eastwood, Ho!” A Comprehensive Review of Clint Eastwood’s Works in EW.com
* The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly
in Wikipedia. An excellent and exhaustive entry.

A version of this article was originally published on Suite101.com, where the author was a Topic Editor.

11/14/17