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THE GOOD, THE BAD, AND THE UGLY

THE GOOD, THE BAD, AND THE UGLY

Music Box Chicago

1966, 161min, DCP, 03/23/2024 at 5:00pm

Sergio Leone

Seen it before, 1st time on big screen

 

Waiting

Again, I wait for the third installment from Leone.

 

Thoughts on Movie

I have seen this movie a few times already but never on the big screen. I watch this film with my friend and lead actor of my own film. He’s never seen the movie before. What a way to watch The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly. I don’t know how Leone does it but he somehow goes above his last two films. This is a masterpiece. I love the choice of making it a prequel. You see how Eastwood becomes the stranger and you assume he came from Illinois or the Midwest and had a whole other life and tales and he will continue to have many more tales to come, two of which we already know are the events that happened in A Fistful of Dollars and For A Few Dollars More.

 

The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly is so god damn funny. It’s basically a comedy. The Ugly is great. The relationship The Good and The Ugly have is so compelling and makes sense. I love how The Bad is not the same character as in For A Few Dollars More. Leone doesn’t care that you saw Van Cleef already as this different character, he reuses him as The Bad and it’s great. No one cares about the continuity. It’s such a B-Movie thing that this Italian western embraces. It’s often the imperfections that make us resonate more with the film.

 

The Score

Morricone doesn’t hold back. The score is a masterpiece, no question about it. I don’t know what more to say. You can’t get any bigger than this score. It’s an album all on it’s own. The use of the whistle is something that has always stood out to me, along with the guitar. 

 

Walk Back

Thinking about the three films and talking with my friend, I think A Fistful of Dollars is actually my favorite because of that cultural shock of the opening credit sequence. Knowing it was the first and had such a big impact is something I can’t get over. I love all three but theres nothing like the first, there was a time before Leone’s A Fistful of Dollars and a time after. He changed cinema, period. 

 

I never understood or could get into Ford’s Westerns. I appreciate them but I can’t get into them. Like like Spielberg talks about. But Leone’s westerns, man, I can get into them. Ford’s Westerns have always been too slow for me but I understand them, they just don’t have that energy that Leone and Morricone were able to create with the Eastwood westerns. It’s like music from the 50s coming up agains the music of the 60s. Or music of the 60s coming up against rap. Leone is so contemporary for it’s time that Ford and Wayne can’t keep up. Classical vs Jazz. Leone is tapping into the kinetic quality of the moving image and all it has to offer.

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