The Good, the Bad and the Ugly

It really doesn't get any more iconic than 1966's THE GOOD, THE BAD AND THE UGLY.    Quibbles about the lack of an Oxford comma in the title might lead one to believe that the "bad" and the "ugly" (represented by characters in the movie) are meant to be lumped together in some fashion.  Probe the film a bit, and you could certainly make that argument.  Or refute it.  This is why you use Oxford commas, for Pete's sake.  But no grammar rants today, invisible audience.

The "good" is also a character.  He's known only as Blondie, and played by Clint Eastwood in one of his most famous roles.  It was his third collaboration with co-writer/director Sergio Leone, in their third and final entry (but a prequel) in a spaghetti Western trilogy that began with A FISTFUL OF DOLLARS.  Clint's fame was cemented by now.  His patented squints would become cinema lore.  Is he a "good" guy?  He's just in it for the money, just as the "bad", a killer for hire nicknamed Angel Eyes (Lee Van Cleef), and the "ugly", a pathetic, manipulative bandito named Tuco (Eliu Wallach) are.  Two hundred grand in gold coins, to be exact.  Which is learned to have been buried in a grave in Sad Hill cemetery.  Too bad the Civil War is raging, causing numerous delays and complications.

Are these characters allies? Hardly, though for a time Blondie and Tuco team up with a scam involving the collection of sheriff's bounties.  Right before the floor drops out under Tuco as the noose tightens, Blondie fires at shot at the rope and scares everyone away.  You might wonder why some lawmen might not try to get a fix on where that bullet originated, and form a posse, but never mind. The duo have a good scheme going, but Tuco's greed and generally annoying nature pisses off Blondie more than once, leading to a few separations.  Meanwhile, Bright Eyes collects his own bounties as he tries to learn the identity of the Confederate soldier who buried the loot.   He will also somehow disguise himself as a Union sergeant at a POW camp, where Blondie and Tuco will end up when they are taken for Rebels.

The Civil War makes a potent and workable backdrop for this tale, providing telling vignettes.  The most memorable involves a boozy union captain named Clinton (Aldo Giuffre) who dreams of destroying an important bridge.  Opportunities to make statements on the brutality and pointlessness of war are never missed.

Leone alternately frames the film in long shot and close up, achieving grandeur in just about every frame.  This truly is larger than life filmmaking.  A visual palate of locations (mostly in Spain) upon which the events play out as if moving artistic photographs.  I especially like Leone's choices during the final standoff among the three principals.  And Ennio Morricone's legendary, often dissonant score makes everything that much more urgent.

THE GOOD, THE BAD AND THE UGLY is just about faultless as these sort of movies go.  As a meditation on human flaw and men's hearts and minds, it's just as extraordinary as it is a moody, evocative epic.  And it never takes itself so seriously as to pretend it is anything more than a pulpy comic strip.