The Good, The Bad and The Ugly

I love this movie, its fantastic. I might be a bit biased as I LOVE Clint Eastwood and I think it would be an awesome movie if it was just him reading the phonebook. I recommend everyone to see this movie, you won’t regret it. Yes, its nearly 3 hours long but whatever, its still good.

You’ve heard it a billion times but I just worry that people will read this and think I’m crap. I’m just really tired. And I think I’m, once again, loosing my determination for this challenge. I won’t stop but I am so close to just going ‘yeah, I watched it, done.’ My challenge isn’t to watch and review 212 films, its just to watch but I feel bad if I don’t review because… I don’t know but whatever, I do. Not that anyone reads these except my mum lol.

Awesome titles! I love these opening credits! The editing, the style, the timing, everything! This is what opening titles should be like, not boring white letters. I suppose having one of the most iconic theme songs doesn’t hurt. And, just a little fact here, the main musical instrument changes depending on who’s story the movie is telling, if it’s The Good [Eastwood] then its flute, if it’s The Bad [Lee Van Cleef] its ocarina [old flute] and if it’s The Ugly [Eli Wallach] then its human voices. Clever, right?!

I love that they introduce the main three as The Good, The Bad and The Ugly [though in reverse order]. I also love that the two cool character, Good and Bad, don’t have proper names but nicknames Blondie and Angel Eyes. Goofy guy, Ugly, is Tuco.

You have to wait 10 minutes before any speech but it’s the best opening 10 minutes of film! Its so tense and yet you know exactly what’s happening and its just brilliant.

You hear Eastwood’s voice before you see his face and yet you know exactly who it is! I loved that Angel Eyes says “Even a filthy beggar like that has got a protecting angel.” Then the camera turns to Blondie and he goes “a golden-haired angel.“ Aww! Its so cool to think of Eastwood in this as a protecting angel [although, his hair isn‘t ‘golden‘, its brown!]. You’ve got to admit that Eastwood is looooovely in this movie! I’m jealous of the fullness of his hair, he’s got gorgeous green eyes and wear the most awesome coat ever! Though I’d like it in black, not pale green.

There are two downsides to this movie, 1. The length, obviously. 2. The voices are out of sync with the actors. I know it was originally an Italian movie but it just doesn’t work when you have three main actors speaking English and the rest looking like bad ventriloquism! And even the American actors are out of sync sometimes! Turns out, the director changed the script when they went to do the voice dubbing! Eastwood hated this and refused to read the new script, thank God. But the others agreed and it just takes the film’s quality down, for me.

Tehehe, the desert/torturing-Blondie scene made me down an ice lolly and a glass of drink filled with ice! Its shot in such a fantastic way that you actually feel the heat yourself. Or maybe its because I’m in Florida and the sun is beaming down onto my room… hmmmm… Anyways, Blondie gets all sunburnt and its actually the worst Eastwood will ever look. Tuco is the one torturing him by now giving him shade or water. He cleans his feet in a bucket of water and Blondie crawls towards it. I swear to God, if he had drunk from Tuco’s feet-cleaning-water, I would of thrown up all over my keyboard. He doesn’t though, hurrah! He’s still dying from thirst but at least its not feet-water.

After Taco just got out of the bath, Blondie says “Put your drawers on, and take your gun off.” Its just the way he says it which cracked me up.

YAY! The Captain lived long enough to hear the bridge explode! He’s so happy to hear it and therefore I’m grinning ear to ear going “yaaay!!! He heard it!”

I hate civil wars. I hate wars in general. What can’t be solved with words that can be solved with killing one another?! Its ridiculous! Especially against your own people! What the hell?! So many lives were lost just because certain people didn’t want to live by the freaking law and wanted to keep slaves and all this other crap. Its just ridiculous! I think this film pretty much showed just how pointless war is.

Tuco has a girly run.

Eastwood makes ponchos look so damn cool.

At first, I thought the ‘who-will-shoot-first’ scene to be too damn long but I read that the director wanted it to look like their eye and hand movements were ‘visual ballet’ or something. After reading that, I somehow can now appreciate that scene.

I told you this review would be crap lol. The cinematography is beautiful, and I can see why so many directors [like Quentin Tarantino] say this is the greatest directed film ever. Sergio Leone may have been a pain in the arse and put his actors in danger [HELLO?! Wallach right next to a freaking train track!! If he’d lifted his head he would of be decapitated!!!!] but he knew what he was doing, visually. I did see a few scenes that made me go “they don’t need this scene” but then I think about it and every scene has a purpose and is essential to the story. Its not a waste of 2hr 59min. Very good film, so glad I’ve finally watched it!

190/212 [bloody hell!]

Kate
xoxo