The Good, the Bad and the Ugly
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (Il buono, Il brutto, Il cattivo) |
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|---|---|
 Original American movie poster. |
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| Directed by | Sergio Leone |
| Produced by | Alberto Grimaldi |
| Written by | Story: Sergio Leone Luciano Vincenzoni Screenplay: Age & Scarpelli |
| Starring | Clint Eastwood Lee Van Cleef Eli Wallach Mario Brega Al Mulock |
| Music by | Ennio Morricone |
| Cinematography | Tonino Delli Colli |
| Editing by | Original: Eugenio Alabiso Nino Baragli Restored version: Joe D'Augustine |
| Distributed by | United Artists |
| Release date(s) |  Dec. 15, 1966 Dec. 23, 1967 |
| Running time | 177 Mins Italian Cut 161 Mins International Cut 179 Mins Director's Cut |
| Country | Italy |
| Language | Italian English |
| Budget | $1,300,000 (est.) |
| Preceded by | For a Few Dollars More |
| Allmovie profile | |
| IMDb profile | |
The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (Italian: Il buono, il brutto, il cattivo) is a 1966 Italian epic spaghetti western film directed by Sergio Leone, starring Clint Eastwood, Lee Van Cleef, and Eli Wallach in the title roles. The screenplay was written by Age & Scarpelli, Luciano Vincenzoni and Leone, based on a story by Vincenzoni and Leone. Director of photography Tonino Delli Colli was responsible for the film's sweeping widescreen cinematography and Ennio Morricone composed the famous film score. It is the third film in the Dollars trilogy following A Fistful of Dollars (1964) and For a Few Dollars More (1965). The plot centers around three gunslingers competing to find a fortune in buried Confederate gold amid the violent chaos of gunfights, hangings, Civil War battles, and prison camps.[1]
Opening on December 15, 1966 in Italy and in the USA on December 23, 1967, the film grossed $6.1 million,[1] but was criticized for its depiction of violence.[2] Leone explains that "the killings in my films are exaggerated because I wanted to make a tongue-in-cheek satire on run-of-the-mill westerns... The west was made by violent, uncomplicated men, and it is this strength and simplicity that I try to recapture in my pictures."[3] To this day, Leone's effort to reinvigorate the timeworn Western is widely acknowledged:[4] The Good, the Bad and the Ugly has been described as European cinema's best representative of the Western genre film,[5] and Quentin Tarantino has called it "the best-directed film of all time."[6]
Contents |
[edit] Plot
In a desolate ghost town, bandit Tuco narrowly escapes three bounty hunters, shooting his way to freedom. Miles away, Angel Eyes interrogates a former soldier about a missing man and a cache of Confederate gold, shooting the soldier after he identifies the missing man as Bill Carson. Angel Eyes takes this information to an infirm man who seemingly hired him to interrogate the soldier, then gleefully holds a pillow over the man's face while shooting him point blank. Meanwhile, Tuco's journey across the desert leads him into a group of bounty hunters, who prepare to capture him when they are approached by Blondie, a mysterious lone gunman who challenges the hunters to a draw, which he wins with lightning speed. Initially elated, Tuco is enraged when Blondie delivers him to the local authorities for the reward money. Hours later, as Tuco awaits his execution, Blondie surprises the authorities and frees Tuco. The two later meet and split the reward money, revealing their lucrative money-making scheme. The two repeat the process at another town before Blondie, weary of Tuco's consistent complaints and ominous warnings, abandons him in the desert. A livid Tuco rearms himself in a nearby town and tracks Blondie to another town, surprising him in his hotel room by coming in through the window while three men attack from the door. As Tuco prepares to kill Blondie by hanging him, a cannonball demolishes the room, allowing Blondie to escape, the empty noose swinging.
Following a relentless search, Tuco ambushes Blondie and marches him through the harsh desert. As Blondie collapses from dehydration, Tuco prepares to kill him when a runaway carriage approaches on the horizon. Inside, Tuco discovers a dying Bill Carson, who reveals that Confederate gold is buried in a grave in Sad Hill cemetery but falls unconscious before giving the name on the grave. When Tuco returns with water, he discovers Carson dead and Blondie slumped against the carriage. Before he passes out, Blondie reveals that he knows the name on the grave. Tuco takes Blondie, both disguised as Confederate soldiers, to a Catholic mission run by Tuco’s brother, Father Pablo Ramirez, a Franciscan friar. In deleted scenes this is revealed to be a famous mission in San Antonio, Texas (a.k.a. the Alamo). After Blondie’s recovery, the two leave, still disguised as Confederate soldiers when they inadvertently encounter a force of Union soldiers, who capture and march them to a Union prison camp.
At the camp, Corporal Wallace begins a roll call, and Tuco answers for Bill Carson, catching the attention of Angel Eyes, a Union Sergeant stationed at the camp. Angel Eyes has Wallace torture Tuco into revealing Sad Hill Cemetery, but confesses that only Blondie knows the name on the grave. Angel Eyes offers Blondie an equal partnership in recovering the gold. Blondie agrees and rides out with Angel Eyes and his posse while Tuco, being escorted by train to his execution, escapes. Blondie, Angel Eyes and his posse stop at a war-ravaged town to rest. Across town, Tuco aimlessly wanders through the wreckage, oblivious to the bounty hunter (Al Mulock) who tracks and ambushes Tuco in the middle of a bath. Despite the surprise, Tuco kills the bounty hunter. Blondie leaves to investigate the gunshot, tracking down Tuco and informing him of Angel Eyes's involvement. The two resume their old partnership, skulking through the wrecked town and killing Angel Eyes' henchmen before discovering that Angel Eyes has escaped.
Tuco and Blondie track down Sad Hill Cemetery when they discover a great battle brewing between massive Union and Confederate forces, separated only by a narrow bridge. Eager to disperse the standing armies, Blondie and Tuco disguise themselves as medics and wire the bridge with dynamite to explode. During the process, the two trade information, with Tuco revealing Sad Hill Cemetery, while Blondie saying the name on the grave is Arch Stanton. The two detonate the bridge and take cover as the two armies angrily resume their battle. The next morning, the Confederate and Union soldiers have disappeared. Tuco abandons Blondie to retrieve the gold for himself and stumbles upon the sprawling Sad Hill Cemetery. Frantically searching the sea of makeshift tombstones, Tuco finally locates Arch Stanton's grave. As he begins digging, Blondie appears to offer him a shovel. Moments later, the two are ambushed by Angel Eyes, who holds them at gunpoint. Blondie kicks open Stanton's grave to reveal only a skeleton. Declaring that only he knows the real name of the grave, Blondie writes it on a rock in the middle of the graveyard and challenges Angel Eyes and Tuco to a Mexican standoff, the winner of which will have the name and the gold.
The three stare each other down, calculating alliances and dangers before suddenly drawing. Blondie shoots Angel Eyes, rolling him into an open grave, while Tuco discovers that Blondie unloaded his gun the night before. Blondie directs Tuco to the grave marked Unknown next to Arch Stanton's. Tuco digs and is overjoyed to find bags of gold inside, but is shocked when he turns to Blondie and finds himself staring at a noose. Blondie forces Tuco atop a grave marker and wraps the noose around his neck, binding Tuco's hands before disappearing with half his share of the gold. As Tuco screams for mercy, Blondie's silhouette returns on the horizon, aiming a rifle at Tuco. As Tuco screams in rage, Blondie fires and severs the noose rope, dropping Tuco face-first onto his share of the gold. Blondie smiles as the livid Tuco screams at him, before turning and riding into the frontier.
[edit] Cast
[edit] The Trio
- Clint Eastwood as Blondie: The Good, a subdued, cocksure bounty hunter who competes with Tuco and Angel Eyes to find the buried gold in the middle of the two warring factions of the American Civil War. Blondie and Tuco have an ambivalent partnership. Tuco knows the name of the cemetery where the gold is hidden, but Blondie knows the name of the grave where it's buried, forcing them to work together to find the treasure. In spite of this greedy quest, Blondie's pity for the dying soldiers in the chaotic carnage of the War is evident. "I've never seen so many men wasted so badly," he laments. Rawhide had ended its run in 1965 and at that point none of Clint Eastwood's Italian films had been released in the United States. When Leone offered him a role in his next movie it was the only big film offer he had but the actor still needed to be convinced to do it. Leone and his wife traveled to California to persuade Eastwood. Two days later, he agreed to make the movie and would be paid $250,000 plus 10% of the profits from the North American markets – a deal that Leone was not happy with.
- Lee Van Cleef as Angel Eyes: The Bad, a ruthless, unfeeling and sociopathic mercenary named "Angel Eyes" (Sentenza in the Italian version) who kills anyone in his path. When Blondie and Tuco are captured while posing as Confederate soldiers, Angel Eyes is the Union sergeant who interrogates them and tortures Tuco, eventually learning the name of the cemetery where the gold is buried, but not the tombstone. Angel Eyes forms a fleeting partnership with Blondie, but Tuco and Blondie turn on Angel Eyes when they get their chance. Originally, Leone wanted Charles Bronson to play Angel Eyes but he had already committed to The Dirty Dozen (1967). Leone thought about working with Lee Van Cleef again: "I said to myself that Van Cleef had first played a romantic character in For a Few Dollars More. The idea of getting him to play a character who was the opposite of that began to appeal to me."[7]
- Eli Wallach as Tuco: The Ugly, Tuco Benedito Pacifico Juan Maria Ramirez, a comical, oafish, fast talking bandit who is wanted by the authorities. Tuco manages to discover the name of the cemetery where the gold is buried, but he doesn't know the name of the grave - only Blondie does. This state of affairs forces Tuco to become reluctant partners with Blondie. The director originally considered Gian Maria Volonté for the role of Tuco, but felt that the role required someone with "natural comic talent". In the end, Leone chose actor Eli Wallach based on his role in How the West Was Won (1962), in particular, his performance in "The Railroads" scene.[7] Leone met with Wallach in L.A. who was skeptical about playing this type of character again, but after Leone screened the opening credit sequence from For a Few Dollars More, Wallach said: "When do you want me?"[7] The two men got along famously, sharing the same bizarre sense of humor. Leone allowed Wallach to make changes to his character in terms of his outfit and recurring gestures. Both Eastwood and Van Cleef realized that the character of Tuco was close to Leone's heart, and director and Wallach became good friends. Van Cleef observed, "Tuco is the only one of the trio the audience gets to know all about. We meet his brother and find out where he came from and why he became a bandit. But Clint's character and mine remain mysteries."[7]
[edit] Supporting
- Aldo Giuffrè as Union Captain: A drunken Union captain who befriends Tuco and Blondie. He feels that the bloody siege his men are involved in is a futile waste, and dreams of destroying the bridge—a wish carried out by Blondie and Tuco. Mortally wounded in the Battle of Branstone Bridge, he dies just after hearing the bridge's destruction. Giuffré was an Italian comedian who had become an actor.
- Mario Brega as Cpl. Wallace. A thuggish prison guard who works for Angel Eyes and tortures Tuco to get him to reveal the hidden location of the treasure. Angel Eyes turns Tuco over to Wallace so that he can turn Tuco in for the reward money; Tuco, however, kills Wallace by pushing him out of a moving train. A butcher-turned-actor, the imposing, heavyset Brega was a mainstay in Leone's films and Spaghetti Westerns in general.
- Antonio Casale as Jackson: The dying Bill Carson, also known as Jackson. He shares the secret of the gold's location with Tuco, telling him the name of the cemetery where it can be found, but tells only Blondie the name of the gravestone where it is hidden, and then dies. Casale would later appear in Leone's A Fistful of Dynamite.
- Luigi Pistilli as Father Pablo Ramirez: Tuco's brother, a Catholic friar. He holds Tuco in contempt for his choice of life as a bandit, but ultimately loves him. Pistilli was a veteran of many Spaghetti Westerns, usually playing a villain (as in Leone's For a Few Dollars More).
- Antonio Casas as Stevens: The farmer involved in the deal with Baker and Bill Carson. He and his son are quickly killed by Angel Eyes after he divulges information about Jackson's new identity and the money scam--and paying Angel Eyes to kill the man who hired him to kill him. Casas was a well-known Spanish soccer player-turned-actor who appeared in over 170 TV shows and films through his career.
- Rada Rassimov as Maria: A prostitute beaten by Angel Eyes, she is involved with Carson.
- Al Mulock as One-armed Bounty Hunter: Wounded by Tuco in the films opening sequence, he loses his right arm. He seeks revenge, only to be killed by Tuco, leading to the line: "If you have to shoot, shoot! Don't talk." Mulock was a Canadian actor who later appeared in Once Upon a Time in the West as one of the three gunmen in the film's opening. He committed suicide on the set of the latter film.
[edit] Background
- Claudio Scarchilli as Bounty Hunter in Ghost Town
- Frank Brana as Bounty Hunter in Ghost Town
- Sergio Mendizábal as Blonde Bounty Hunter. One of the three bounty hunters killed by Blondie during an attempted arrest of Tuco.
- John Bartha as Sheriff: Captures Tuco.
- Sandro Scarchilli as Deputy:
- Antonio Molino Rojo as Captain Harper: The good captain at the Union concentration camp whose leg is slowly deteriorating by gangrene. Harper warns Angel Eyes not to be dishonest on his watch, but Angel Eyes holds him in contempt and deliberately ignores his orders. Rojo usually played henchmen in Leone's films and other Spaghetti Westerns, but here played a more sympathetic character.
- Benito Stefanelli as Angel Eyes Gang Member: Henchman. Killed by Blondie. Leone's stunt coordinator who frequently had bit parts in Spaghettis.
- Aldo Sambrell as Angel Eyes Gang Member: Henchman. Killed by Tuco. Sambrell was a Spanish actor whose initially small parts in Spaghetti Westerns made him somewhat famous in his home country.
- Lorenzo Robledo as Angel Eyes Gang Member. Henchman. Sent to follow Blondie when he leaves Angel Eyes' hideout, after Tuco kills the bounty hunter. Blondie discovers him and shoots him in the stomach.
- Enzo Petito as General store owner: The guileless store keeper robbed by Tuco.
- Livio Lorenzon as Baker: The Confederate soldier involved in the money scheme with Stevens and Carson, he sends Angel Eyes to kill Stevens and extract information from him. However, Baker himself is killed by Angel Eyes, who was paid by Stevens before his death to kill Baker.
- Angelo Novi as Monk: Head of the San Antonio Mission. Novi was one of the film's still photographers.
- Chelo Alonso as Stevens' Wife. An Italian star of the peplum films in the '50s and early '60s, she had worked with Leone on several of his films as an assistant director.
[edit] Development
After the success of For a Few Dollars More, executives at United Artists approached the film’s screenwriter Luciano Vincenzoni to sign a contract for the rights to the film and for the next one. He, producer Alberto Grimaldi and Sergio Leone had no plans but with their blessing Vincenzoni pitched an idea about “a film about three rogues who are looking for some treasure at the time of the American Civil War.”[7] The studio agreed but wanted to know the cost for this next film. At the same time, Grimaldi was trying to broker his own deal but Vincenzoni’s deal was more lucrative. The two men struck an agreement with UA for a million dollar budget with the studio advancing $500,000 up front and 50% of the box office takings outside of Italy. The total budget would end up being $1.3 million.
Leone built upon the screenwriter’s original concept to “show the absurdity of war...the Civil War which the characters encounter, in my frame of reference, is useless, stupid: it does not involve a 'good cause.'"[7] An avid history buff, Leone said, “I had read somewhere that 120,000 people died in Southern camps such as Andersonville. And I was not ignorant of the fact that there were camps in the North. You always get to hear about the shameful behaviour of the losers, never the winners.”[7] The Betterville Camp where Blondie and Tuco are imprisoned was based on steel engravings of Andersonville. Many shots in the film were influenced by archival photographs taken by Mathew Brady.
While Leone developed Vincenzoni’s idea into a script, the screenwriter recommended the comedy-writing team of Agenore Incrucci and Furio Scarpelli to work on it with Leone and Sergio Donati. According to Leone, "I couldn’t use a single thing they’d written. It was the grossest deception of my life."[7] Donati agreed, saying, "There was next to nothing of them in the final script. They wrote only the first part. Just one line."[7] Vincenzoni claims that he wrote the screenplay in 11 days, but he soon left the project after his relationship with Leone became strained. The three main characters all contain autobiographical elements of Leone. In an interview he said, "[Sentenza] has no spirit, he's a professional in the most banal sense of the term. Like a robot. This isn't the case with the other two. On the methodical and careful side of my character, I’d be nearer Blondie: but my most profound sympathy always goes towards the Tuco side...He can be touching with all that tenderness and all that wounded humanity.”[7]
The film’s working title was The Two Magnificent Tramps and was changed just before shooting began when Vincenzoni thought up The Good, The Bad & The Ugly which Leone loved. The Italian title, Il Buono, il brutto, il cattivo, translates to The Good, The Ugly, The Bad.
[edit] Production
The Franco regime approved production and provided the Spanish army for technical assistance; the film's cast includes 1,500 local militia members as extras.[citation needed] Eastwood remembers, "They would care if you were doing a story about Spaniards and about Spain. Then they’d scrutinize you very tough, but the fact that you're doing a western that’s supposed to be laid in southwest America or Mexico, they couldn’t care less what your story or subject is."[7]
Wallach was almost poisoned during filming when he accidentally drank from a bottle of acid that a film technician had set next to his soda bottle. Wallach mentioned this in his autobiography[8] and complained that while Leone was a brilliant director, he was very lax about ensuring the safety of his actors during dangerous scenes.[7] Wallach was endangered in another scene, where he was to be hanged after a pistol was shot and the horse underneath him was to run away in fright. While the rope around Wallach's neck was severed, the horse was frightened a little too well. The horse rode off for about a mile with Wallach still on top of the horse and his hands bound behind his back.[7] The third time Wallach's life was threatened was during the scene where he and Mario Brega jump out of a moving train. The jumping part was fine, but Wallach's life was endangered when his character attempts to sever the chain binding him to the (now dead) henchman. Tuco places the body on the railroad tracks, making the train roll over the chain to sever it. Wallach and presumably, the entire film crew were not aware of the heavy iron steps that jutted one foot out of every box car. If Wallach had stood up from his prone position at the wrong time, one of the jutting steps could have decapitated him.[7]
The bridge in the film was reconstructed twice by sappers of the Spanish army after being rigged for on-camera explosive demolition. The first time, an Italian camera operator signaled that he was ready to shoot, which was misconstrued by an army captain as the similar sounding Spanish word meaning "start". Luckily, nobody was injured in the erroneous mistiming. As a result, the army rebuilt the bridge while other shots were filmed. As the bridge was not a prop but a rather heavy and sturdy design, powerful explosives were required to destroy it.[7] Leone has said that this scene was, in part, inspired by Buster Keaton’s silent film, The General.
An international cast was employed, and actors performed in their native languages. Eastwood, Van Cleef and Wallach spoke in English, and were dubbed in Italian for the debut release in Rome. For the American version, the lead acting voices were used, but cast members were dubbed into English. The result is noticeable in the synchronization of voices to lip movements on screen; none of the dialogue is completely in sync because Leone rarely shot his scenes with synched sound. Various reasons have been cited for this: Leone often liked to play Morricone's music over a scene (and possibly shout things at them as well) to get the actors in the mood; Leone cared more for visuals than dialogue (his English was limited, at best); and given the technical limitations of the time, it would have been difficult to record the sound cleanly in most of the extremely wide shots Leone frequently used. Whatever the actual reason, all dialogue in the film was recorded in post-production. The relationship between Eastwood and Leone had remained strained from their previous collaboration and it only worsened during the dubbing sessions for the U.S. version because the actor was presented with a different script than the one they had shot with. He refused to read from this new script, insisting on using the shooting one instead.
Leone was unable to find an actual cemetery for the Sad Hill shootout scene, so the Spanish pyrotechnics chief hired 250 Spanish soldiers to build the cemetery in Carazo near Salas de los Infantes, which they completed in two days.[9]
[edit] Release
The Good, the Bad and the Ugly was not released in the U.S. until January of 1968.[10] The original, Italian version was 2 hours, 57 minutes long, but the U.S. version was 2 hours, 41 minutes, cut 16 minutes shorter. Since the scenes were deleted before the entire film was dubbed to English, that quarter-hour's-worth of story footage rarely was shown in U.S. cinemas, nevertheless, MGM's 1998 U.S. DVD release includes them, in the original Italian, sans English subtitles.
Given that the Italian Il buono, Il brutto, Il cattivo literally translates to the English: The Good, the Ugly, the Bad, reversing the last two adjectives, advertisements for the original Italian release show Tuco before Angel Eyes, and, when translated to English, erroneously label Angel Eyes as "The Ugly" and Tuco as "The Bad".
The film was banned in Norway, and did not have its premiere in Norway until 15 years later, on October 8, 1982.[citation needed]
| International release dates | |
|---|---|
| Country | Date |
| Italy |
December 15, 1966 |
| United States |
December 23, 1967 |
 Germany |
December 29, 1967 |
 Japan |
December 30, 1967 |
 Finland |
February 2, 1968 |
 France |
March 8, 1968 |
 Denmark |
April 8, 1968 |
 Sweden |
April 10, 1968 |
 China |
June 13, 1968 |
 United Kingdom |
August 22, 1968 |
 Pakistan |
July 21, 1974 |
 Philippines |
August 7, 1977 |
 Norway |
October 8, 1982 |
[edit] Reception
Critical opinion of the film on initial release was mixed as many reviewers at that time looked down on spaghetti westerns. Roger Ebert, who later included the film in his list of Great Movies,[11] retrospectively noted that in his original review he had "described a four-star movie but only gave it three stars, perhaps because it was a 'spaghetti western' and so could not be art".[12] Ebert also points out Leone's unique perspective that enables the audience to be closer to the character as we see what he sees:
| “ | Sergio Leone established a rule that he follows throughout The Good, the Bad and the Ugly. The rule is that the ability to see is limited by the sides of the frame. At important moments in the film, what the camera cannot see, the characters cannot see, and that gives Leone the freedom to surprise us with entrances that cannot be explained by the practical geography of his shots. There is a moment, for example, when men do not notice a vast encampment of the Union Army until they stumble upon it. And a moment in a cemetery when a man materializes out of thin air even though he should have been visible for a mile. And the way men walk down a street in full view and nobody is able to shoot them, maybe because they are not in the same frame with them.[12] | ” |
Today, the film is regarded by many critics as a classic. It remains one of the most popular and well known westerns and is considered to be one of the greatest of its genre. It was part of Time's "100 Greatest movies of the last century" as selected by critics Richard Corliss and Richard Schickel.[4] In addition, it is one of the few films which enjoy a 100% certified fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes.[13] It is currently rated 4th in the Internet Movie Database top 250.[14]
In a 2002 Sight & Sound magazine poll, Quentin Tarantino voted The Good, the Bad and the Ugly as his choice for the best film ever made.[15]
Empire magazine added The Good, the Bad and the Ugly to their Masterpiece collection in the September 2007 issue.
[edit] Music
The Good, The Bad And The Ugly main theme
The score is composed by frequent Leone collaborator Ennio Morricone, whose distinctive original compositions, containing gunfire, whistling (by John O'Neill), and yodeling permeate the film. The main theme, resembling the howling of a coyote, is a two-note melody that is a frequent motif, and is used for the three main characters, with a different instrument used for each one: flute for Blondie, ocarina for Angel Eyes and human voices for Tuco.[16][17][18][19] The score complements the film's American Civil War setting, containing the mournful ballad, "The Story of a Soldier", which is sung by prisoners as Tuco is being tortured by Angel Eyes.[1] The film's famous climax, a three-way Mexican standoff, begins with the melody of "The Ecstasy of Gold" and is followed by "The Triple Duel".
The main theme was a hit in 1968, alongside the Rolling Stones song, "Jumpin' Jack Flash".[1] The soundtrack album was on the charts for more than a year,[19] reaching No. 4 on the Billboard pop album chart and No. 10 on the black album chart.[20] The main theme was also a hit for Hugo Montenegro, whose rendition was a No. 2 Billboard pop single in 1968.[21] In popular culture, the American New Wave group Wall of Voodoo performed a medley of Ennio Morricone's movie themes, including the theme for this movie. The only known recording of it is a live performance on The Index Masters. Punk rock band Ramones played this song as the opening for their live album Loco Live. American thrash metal band Metallica has run "The Ecstasy of Gold" as prelude music at their concerts since 1985 (except between 1996-1998), and recently recorded a version of the instrumental for a compilation tribute to Morricone.[citation needed]
[edit] DVD
The film was first released on DVD by MGM in 1998. The special features contain 18 minutes of scenes which were cut for the film's North American release, including a scene which explains how Angel Eyes came to be waiting for Blondie and Tuco at the Union prison camp. Because they were cut, the scenes had not been dubbed in English and were only available in the original Italian dub on the DVD release.
In 2002, the film was restored with the 18 minutes of scenes cut for U.S. release edited back into the film. Clint Eastwood and Eli Wallach were brought back in to dub their characters' lines more than 35 years after the film's original release. Voice actor Simon Prescott substituted for Lee Van Cleef who died in 1989. Other voice actors filled in to dub for other actors who had since passed away. In 2004, MGM released this version in a two-disc special edition DVD.
Disc 1 contains an audio commentary with writer and critic Richard Schickel. Disc 2 contains two documentaries, "Leone's West" and "The Man Who Lost The Civil War", followed by the featurette, "Restoring 'The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly'"; an animated gallery of missing sequences entitled, "The Socorro Sequence: A Reconstruction"; an extended Tuco torture scene; a featurette called "Il Maestro"; an audio featurette named, "Il Maestro, Part 2"; a French trailer; and a poster gallery.[22]
This DVD was generally well received, though some purists complained about the re-mixed stereo soundtrack with many completely new sound effects (notably, all the gunshots were replaced), with no option for the original soundtrack. At least one scene which was edited back in had been cut by Leone prior to the film's release in Italy, but had shown once at the Italian premiere. It is generally believed that Leone willingly cut the scene for pacing reasons and, thus, restoring it was contrary to the director's wishes. The 1998 DVD with the original US cut with the original mono soundtrack is still available in stores, although the transfer is vastly inferior to that on the restored DVD. (However, unlike the original DVD releases of the other two "Dollars" films, the transfer is anamorphically enhanced for 16:9 televisions.)
In 2007 MGM re-released the 2004 DVD edition in their "Sergio Leone Anthology" box set. Also included were the two other "Dollars" films, and A Fistful of Dynamite.
[edit] Deleted scenes
The following scenes were originally deleted from the theatrical version of the film but reinserted following the release of the 2004 Special Edition DVD.[22]
- After being betrayed by Blondie, surviving the desert on his way to civilization and assembling a revolver from makeshift parts, Tuco meets with members of his gang in a distant cave, where he conspires with them to hunt and kill Blondie.
- During his search for Bill Carson, Angel Eyes stumbles upon an embattled Confederate outpost after a massive artillery bombardment. Once there, after witnessing the wretched conditions of the survivors, he bribes a Confederate NCO for clues about Bill Carson.
- Angel Eyes appears at a Union camp, where his affiliation with the Union Army and his rank is explained.
- A scene where Blondie and Angel Eyes are resting by a creek. A man appears and Blondie shoots him. Angel Eyes asks the rest of his men to come out (all are hidden as well). When the five men come out, Blondie counts them (including Angel Eyes), and concludes that six is the perfect number. Angel Eyes asks him why, mentioning that he'd heard that three was the perfect number. Blondie responds that six is the perfect number, because he has six bullets.
[edit] Cultural References
- In the 1970 war film Kelly's Heroes, a nod to Eastwood's spaghetti westerns pops up during his standoff with the Tiger tank when the soundtrack uses a small bit of music reminiscent of Morricone's work.
- A song from the band Gorillaz is named "Clint Eastwood", and features references to the actor. The iconic yell featured in The Good, the Bad and the Ugly's score can be heard at the beginning of the video.
- A song from Big Audio Dynamite named "Medicine Show" features many sound-bites from the film.
- The song "You Know What You Are" from the 1988 album The Land of Rape and Honey by industrial metal group Ministry repeats the song title (a portion of Tuco's final epithet at Blondie) as a background sample.
- During the opening shot of the 2006 film Crank, starring Jason Statham, the special edition DVD of The Good, the Bad and the Ugly can be glimpsed on a table.
- The South Korean western movie The Good, the Bad, and the Weird (2008) is actually inspired by The Good, the Bad and the Ugly.
[edit] See also
- A Fistful of Dollars
- For a Few Dollars More
- Man with No Name
- Spaghetti Western
- Films that have been considered the greatest ever
[edit] References
- ^ a b c d Yezbick, Daniel (2002). "The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly". St. James Encyclopedia of Popular Culture. Gale Group. Retrieved on 2006-05-23.
- ^ Fritz, Ben. "The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly", Variety, 2004-06-14.
- ^ "Sergio Leone". Newsmakers. (2004). Gale.
- ^ a b Schickel, Richard (2005). The Good, The Bad and The Ugly. All-Time 100 Movies. Time Magazine. Retrieved on 2007-05-16.
- ^ "Sergio Leone". Contemporary Authors Online. (2007). Gale. Retrieved on 2007-05-15.
- ^ Turner, Rob. "The Good, The Bad, And the Ugly", Entertainment Weekly, 2004-06-14.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o Frayling, Christopher (2000). Sergio Leone: Something To Do With Death. Faber & Faber. ISBN 0571164382.
- ^ Wallach, Eli (2005). The Good, the Bad and Me: In My Anecdotage, p. 255
- ^ The Daily Mail (May 6, 2005). "On the Graveyard Shift".
- ^ Il Brutto Il Buono Il Cattivo. Retrieved on 2008-01-15.
- ^ Ebert, Roger (2006). The Great Movies II. Broadway. ISBN 0767919866.
- ^ a b Ebert, Roger (2003-08-03). The Good, the Bad and the ugly. Great Movies. rogerebert.com. Retrieved on 2007-05-15.
- ^ Rotten Tomatoes. The Good, the Bad and the Ugly. Reviews - Critics. IGN Entertainment. Retrieved on 2007-05-14.
- ^ Internet Movie Database. IMDb Top 250. Reviews - Critics. Retrieved on 2008-01-11.
- ^ Sight & Sound (2002). How the directors and critics voted. Top Ten Poll 2002. British Film Institute. Retrieved on 2007-05-14.
- ^ Torikian, Messrob. The Good, the Bad and the Ugly. SoundtrackNet. Retrieved on 2007-05-26.
- ^ Mansell, John. The Good, the Bad and the Ugly. Music from the Movies. Retrieved on 2007-05-26.
- ^ McDonald, Steven. The Good, the Bad and the Ugly > Overview. All Music Guide. Retrieved on 2007-05-26.
- ^ a b Edwards, Mark. The good, the brave and the brilliant. The Times. Retrieved on 2007-05-26.
- ^ The Good, the Bad and the Ugly charts and awards. All Music Guide. Retrieved on 2007-05-26.
- ^ Hugo Montenegro > Charts & Awards. All Music Guide. Retrieved on 2007-05-26.
- ^ a b The Good, the Bad & the Ugly (2-Disc Collector's Edition) [DVD]. Los Angeles, California: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer.
[edit] External links
- Il buono, il brutto, il cattivo at the Internet Movie Database
- The Good, the Bad and the Ugly at Allmovie
- The Good, the Bad and the Ugly at Rotten Tomatoes
- The Good, the Bad and the Ugly at Metacritic
- The Good, the Bad and the Ugly at the Movie Review Query Engine
- The Good, the Bad and the Ugly at SoundtrackNet
- The Good, the Bad and the Ugly at The Spaghetti Western Database
- Fistful-of-Leone.com
- Clint Eastwood.net
- The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly Book
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