The Good, the Bad and the Ugly


The Good, the Bad and the Ugly is a 1966 Italian epic spaghetti Western film directed by Sergio Leone and starring Clint Eastwood as "the Good", Lee Van Cleef as "the Bad", and Eli Wallach as "the Ugly". Its screenplay was written by Age & Scarpelli, Luciano Vincenzoni, and Leone, based on a story conceived by the latter two. Director of photography Tonino Delli Colli was responsible for the film's sweeping widescreen cinematography, and Ennio Morricone composed the film's score.
The film is known for Leone's use of long shots and close-up cinematography, as well as his distinctive use of violence, tension, and highly stylised gunfights. It was an Italian-led production with co-producers in Spain, West Germany, and the United States: most of the filming took place in Spain, notably, though not exclusively, in the Tabernas Desert in Almería; in the Arlanza River valley near Hortigüela; and at the purpose-built Sad Hill Cemetery near Santo Domingo de Silos.The plot revolves around three gunslingers competing to find a fortune in a buried cache of Confederate gold amid the violent chaos of the American Civil War—specifically the Battle of Glorieta Pass of the New Mexico campaign in 1862—while participating in several battles, confrontations, and duels along the way. The film was the third collaboration between Leone and Eastwood, and the second of those with Van Cleef.
The Good, the Bad and the Ugly was marketed in the United States as the third and final installment in the Dollars Trilogy, following A Fistful of Dollars and For a Few Dollars More. The film was an overwhelming financial success, grossing over $38 million at the worldwide box office against a $1.2 million budget, and garnered Eastwood publicity. Due to general disapproval of the spaghetti Western genre at the time, some critics dismissed the movie, but it soon underwent critical re-evaluation and is now widely regarded as one of the greatest and most influential Westerns of all time, becoming a cult film in the process.

Plot

In the American Southwest during the Civil War, a mercenary known as "Angel Eyes" interrogates a former Confederate soldier to learn the alias of a man who stole a stash of Confederate gold. The soldier, Stevens, reveals the man's alias, Bill Carson, and attempts to bribe Angel Eyes to kill his employer before drawing on him. Angel Eyes kills him and, returning to his employer, kills him as well.
Mexican bandit Tuco Ramirez, fleeing from bounty hunters, is captured by an unnamed drifter he nicknames "Blondie" who delivers him to a sheriff and collects the bounty. As Tuco is about to be hanged, Blondie severs the noose with a rifle bullet and the two escape to split the bounty. They repeat the process in another town but Blondie grows weary of Tuco's complaints, keeps the money, and strands Tuco in the desert.
Bent on revenge, Tuco reassembles his gang and tracks down Blondie. Although his gang dies in a failed ambush, Tuco captures Blondie in his hotel room and prepares to hang him. An artillery round destroys the room, allowing Blondie to escape. After a lengthy pursuit, Tuco recaptures Blondie and force-marches him through the desert until he collapses from dehydration. A runaway ambulance arrives with several dead Confederate soldiers and a barely alive Bill Carson. Near death, Carson begs Tuco for help, offering $200,000 in gold buried in Sad Hill Cemetery. When Tuco returns with water, Carson has died, having revealed the exact location of the gold to Blondie.
The two reluctantly agree to work together, unwilling to disclose their knowledge of the gold's location. They pose as Confederate soldiers at a mission while Blondie recovers and Tuco reunites with his brother, a priest, who rejects Tuco. They leave the mission and are taken prisoner by Union cavalry. Tuco gives the name Bill Carson, alerting Angel Eyes, who has infiltrated the prison camp as a Union sergeant. Tuco is tortured into revealing the cemetery's name and sent away to be hanged. Knowing torture won't work on Blondie, Angel Eyes joins forces with him. Tuco escapes from custody and tracks Angel Eyes' gang to a ghost town.
Distrusting of Angel Eyes, Blondie finds Tuco and kills the gang members, but Angel Eyes escapes. Tuco and Blondie witness a battle over a strategic bridge they need to cross, and blow it up to disperse the armies and clear their path. As they wire the bridge with explosives, Tuco suggests they exchange their secrets in case either is killed. Tuco reveals the cemetery's name, and Blondie says "Arch Stanton" is the name on the grave.
After the bridge is demolished, Tuco rushes towards Sad Hill to claim the gold for himself. Blondie catches up with him as he digs up the grave, and Angel Eyes arrives soon after. When no gold is found in the grave, Blondie admits lying about the name. He then places a stone in the middle of the cemetery's pavement, on which he says the true name is written. The three men face each other in a Mexican standoff. Angel Eyes draws first, but Blondie shoots him before he can fire. Tuco finds that his gun is empty and, as Blondie walks confidently toward him, realizes that Blondie unloaded it earlier.
Blondie reveals that the gold is in the grave next to Stanton's marked "Unknown". After Tuco digs up several large bags of gold, Blondie orders him at gunpoint into a hangman's noose. With hands bound, Tuco stands atop a rickety grave marker while Blondie takes half the gold and rides away. As Tuco screams for mercy, Blondie severs the rope with a rifle shot, dropping Tuco face-first onto the remaining gold. Tuco furiously curses Blondie, who smiles before riding over the nearby hills.

Cast

The trio

  • Clint Eastwood as 'Blondie' : The Good, a taciturn, confident bounty hunter who, to find buried gold, temporarily teams up with Tuco and Angel Eyes. 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 is buried, forcing them to work together to find the treasure. Despite 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 remarks. He also comforts a dying soldier by laying his coat over him and letting him smoke his cigar.
  • Eli Wallach as Tuco Benedicto Pacífico Juan María Ramírez : The Ugly, a fast-talking, comically oafish yet also cunning, cagey, resilient, and resourceful Mexican bandit who is wanted by the authorities for a long list of crimes.
  • Lee Van Cleef as 'Angel Eyes': The Bad, a ruthless, confident, sadistic mercenary who takes pleasure in killing and always finishes a job for which he is paid, usually tracking and assassination.

    Supporting cast

Production

Pre-production

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 the production of its sequel. Along with producers Alberto Grimaldi and Sergio Leone, Vincenzoni pitched an idea about "a film about three rogues who are looking for some treasure at the time of the American Civil War". An agreement was struck with UA for a million-dollar budget, with the studio advancing $500,000 upfront and 50% of the box-office takings outside of Italy. The total budget was eventually increased to $1.2 million.
As Leone developed Vincenzoni's idea into a script, he 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, it is useless, stupid: it does not involve a 'good cause'," saying, "I had read somewhere that 120,000 people died in Southern camps such as Andersonville. Many shots in the film were influenced by archival Civil War photographs taken by Mathew Brady and Alexander Gardner. As the film took place during the Civil War, it served as a prequel for the other two films in the trilogy, which took place after the war. The three main characters all contain autobiographical elements of Leone.
Film director Alex Cox suggested that the cemetery-buried gold hunted by the protagonists may have been inspired by rumours surrounding the anti-Communist Gladio organisation, who hid many of their 138 weapons caches in cemeteries.
The film's working title was I due magnifici straccioni. It was changed just before shooting began, when Vincenzoni thought of Il buono, il brutto, il cattivo, which Leone loved. In the United States, United Artists considered using the original Italian translation, River of Dollars, or The Man With No Name, but decided on The Good, the Bad and the Ugly.

Casting

After Leone offered Clint Eastwood a role in his next movie, traveling to California to persuade him, Eastwood agreed to make the film, playing Blondie, upon being paid $250,000 and receiving 10 per cent of the profits from the North American markets—a deal with which Leone was not happy.
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 Eli Wallach, based on his role in the "Railroads" scene of How the West Was Won. Upon meeting Leone, Wallach was sceptical about playing this type of character again, but immediately agreed after Leone screened the opening credit sequence from For a Few Dollars More. The two men got along well, sharing the same bizarre sense of humour. Leone allowed Wallach to make changes to his character in terms of his outfit and recurring gestures. Both Eastwood and Van Cleef realised that the character of Tuco was close to Leone's heart, and the director and Wallach also became good friends. They communicated in French, which Wallach spoke badly and Leone spoke well. 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."
For the role of Angel Eyes, Leone originally wanted Enrico Maria Salerno or Charles Bronson, but the latter was already committed to playing in The Dirty Dozen. Leone eventually wished to work with Lee Van Cleef again, saying, "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."