9. The Good the Bad and the Ugly

In this film, there are three people engaged in a race to uncover a large amount of gold that is said to have been buried in a distant cemetery. At a very long 2h28m, this classic western’s only redeeming feature is the ending. The close of the story tied up the narrative well. The Good the Bad and the Ugly (TGBU) (1966) was directed by Serio Leone who had been involved in film from his late teens in Italy. This experience is not telling, as he should have known that the ideal length for a film is 1h30m and would have made the story more manageable.

TGBU sees a stellar performance from Clint Eastwood who had been cast as the Good and embodies that fantastically. The film also stars Lee Van Cleef as the Bad and Eli Wallach as the Ugly. Their performances were good, but Eastwood really stole the stage. Unfortunately, Eastwood’s character is an additional stain on this piece of work. Eastwood had “refused” to turn up for filming unless he was the director paid him a $250,000 fee, $2,005,540.12 in today’s money along with a new Ferrari. This suggests that he is somewhat narcissistic.

Even though Leone had endeavoured to be accurate when shooting a film set in the US Civil War, the film falls out of my favour when dynamite is famously used in a particular scene. This is before the invention of dynamite. My issue here lies in the fact that time travel is not part of the genre conventions of a western and this is a typical western.

We know this film is part of the western genre because it shows the beginnings of an early civilisation, the first use of trains and the establishment of civic institutions, such as: police and courts. In TGBU there is most notably the mysterious hero who has few or no family ties.

I enjoyed the premise of this film, but I think it has been poorly executed. The first western film I have sat through, will also be the last. The story line was not something I connected with combined with the length, just made it a tedious process and I would have lost passion for watching other films in the list if I didn’t have so much faith in the following few films.

This film I ranked a generous 42/100. A reason for the low score is the minimal script, in the first 10 minutes of the film there is no dialogue.

Judging Criteria

SCRIPTURAL INTEGRATION - 20 points: 6

STORY/SCREENPLAY - 10 points: 4

DIRECTOR - 10 points: 4

CINEMATOGRAPHY - 10 points: 5

EDITOR - 10 points: 3

PRODUCTION DESIGN - 10 points: 5

ORIGINAL MUSIC SCORE or SCORE EFFECTIVENESS (if not original) - 10 points: 5

SOUND DESIGN - 10 points:4

ACTING - 10 points: 6

TOTAL SCORE 100 POINTS. : 42