Max’s Drive-In Movie – The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly

The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly

I love Spaghetti Westerns and this is one of the very best. Let’s see…great writing, great acting, and great music. The Good (Clint Eastwood – Blondie), The Bad (Lee Van Cleef -Angel Eyes or Sentenza), and The Ugly (Eli Wallach – Tuco) is a classic movie with a great film score by Ennio Morricone.

While I was re-watching the movie my son Bailey came in and asked me…so you are watching the best movie ever again? Where do I begin with this movie? I like the story and the atmosphere draws me in for repeat viewings. In 1964 Sergio Leone started his trilogy of westerns starring Clint Eastwood. It’s sometimes called the Dollars Trilogy. A Fistful of Dollars (1964), For A Few More Dollars More (1965), and finally this one…The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly (1966).

This is not your typical John Wayne-style Hollywood western…although I love a lot of his movies. Funny, in the early 2000’s I never thought much about Westerns or really liked them…but this one changed my mind about the entire genre…it’s that good.

This film has an epic scope and therefore covers a lot of ground. There is not a dull spot in this film. From the beginning, we are guessing and it all leads up to one of the very best suspenseful endings ever filmed. As much of an Eastwood fan as I am…Eli Wallach grabbed my attention before anyone did. His character is such a wild card. I can’t say enough about his acting in this. He IS Tuco. All three leads were fantastic.

What exactly is a Spaghetti Western? I was asked this before when I would talk about them to different people about Westerns. I think the biggest difference between a regular Western and these would be the realism and the grittiness of the Spaghetti Western. Also with regular Westerns, you have good vs evil…Spaghetti Westerns often feature the in-between anti-heroes, huge stark landscapes, and a more cynical tone. But that is just my opinion.

These films were primarily made in Italy (hence the term “Spaghetti”) during the 1960s and 1970s. They were often directed by Italian filmmakers like Sergio Leone and featured international casts, including American actors.

There is one more thing I would like to say about the movie. On top of everything else…the cinematography is some of the best I’ve ever seen. You also have Eastwood in probably his most iconic role. Out of all of the movies I’ve featured…I have probably watched this one the most.

My favorite scene was the last bit between Blondie and Tuco.

The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly Header eyes

Plot from IMDB

During the American Civil War, three men set off to find $200,000.00 in buried gold coins. Tuco and Blondie have known each other for some time now, having used the reward on Tuco’s head as a way of earning money. They come across a dying man, Bill Carson, who tells them of a treasure in gold coins. By chance, he reveals the name of the cemetery and the name of the grave where the gold is buried. Now rivals, the two men have good reason to keep each other alive. The third man, Angel Eyes, hears of the gold stash from someone he’s been hired to kill. All he knows is to look for someone named Bill Carson. The three ultimately meet in a showdown that takes place amid a major battle between Confederate and Union forces.

Quotes:

  • Blondie: You see, in this world there’s two kinds of people, my friend: Those with loaded guns and those who dig. You dig.

______

  • [Tuco is in a bubble bath. The One Armed Man enters the room]
  • One Armed Man: I’ve been looking for you for 8 months. Whenever I should have had a gun in my right hand, I thought of you. Now I find you in exactly the position that suits me. I had lots of time to learn to shoot with my left.
  • [Tuco kills him with the gun he has hidden in the foam]
  • Tuco: When you have to shoot, shoot. Don’t talk.

______

  • Tuco: I’m very happy you are working with me! And we’re together again.
  • [pause]
  • Tuco: I get dressed, I kill him and be right back.
  • Blondie: Listen, I forgot to mention… He’s not alone. There’s five of ’em.
  • Tuco: Five?
  • Blondie: Yeah, five of ’em.
  • Tuco: So, that’s why you came to Tuco.
  • [pause]
  • Tuco: It doesn’t matter, I’ll kill them all

..,

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Author: Badfinger (Max)

Power Pop fan, Baseball, Beatles, Alternative music, old movies, and tv show fan. Also anything to do with pop culture in the 60s and 70s... I'm also a songwriter, bass and guitar player. Not the slightest bit interested in politics at all.

46 thoughts on “Max’s Drive-In Movie – The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly”

  4. Iconic title at least. I learned something from this- I knew ‘Spaghetti Westerns’ were typically Italian but I thought they were bad, kind of like spoofs or so terrible they were funny, not realistic starring well-known names.

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    1. I didn’t know the difference either for the longest…no they are some of the best. When I first watched this movie…I watched an Eastwood western flick in the 70s made in Hollywood…although entertaining…it wasn’t anything like this.

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  5. Fantastic movie- with Ennio’s sublime music its like a Western Opera. A simply iconic cast and an incredible visually-gifted director, its no wonder this film is as good as it gets and has never been equalled (except maybe for Once Upon a Time in the West- I love both films dearly and can never decide which is best).

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    1. Well thank you because I’ve never seen Once Upon a Time in the West….NOW I will! Thanks so much. I love Bronson and Fonda…so I will see it before the week is up.

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    2. My older brother somehow, ahem, ‘acquired’ an AO sized poster of ‘OUATITW from a local cinema and had that bloody great thing pinned to his wall for a few years- what would it be worth nowadays?

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  6. One of my favourites as well, along with the other two in the trilogy! And the music by Ennio Morricone is fantastic too! I love that Metallica uses ‘The Ecstasy Of Gold’ as their concert intro. My husband and I (he’s Italian and doesn’t object to the term ‘Spaghetti Western’ 😆) have them all on DVD. Another one we enjoy (not from Sergio Leone, but it has a Morricone score) is ‘Two Mules For Sister Sara’. Eastwood and Shirley MacLaine make a great team.

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    1. I thought about doing the entire triology in one…yea I love all of them. I like the ambiguity of the Eastwood character in all of those.
      LOL I’m glad he doesn’t object!
      I’ll look that movie up! That is the second one today and I’ll give it a go…Thank you Debbie.

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  9. One of the best roles Clint had, and you can’t beat the other two either. Good review of it. Eli did stand out with his devil-may-care attitude out of the 3 gunslingers. You can’t beat that theme song either. This movie sets the standard for spaghetti westerns.

    In 1971, Enzo Barboni did a series of westerns starring Terence Hill as Trinity, which were good, along the same lines as the American trilogy.

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      1. The ‘Trinity’ ones were heavy on the humour. I remember, back in the day, (before Sweet Lou and I had the joys of our own children) seeing a Terence Hill /Bud Spencer flick along with a good friend who took his 10-11 year old boy to it. It had enough laughs on the kid level, with one ore two on a more adult scale that flew over the head of the youngster. Luckily.

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      5. Oh the original…I saw the remake but I love Jack…well really Shelley and the boy at the timen Danny Lloyd were great as well…
        I’m also a fan of Scatman Crothers. I keep rewatching it and getting something different out of it.

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      7. I don’t want to read The Shining….because he didn’t like the movie so that tells me that Kubrick stayed away from the book for the big parts.

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      9. Yes he wrote Misery. I like some of Kings books but some I don’t…IT was the one I really liked…a coming of age book really.

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  11. The new style western started to muscle out the old style John ‘circle the wagons, pilgrim’ Wayne-style Westerns, done with irony and wit. No bad thing for me, after seeing the gung-ho ‘Green Berets’ John Wayne seemed to be full of true… well, it rhymes with ‘grit’

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    1. Yes…I did like The Searchers…but these new styles were so damn realistic…and dirtier…you see things you wasn’t allowed to see in the other ones.

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  12. “You see, in this world there’s two kinds of people, my friend: Those with loaded guns and those who dig. You dig.” Probably the most famous quote from a Leone movie. You make me hungry with yr spaghetti proposal.

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  15. I was rummaging through my DVD collection the other day and low and behold this movie should appear. I thought about my mate Max and how I was long overdue watching a Eastwood Spaghetti Western. This article has enticed me all the more to take the plunge. I will have to see this with my kids.

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    1. Bailey and I watch it on a regular basis…this time I watched it by myself to review it… yea I dont’ get tired of it…I’m going to try some more of these types of westerns…

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  16. mum and dad loved the Spaghetti Westerns and this one especially, me I loved the number one hit cover from Hugo Montenegro of the them tune. Dad bought an EP Hugo covers of the 4 big Eastwood Spaghetti movies, and I still treasure that little vinyl record with a hollywood poster cover…

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