The GOOD, The BAD & The UGLY Review

Il Buono, il Brutto, il Cattivo a/k/a The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly, from 1966, is the epic final installment in The Man With No Name Trilogy. Clint Eastwood stars as the Good, Lee Van Cleef is the Bad, and Eli Wallach is the Ugly.

With each film in the series, director Sergio Leone upped the ante, as well as the running time. In the second installment, For a Few Dollars More, Leone cast Lee Van Cleef opposite Eastwood with explosive results: bigger box office and double the body count. For the epic final chapter, Eli Wallach joined Eastwood and Van Cleef  as "Tuco," to chew the scenery wildly and provide equal parts skulduggery and comic relief. For all you Lord of the Rings fans, think of Wallach's character as sort of a Mexican Gollum.

There is some very funny repartee between Wallach's Tuco and Eastwood's "Blondie," and many memorable set pieces. Each of the three leads gets his chance to do his thing, and to shoot a lot of people in the process. 

In my Top Ten Clint Eastwood Westerns, I ranked The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly number one, just ahead of Eastwood's 1992 masterpiece, Unforgiven. I know Clint would disagree, but these things are highly subjective, and to me, he is especially iconic in this film.   

In the full three-hour director's cut, Leone's reach sometimes exceeds his grasp, but his audacious vision is never dull. Resist the edited, pan-and-scan versions out there, and revel in Leone's jaw-dropping shot compositions and the brilliant score by Ennio Morricone in the uncut, widescreen edition.

Available on DVD either separately or as part of The Man With No Name Trilogy from MGM Home Video. Again, be sure to get the widescreen version.