The Good, The Bad & The Ugly - Mov Rev

Sphagetti Westerns anyone ??

If you have seen one, then you should definitely be knowing about Sergio Leone. He is the master of these movies. So what is a Sphagetti western ??, well find about it yourself (do a google yaar).

Sergio Leone, the uncrowned king of sphagetti westerns has a great Trilogy of films to couch for. 'A Fistful of dollars', 'For A Few Dollars More', 'The Good, the Bad and the Ugly'. His best of the lot, 'Once Upon a Time in the West' is also a talked about film.

But nevertheless, let us see what we have come for tonight. I can only talk about one film today, 'The Good, the Bad and the Ugly'. This is a classic. Though I haven't seen the rest of the films, the quality of this film enthuses me to get to see the others. (I knew only today about the others, while preparing to write about this film).

You have to give to the cast, 'Clint Eastwood' as the unnamed 'Blondie'(as called by 'Tuco'), 'Lee Van Cleef' as the bad and brutal 'Angel Eyes', and 'Eli Wallach' as the reckless 'Tuco'.

Clint as the unknown and pretty Good guy around, who doesn't do any harm to anybody, until they don't intend to harm him. He saves Tuco's life a lot in the movie.

Van Cleef as The Bad and brutal guy around, who cares only about money. As an intro, he kills a whole family ruthlessly in his introductory scene, after just finishing lunch with them.

Wallach as The Ugliest guy around. He kills two and injures one of the three men who actually come to kill and capture him for collecting the bounty on his head.

And all these guys what are they upto ?? - Confiderate Gold shipment which was carried by a soldier ('Bill Carson') was lost during battle. The soldier hid it in a cemetary. Van Cleef first sets his eyes on the Gold when he gets to this information via his boss. (He kills his boss on the scene). To Wallach and Clint the information on gold comes as a lucky jackpot when Clint is starved of water/food by Wallach in the desert.

The soldier who hid the gold dies on Clint to give an important information on where the gold is. Now Clint is the GOD of proceedings with Wallach. Wallach gives what we call a 'raja ubacharam' to Clint to find about the hidden gold's ultimate truth.

All this is happening amidst the American Civil War and hence it is inevitable for the duo not to fall in war (trouble, yes). They get caught while misusing the identity of the dead soldier ('Bill Carson'). Van Cleef catches upon them (when he finds out about the arrest of Bill Carson, he knows the name of the soldier who hid the gold) and now he is on the side who arrested our duo. He tortures Wallach to get the details of the gold(till what he knows of course). But with Clint he arranges for a compromise (share on gold ?? 'coz he knows Clint wouldnot speak for tortures).

Now Wallach is moved to a centralised, heavy security prison and Clint and Van Cleef go to get the gold. Van Cleef still is very cautious, he has his own thugs watching over Clint. Clint knows his life has no value for Van Cleef, when they get to the gold. Wallach on his precarious style escapes from the guards. He escapes with the excuse to piss, you have to see this scene to believe how ruthless and reckless he is and that is why he is the Ugly, no one else is.

Wallach also catches up with Clint and Van Cleef. Wallach and Clint finish off the thugs set by Van Cleef and finally get to know that Van Cleef had made good preparations against them (he took off before they can smell him).

Now the film goes through the director's sensitive part where Clint and Wallach on their way to the cemetary help out a Captain to stop an unrelenting war because of a bridge across a river. Our duo have to cross the bridge to reach their destination, hence they plant dynamite on their way up and blow them after reaching the other side. This ends months of hardships (painful death and injuries to the battalion) for the captain, who dies after seeing the bridge go up.

This takes us to the final showdown at the cemetary, when the three guns match up. The Good, The Bad and The Ugly, what do they match up to remains the end of the story. As it started it ends in a funny note.

The commendable things in the film, the steely eyes of Van Cleef, the cool and macho look of Clint and the crazy go lucky manner of Eli Wallach.

Recommended scenes to watch,

1. Clint catching Eli Wallach for a bounty and saving him from being killed in hanging. Most of us would know about this from the song in Kadhalan.
2. Eli Wallach going to the Gun house and selecting the gun and asking "How much ?" (you should see this scene to believe it)
3. The famous 'If you have to shoot..shoot! Don't talk!' liner from Eli Wallach to the survivor of the intro attack on him later in the movie.
4. Another one, 'When your hanging on that rope, you can feel the devil biting your a--!' also by Eli Wallach.
5. And last but never the least the final showdown shootout.

And lo' this is not just a movie to be watched, but collected to your personal library too.