The Good, The Bad And The Ugly

I LOVE this movie! I owned an earlier version, but it was not in widescreen format, so I ordered this one. There were two slight skips in the video, but they might actually have come from the original movie. Overall, the display quality is excellent, and the audio is clear. I'm happy with it.

Directed by Sergio Leone, "The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly" is one of the most famous of the Italian Spaghetti Westerns, filmed almost entirely in Europe. The Spaghetti Western plays a large role in Quentin Tarantino's film, "Once Upon a Time in Hollywood" which takes a nostalgic look at the Western. Over the past few weeks, I have been enjoying seeing various way the Old West has been represented in the movies, including the best of the Spaghetti Westerns such as this film."The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly" is a lengthy epic set in 1862 in New Mexico during the Civil War. Many people are unaware of the Civil War history depicted in this film, which is a valuable reason in itself to see it. The Union Army turned back a serious Confederate push through the Southwest to reach California at the 1862 Battle of Glorietta Pass, a battle regarded by historians as one of the key engagements of the Civil War. This film is set in the aftermath of the battle, during the Confederate retreat following the destruction of its supply trains.The film turns on an effort by three outlaws to recover $200,000 in Confederate gold buried in a cemetery. The outlaws, each out for himself. form shifting alliances and fight with each other to recover the stash. Clint Eastwood plays a taciturn bounty hunter known as Blondie. Lee Van Cleef, the most vicious of the three, plays a sadistic killer, Angel Eyes. The third outlaw, Tuco, played by Eli Wallach, is a comic figure yet also ruthless and unrelenting in killing and in his quest for the gold. These three outlaws at times team up and work together, especially Blondie and Tuco, when it seems advantageous to do so. But they also will abandon, double-cross, and kill each other without compunction, when given the need and the opportunity.The film is meant to capture the American Southwest with its desolation and small settlements during the Civil War years. The early parts of the film show a great deal of violence, killings and hangings against the background of the Confederate retreat. The three outlaws function separately but are gradually brought together. Some of the most memorable parts of this film take place in a Union prisoner of war camp and on a battlefield. This film portrays convincing the folly and anguish of the Civil War as the outlaws use it to pursue their own private ends. Of the three outlaws, only Blondie shows a degree of sympathy with the soldiers and their unfortunate fate. The final part of the movie shows what has become an iconic gunfight between the three outlaws, spaced triangularly from each other in a cemetery where the gold is to be found. The scene builds slowly and with high dramatic tension.This film builds deliberately with music and long shots of the characters' facial expressions and of the surroundings adding a great deal to the story. The film is presented almost like an Italian opera with its music, gestures, and passion. Even so, there is a gritty realism in this film, with the ever-present dirt, the random, senseless violence, and the war. The main themes of the film are greed and ignorance, set against the West and with some religious symbolism in the background.The Spaghetti Western was heavily critiqued at first, but films such as "The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly" have deservedly come to be recognized as among the best of the western genre. This film offers a different, harsher portrayal of the West, showing the consequences of rampant individualism and violence, than do the earlier American Westerns and a different way of understanding the history of the West. Westerns of a variety of types offer fascinating insight into American history and character. It is valuable during this time of pandemic to see different portrayals and interpretations of the American West and to think about the West, its history, and the character of its people.Robin Friedman

Everything the man has been in is Awesome!

MGM released a DVD edition of "The Good, the Bad and the Ugly" in the late 1990s, but it had few extras, a mono soundtrack, and a scratched print. Finally, MGM has given Sergio Leone's Western epic the double-disc special edition it deserves. The print is restored and as clear as I've ever seen it, the sound is now an astonishing 5.1 Surround (listen to the glass falling off Tuco after he springs through the window in the opening sequence!) nineteen minutes of footage from the Italian original have been restored, and the discs are packed with extras. Even the packaging is great: a sturdy interlocking box, with the DVDs kept in the upper and bottom parts of the two lids. Also inside the box are cards containing posters for the film in five different countries.The film, like most of the European Westerns of the 1960s, was critically disregarded in its day. The New York Times said of it: "the most expensive, pious, and repellent movie in the history of its peculiar genre. There is scarcely a moment's respite from the pain." It's amazing how people missed the brilliance of this movie, which turned Western conventions upside down in such a wonderfully bizarre, European way. Now the film is considered a classic, and only Sergio Leone's own "Once Upon a Time in the West" (another great 2 DVD set, by the way) has more respect in the genre. Leone's strange style -- stretched out time, obsession with close-ups and extreme wide-shots, focus on rituals, and use of Morricone's wild and avant-garde score -- are all in full force in this tale of three treasure-seekers searching for a cache of gold coins on the Texas-New Mexico border during the Civil War. The implacable and unflappable 'hero' Blondie (Clint Eastwood), the crazy comic bandit Tuco (Eli Wallach), and the calculating immoral sadist Angel Eyes (Lee Van Cleef) cross each other's paths amidst the senseless violence of the war. Leone perfectly contrasts the self-interested men with the greater backdrop of the tragedy of war. It's a strangely emotionally affecting picture despite its focus on three men who are detached from normal society and seem not to care about anything but money. So many individual scenes stand out for their virtuosity that the movie a parade of "greatest hits." Most astonishing of all is "The Ecstasy of Gold" sequence where Tuco dashes madly through a cemetery, looking for the grave that might hold the gold. Morricone's music here is especially overwhelming.Chances are you've seen the film and love it. What about the new scenes and the extras?Nineteen minutes of footage have been restored that were never shown in the American prints. The scenes integrate perfectly into the film, and after seeing them once, you won't be able to imagine they were ever missing. Among the scenes are Angel Eyes visiting a destroyed fort; Tuco hiring bandits to help him chase Blondie; Blondie and Angel Eyes having a face-to-face when they first set out together to find the gold; and some extra conversation between Tuco and Blondie in the desert. However, these scenes were never dubbed into English in the 1960s. Therefore, the DVD producers had to newly dub them. Eli Wallach and Clint Eastwood do their own voices. An actor named Simon Prescott does the imitation of the deceased Lee Van Cleef. Admittedly, Wallach and Eastwood no longer sound the same, but I couldn't imagine someone else imitating their voices -- it couldn't have been done any other way. Prescott is pretty good as Angel Eyes, if a bit more gravelly.The extras...Disc 1 has audio commentary by Richard Shickel, a film historian who wrote Eastwood's biography and also did commentary on Leone's "Once Upon a Time in America" DVD. His comments can be pretty dry, and he focuses mostly on Leone's style and techniques instead of on background information on the filming itself. Nonetheless, there are many interesting insights, and Shickel manages to say a lot during the three-hour running time.Most of the extras are on Disc 2:"Leone's West" -- A 20-minute documentary about the making of the film. Includes interviews with Shickel, producer Alberto Grimaldi, author of the English dialogue Mickey Knox, and best of all, Eastwood and Wallach. There's some very interesting info and memories here, mostly from Knox and the two actors."The Leone Style" -- A 23-minute documentary, really just an extension of the first one. It spends more time on Leone's unusual techniques. The same interviewees appear here."The Man Who Lost the Civil War" -- A 14-minute documentary that was produced separately from the DVD. It makes no mention of the movie, but is about its historical backdrop: the disastrous General Sibley campaign in Texas. Sibley appears in the film briefly, and this short documentary gives the viewer an important insight into the world of Blondie, Tuco, and Angel Eyes."Reconstructing The Good, the Bad and the Ugly" -- An 11 minute look into the painstaking work involved with fixing the picture and sound, restoring the cut scenes, and re-dubbing it."Il Maestro: Ennio Morricone" -- 8 minutes; mostly an interview with music scholar John Burlingame about the film's score. At the end of the feature, you can choose to listen to an audio-only twelve-minute lecture by Burlingame that provides a much more in-depth analysis of the music."Deleted Scenes" -- Two scenes couldn't go back into the film. The extended torture scene had a damaged negative, so here it is in its rougher state. An apparently lost scene is reconstructed through text, stills, and clips from the French trailer.Finally, there's a gallery of posters, the original trailer, and MGM tossing in some gratuitous advertising for their other films.Don't miss this DVD. Not only is it one of the great action films and one the great westerns, but it's the kind of release that the DVD format was invented for!

A+++

Yes it is a superb western excellent film with the great Clint Eastwood

Todo perfecto

BonjourInutile de vous parler du film, de Clint, de Sergio et des autres, les légendes ne mourront jamaisJe voulais parler du blu-ray :1) vo en 5.1 ou en mono d'origine, fr en 5.1 plus espagnol et portuguais + 16 sstitres, il y a des sous titres français, bien que les dialogues soient la part la moins importante du film, avec Leone, que du normal...2) la longueur du film est de 2:58:36, soit la plus longue qui soit (dixit imdb)3)) La qualité de l'image est au rendez vous ! L'image a parfois du grain, surtout en intérieur mais tous ceux qui auront pratiqué la photographie avec de la peloche sauront qu'utiliser les péloches pour les prises de vue avec une faible lumière genre 400 asa auront des photos avec du grain. Le film est de 69, pas de caméra numérique sophistiquée comme on en trouve pour filmer les x-men. Donc rien d'anormal.Le son maintenant : on apprend en écoutant les commentaires de son biographe que Leone incorporait le son en studio, en post synchro. Il tournait un western en Espagne avec des acteurs américains, italiens, espagnols et même français. Leone ne parlait pas anglais. En espagne, il y avait des avions qui passaient sans cesse au dessus des décors naturels, et puis il n'aimait pas à avoir à emmerder sa caméra avec des perches de prise de son. Donc le son est totalement truqué en studio, souvenez vous de l'intro à la gare avec le bruit de la mouche ou de l'éolienne qui grince, tous ces bruits qui seront amplifiés, les voix refaites en studio avec la magnifique musique de Morricone.Résultat : le western ultime, bien que j'adore encore plus il était une fois dans l'ouest !Je ne m'attendais pas à avoir l'extended cut en commandant cette version à vrai dire, charcuté par les américains, les anglais les allemands et bien d'autres encore... Aujourd'hui le revoila entier, enfin.Bon, vous m'excusez mais je retourne le revoir illico !!!!

This 1966 movie contains what every good movie does good story, great acting performance, beautiful cinematography and direction.

What is there to say? You should own this movie. Personally, I think every film by Sergio Leone should be owned and appreciated, we didn't get enough of them. Clint, Lee and Eli are a fantastic main cast, but like all of leones films, the secondary cast are fun and interesting as well. But the star of all leones films is the man himself, as he reinvented the genre with his style. Just get it