Top Ten Movies of the 1960s

#6
The Good, The Bad and the Ugly

1966
Directed by: Sergio Leone
Cinematography by: Tonino Delli Colli
Music by: Ennio Morricone
Starring: Clint Eastwood, Eli Wallach and Lee Van Cleef

What may be the greatest western of all time is a satire of the western genre itself. It would have to be that way. The Good, The Bad and the Ugly is a spaghetti western part of Sergio Leone's Man With No Name trilogy (also includes Fistful of Dollars and For a Few Dollars More). The name the genre itself comes from the fact that much of the production and direction was by Italians, just looking at the credits I've listed above should tell you that. Other characteristics of these movies include: a mysterious main character symbolizing the drive to settle the 'uncivilized' American west, shot in the badlands of Spain and not the US itself for financial reasons, and a Spanish or Italian cast plus one either upcoming or aging American movie star.

That's where Clint Eastwood comes in. The TV show Rawhide may have made him a star, but his work in The Good, The Bad and The Ugly formed the basis of what his future career would be. This is, for example, the movie where he developed his famous sneer. This look, he claims, was developed by intentionally smoking bad cigars during filming so his sneer is more of a disgusted look actually. The plot revolves around his character, Blondie (The Good), who teams up with the bandit Tuco (Eli Wallach - The Ugly) to find stash of buried Confederate Army gold. Although they hate each other with a passion, only Tuco knows the name of the graveyard and only Blondie knows the grave site in which it is buried. However, they aren't the only men after the loot. Angel Eyes (Lee Van Cleef - The Bad) is also after the gold, and thus violently clashes with the other two characters. Nobody wants to split up the gold two ways, let alone three ways.

This brings in another staple of the western genre: greed. The men are blinded by their greed and insane drive for the gold that they will stop at nothing. Although, Blondie seems often ambivalent towards the prize, which is why he is The Good after all. Their journey through the American West leads them all to the graveyard and an epic Mexican standoff follows. Check it out, another one of my favourite scenes of all time:

The movie is set against the backdrop of the American Civil War. The characters come into contact with both armies several times. It's fitting that the movie takes place during the American Civil War. Tension between the South and the North about who would settle the newly captured West is one of the most important causes of the war. The North was keen on having their industrial-capitalist economic model be the one that dominated the new America. They framed the issue as one about 'free labour', although the exploitation of untouched natural resources and workers desperate to survive in expanding and changing industries had to figure in there somewhere! The South on the other hand was characterized by their slavery economic model. Power was in the hands of large plantation owners and they had already Texas and other southwestern states from the 1820s-1850s. It was far easier for groups of rich landowners to work together to finance expansion of their economic model to bordering states than it was for the countless competing upstart capitalists with their new and unstable industries. So there was conflict. If the issue had been as simple as fighting racism by the way there would have been no war at all.

As American based westerns are all about settling the untamed west then they are ultimately mixed up with the American Civil War. What sets The Good, The Bad and The Ugly apart are the interesting parallels it draws. Tuco and Angel Eyes move in and out of Civil War scenarios with relatively ease, fixated not on any morals but on their drive to collect the gold. This mirrors the same way that the big industrialists of the North and the large plantation owners of the South are not concerned with the human or environmental costs of the war itself, but only the continuation of their comfortable lifestyle. This is a war for their future prosperity. Slogans of the Union may talk of the uncivilized and immoral slavery of the south and the Confederacy may have used the defence of their traditional way of life as a call to arms for their war effort, but it was really just masking the huge economic consequences that the settling of the West would have. Similarly, at different points in the movie both Tuco and Angel Eyes have claimed to be partisan when it advantaged them.

Blondie is The Good because the gold does not rule over him as it does the others. As I mentioned he seems ambivalent towards it. This leads us to believe that his goals are mainly to punish those that are blinded by their greed, which we saw in the Mexican standoff. Sounds almost biblical. The war also has a profound effect on him, and after seeing its carnage he is led to react, "I've never seen so many men wasted so badly." Blondie is voice of good in a rough land characterized by violence and greed.

For bringing the American Civil War to the forefront of the traditional western with spaghetti western style, in my opinion The Good, The Bad and The Ugly is the 6th greatest film of the 1960s.