The Good, the Bad and the Ugly

'The Good' is sharp-shooter Blondie (Clint Eastwood), although how someone who runs a bounty racket, betrays his friend, and shoots numerous people dead can be deemed good is beyond me. Bandit Tuco (Eli Wallach) is 'The Ugly', which I think is a little unfair to the bloke: he's no George Clooney, but he's not Quasimodo either. That leaves cold-hearted killer Angel Eyes (Lee Van Cleef) as 'The Bad', which he most definitely is, even going so far as to kill a child in order to achieve his goals. After Blondie and Tuco chance upon a dying Confederate soldier who reveals to them the whereabouts of a fortune in gold, the pair come to the attention of Angel Eyes, who will do anything to lay his hands on the treasure. The Good, The Bad and The Ugly, the third film in Sergio Leone's Dollars trilogy, is an epic spaghetti western that benefits from iconic central characters, an undeniable sense of cool, and, of course, that classic Ennio Morricone soundtrack (Waaawawah, waa waa waa!). Where the film doesn't fare quite so well is in the pacing and storytelling, the basic plot—three guys go in search of hidden treasure—stretched painfully thin, particularly in the Extended Cut, which clocks in at approximately three hours. The expansive historical backdrop—the American Civil War—frequently detracts from the flow of the story and Leone has a tendency to labour a little too much over his style, lingering on his characters for an eternity and repeating similar shots ad nasueum, all of which causes scenes to drag. Fortunately, some nice touches of humour and a couple of neat plot twists help to make matters a little easier to digest. 6/10. Not quite as hard-going as Once Upon A Time In The West, but not a patch on the earlier Dollars movies, or indeed, Leone's underrated A Fistful of Dynamite.