Il buono, il brutto, il cattivo (1966)

A bounty hunting scam joins two men in an uneasy alliance against a third in a race to find a fortune in gold buried in a remote cemetery.

Director:

Sergio Leone

Writers:

Luciano Vincenzoni (story), Sergio Leone (story)

Stars:

Clint Eastwood, Eli Wallach, Lee Van Cleef

Top Rated Movies #9 | 2 wins & 4 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Eli Wallach	...	Tuco
Clint Eastwood	...	Blondie
Lee Van Cleef	...	Sentenza / Angel Eyes
Aldo Giuffrè	...	Alcoholic Union Captain (as Aldo Giuffre')
Luigi Pistilli	...	Father Pablo Ramirez
Rada Rassimov	...	Maria
Enzo Petito	...	Storekeeper
Claudio Scarchilli	...	Mexican Peon
John Bartha	...	Sheriff (as John Bartho)
Livio Lorenzon	...	Baker
Antonio Casale	...	Jackson / Bill Carson
Sandro Scarchilli	...	Mexican Peon
Benito Stefanelli	...	Member of Angel Eyes' Gang
Angelo Novi	...	Monk
Antonio Casas	...	Stevens

Storyline

Blondie (The Good) (Clint Eastwood) is a professional gunslinger who is out trying to earn a few dollars. Angel Eyes (The Bad) (Lee Van Cleef) is a hitman who always commits to a task and sees it through, as long as he is paid to do so. And Tuco (The Ugly) (Eli Wallach) is a wanted outlaw trying to take care of his own hide. Tuco and Blondie share a partnership together making money off of Tuco's bounty, but when Blondie unties the partnership, Tuco tries to hunt down Blondie. When Blondie and Tuco come across a horse carriage loaded with dead bodies, they soon learn from the only survivor, Bill Carson (Antonio Casale), that he and a few other men have buried a stash of gold in a cemetery. Unfortunately, Carson dies and Tuco only finds out the name of the cemetery, while Blondie finds out the name on the grave. Now the two must keep each other alive in order to find the gold. Angel Eyes (who had been looking for Bill Carson) discovers that Tuco and Blondie met with Carson and knows ...

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Plot Keywords:

spaghetti western | shootout | famous opening theme | man with no name | outlaw | 

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Taglines:

A classic western! A classic music theme!

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Genres:

Western

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Certificate:

14+

Did You Know?

Trivia

The three principal actors are the only ones who speak actual English in this movie: Clint Eastwood, Lee Van Cleef, Eli Wallach, with the exceptions of Al Mulock (the one-armed man), and John Bartha (the Sheriff). Everyone else in this movie is really speaking his or her native language, mostly Italian and Spanish, and was later dubbed into English.

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Goofs

In the re-instated scene where Tuco gives his identity papers to one of the Confederate guards, he passes himself off as Bill Carson, Third Cavalry. There's one problem: In all other scenes, Tuco is known to have poor reading skills, and shouldn't have been able to make out most of it (except for Carson's own name).

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Quotes

[first lines]
Stevens: You're... from Baker?
[Angel Eyes is silent, eating a bowl of stew and staring at him]
Stevens: Tell Baker that I told him all that I know already and I want to live in peace, understand? That it's no use to go on tormenting me! I know nothing at all about that case of coins.
[Angel Eyes stops eating and looks interested]
Stevens: Now that gold has disappeared, but if he'd listened we could have avoided this altogether. I went to the Army court; there were no witnesses. They couldn't uncover any more. I...

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Alternate Versions

Syndicated on US TV in 2006 as a 95-minute truncated version, missing almost half of its original length.

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Connections

Featured in The Cutting Edge: The Magic of Movie Editing (2004)

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Soundtracks

The Ecstasy of Gold
Written by Ennio Morricone

User Reviews

Brutal, brilliant, and one of the best Westerns ever made

A sprawling Western epic that follows the adventures of three gunfighters looking for $200,000 in stolen gold, Sergio Leone's `The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly' is a masterpiece, one that continues to get better and better with each viewing. In a way, it's a morality play, weighing the consequences of good and evil, but it does so in a realistic manner. Sometimes, crime does pay, at least in the short term, and sometimes good does go unrewarded. This film probably signaled the death knell of the traditional John Wayne `White Hat/Black Hat' Western.

The three main characters make the film. Lee Van Cleef (`The Bad') is evil personified. Totally ruthless, he'll do whatever it takes to get what he wants. Clint Eastwood (`The Good') is the Man With No Name, not really `good' in a traditional sense . . . but he has a certain sense of honor and tries to do the right thing. (Watch the scene when he gives a dying Confederate soldier a puff of his cigar - powerful, and it sums up everything that the Man With No Name is all about, without saying a single word.) Eli Wallach (`The Ugly') is Tuco, and he's easily the most complex - if not the best - character in the film. All impulse and rage, Tuco spins wildly throughout the movie, stealing, lying, pretending to be Clint Eastwood's best friend in one scene, trying to kill him in another - Tuco truly represents `the ugly' side of people.

The movie is long, but there's not a wasted scene in the film. Each one slowly lets the film unfold with a certain style and grace, revealing more about each character and what's going on. The pacing is incredible, as is the direction - Sergio Leone manages to build a lot of uncomfortable tension in the film, keeping the film from ever getting predictable. Any typical Western cliché that you can possibly think of is either given a unique twist or utterly destroyed by Leone's masterful storytelling. Of special mention is Ennio Morricone's score, which is absolutely perfect. Two scenes - one in a Union prison camp, one in the climatic gunfight in the cemetery at the end of the film - are amazing on their own, but they become absolutely astonishing with combined with Morricone's powerful score.

This movie is absolutely brilliant. If you haven't seen it yet, I strongly urge to do so. Immediately. (And then, go watch `Unforgiven' . . . in a way, I think that `Unforgiven' is the sequel to `The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly - it's the story of what eventually happened to the Man With No Name.) `The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly' is easily one of the best Westerns ever made. A++

Details

Country:

Italy Spain West Germany

Language:

Italian

Release Date:

23 December 1966 (Italy)

Also Known As:

Le bon, la brute et le truand

Filming Locations:

Mini Hollywood, Tabernas, Almería, Andalucía, Spain

Box Office

Budget:

$1,200,000 (estimated)

Gross USA:

$25,100,000

Cumulative Worldwide Gross:

$25,252,481

Company Credits

Production Co:

Produzioni Europee Associate (PEA), Arturo González Producciones Cinematográficas, Constantin Film

Technical Specs

Runtime:

161 min 186 min (dubbed) 179 min (2003 extended English) 142 min (1968) (cut)

Sound Mix:

Mono Dolby Digital (2003 Extended English version)

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1