4 out of 5

Director: Sergio Leone

A little wandering, The Good, the Bad and the Ugly has all of the things that worked for Leone’s two previous Dollars films amped up to a high-budgeted, bloated-runtime event. It’s great, better than expected, but the need for light commentary isn’t woven as smoothly into the surroundings as it was with For a Few Dollars More. The plot is a lot of fun. You essentially have three men of varying moral polarities (one leaning toward good – Eastwood – one toward bad – van Cleef, and Eli Wallach is truly awesome as the unhinged Tuco, who is the Ugly) all vying for a hidden $200,000 reward. The plot is clever in terms of wending these three together, and why they all have to survive until the climax of the film. In keeping with the weight of the previous movies, Leone’s direction and the script does much to give almost everyone pictured a feeling of weight in the movie and not just filler. These characters are defined by their titular characteristic, but even with only when known by nicknames they become whole personas. This also applies to the sets, and the costumes, and the music… the whole feel of the film feels like a true production and not just money and actors thrown on top of some cool lines and ideas. It’s just the plot that doesn’t quite ring true. Money has been the goal of each movie, essentially, but here it feels like a true Macguffin, just enough to rope our principles along from problem to problem. The money felt like a real character in A Few Dollars More (my favorite of the three). Here it’s just what propels us to the end credits. But that being said, if you have any doubt of the art in Westerns, or imagine yourself as probably bored by the genre, you’ll be amazed – as I was – at how modern and fresh this film still feels.