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The great Italian director Sergio Leone capped off his cycle of Clint Eastwood spaghetti westerns (the so-called Man with No Name trilogy) with the magnificent epic The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly. "The Good" is Eastwood, reprising his role as an ultra-cool, serape-clad, cheroot-chomping antihero, known here as Blondie; "The Bad" is a ruthless killer called "Angel Eyes" (Lee Van Cleef); and "The Ugly" is a greedy bandit named Tuco (Eli Wallach). The story, which follows the search for a fortune in hidden gold, has the archetypal simplicity of a folktale punctuated by significant amounts of highly stylized violence. Leone expands his successful formula here: Wallach's manic greed plays nicely against Eastwood's unflappability, adding a dimension of humor absent from the earlier films, as Blondie and Tuco form an unlikely partnership. At the same time, the director revels in his trademark juxtaposition of wide-angle shots and ultra-close-ups and his oh-so-fluid moving camera, resulting in powerful imagery that set new standards for wide-screen cinematography. As superb as his music was for Leone’s previous films, Ennio Morricone's score here is one of the all-time greats -- music that, with its twangy, ominous guitar chords, has come to define the spaghetti western. Along with Once Upon a Time in the West, The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly stands as the apotheosis of the genre and a work of timeless perfection, completing Leone’s reinvention of the movie western. The DVD includes 17 minutes of scenes that were deleted after the film's original Italian release. Gregory Baird

All Movie Guide

In the last and the best installment of his so-called "Dollars" trilogy of Sergio Leone-directed "spaghetti westerns," Clint Eastwood reprised the role of a taciturn, enigmatic loner. Here he searches for a cache of stolen gold against rivals the Bad (Lee Van Cleef), a ruthless bounty hunter, and the Ugly (Eli Wallach), a Mexican bandit. Though dubbed "the Good," Eastwood's character is not much better than his opponents -- he is just smarter and shoots faster. The film's title reveals its ironic attitude toward the canonized heroes of the classical western. "The real West was the world of violence, fear, and brutal instincts," claimed Leone. "In pursuit of profit there is no such thing as good and evil, generosity or deviousness; everything depends on chance, and not the best wins but the luckiest." Immensely entertaining and beautifully shot in Techniscope by Tonino Delli Colli, the movie is a virtually definitive "spaghetti western," rivaled only by Leone's own Once Upon a Time in the West (1968). The main musical theme by Ennio Morricone hit #1 on the British pop charts. Originally released in Italy at 177 minutes, the movie was later cut for its international release. Yuri German

Product Details

• UPC: 027616078537
• Source: MGM (VIDEO & DVD)
• Region Code: 1
• Presentation: Wide Screen
• Sound: Dolby AC-3 Surround Sound
• Editions: Special Edition, Subtitled, Dubbed
• Time: 2:59:00
• Sales Rank: 15,221

This DVD is also available as part of a box set:

• Eastwood: the Man with No Name Trilogy
• The Sergio Leone Anthology
• United Artists Super Deluxe Gift Set (90 films)
• Ultimate Western Collection
• Cowboy Collection
• Clint Eastwood Star Collection

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