Josh C's Movie Review of Good, the Bad and the Ugly, The ( buono, il brutto, il cattivo, Il )

Rating of
3.5/4

Good, the Bad and the Ugly, The ( buono, il brutto, il cattivo, Il )

Good story, Bad ass gunslingers and an Ugly war
Josh C - wrote on 08/12/07

I was pleasantly surprised by this film. I am usually not a big Western fan, but this movie had a lot of great things going for it. The story wasn't just a about 3 professional gunmen, it was about friendship, loyalty and war. The civil war aspect of the movie kept things very interesting and you never knew what was going to happen. Even though we had three gunslingers that all seemed a little super-human, they kept getting into situations that they couldn't control.

Another part I loved about this movie was the film score. It really helped control the mood and tempo of the movie. Many movies do this, but not too many of them do it this effectively.

As for acting and characters I couldn't help but think that Tuca's character who was played by Eli Wallach was way ahead of its time. There are tons of movies nowadays that utilize a comical sidekick that keeps the audience entertained when there is no action to be had. But 40 years ago I don't know of too many movies that used this formula. Tuca was comical, believable, a little bad-ass, annoying and often dim-witted but you couldn't help but like him. Angel-Eyes and Blondie, Lee Van Cleef & Clint Eastwood, were just bad-ass all around.

The only reason I gave this movie 3.5 stars instead of 4 was because of the slow speed of the movie. Certain scenes were just dragged out, sometimes this was effective, but other times it lulled me to sleep. If the movie was trimmed down a tad it would be even better.

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