The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly

September 5th, 2005 | Filed under Reviews

I rarely dig sequels. I don’t know why, but for some reason the second, or third incarnation of a story rarely psychs me up like the original can.

For example, I used to think ROTJ was my favorite Star Wars film (original trilogy), then after watching Clerks, Dante convinced me that Empire had the better ending. By the time the trilogy was released on DVD I had regressed back to the original, falling in love with what it was, what it meant to people, and how it changed cinema forever.

Flash forward to this past weekend. I was all pumped about watching the third and final installment of Sergio Leone’s Western trilogy including, A Fist Full of Dollars, For a Few Dollars More, and The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly.

Needless to say I really enjoyed the first two films. The extreme close-ups, wide vista shots, music, performances, and the production design all led to a really great film experience. The third and final of the trilogy, The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly, however, really didn’t do much for me. For one, the film was way to long, causing me to view it in the three different settings as I completely lost interest. The film did have some great moments, and the soundtrack was once again outstanding, but I never got the triumphant “man with no name” moment that happened throughout the first two films.

Eastwood, a.ka. “the man with no name,” definitely showed up to play in this one, but it felt like Leone and his great Italian crew might have overstepped their bounds in this outing. It feels like the film bounces around locals just because it can, never really giving the audience a moment to take in the situation and empathize with Eastwood, which is what I felt made the first films so successful.

I realize that all I’ve done is compare an incredible successful film against the other films in the same franchise, but I feel like The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly just didn’t hit the some beats that the original films did. It could be that Leone ran out of source material, but I’d like to think him a better director than that.

All in all I really did like the film, but I guess I was a little disappointed in what I had built up to be one of the great moments of film history. Instead it felt like an adequate finale to a fantastic character arc.

Currently my favorite is the second film of the triad, but I’m sure in a couple of years I’ll be spouting off about how much I liked the original. I’m so damn predictable.

p.s. The ending showdown between the three gunfighters was vintage Leone and probably my favorite part…if only that standoff could have lastest a little longer!