PARTLY SUBJECTIVE POST!!
Please read the blurb before you click the video!
Westerns come and go, but this climax to "The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly" has to rank amongst the best. Apologies for this version, but this movie DEMANDS widescreen, especially here.
The "Good" (Blondie played by Clint Eastwood), the "Bad" (Tuco played by Eli Wallach) and the "Ugly" (Angel eyes, or Colonel Mortimer played by Lee Van Cleef) fight it out for $200,000 .
Things to notice.......Mortimer is the one with the tip of his middle finger missing, Blondie is the one with the perfect fingernails, and Tuco is the one wearing his gun around his neck on a string.
The director is Sergio Leone, and the music is by Ennio Morricone, in this the final instalment of the "Dollars" trilogy.
The use of music is impeccable as is the single crow sound at the end of the first stanza.
Leone wanted to convey how it looked from each character's viewpoint, as early on, the camera sits behind each of them.
They eyes are the key. Blondie only looks ahead to Tuco and Mortimer to his right, Tuco looks ahead to Blondie and to his left to Mortimer. Mortimer has to look both left and right.
The major key is Blondie's eyeline. Notice how he focuses more on Tuco toward the end , as if he is more afraid of him than Mortimer (yet he knows Tuco's gun is empty)
This is Mortimer's undoing, as he thinks Blondie is being distracted, and reaches first.....
Enjoy. The DVD of this is much clearer but in either version the 3 hours is worth the wait.
As well as science I also do movies as a hobby! (along with photography, travel, cooking, puzzles and music!)
Leone went on to make "Once Upon a Time in America", the Western that was given Carte Blanche by Hollywood, and so important was the music to him (again by Morricone) that he had the actors in it act whilst the music was being played to them on loudspeakers on the set. That movie is notable for it's extended Intro credits, about 10 minutes long, but that is another story.....
Tuesday, March 18, 2008
The Truel
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2 comments:
I think we called this Western a Spaghetti Western here. Spaghetti Westerns are what made Clint Eastwood famous. Confess I love the Hugo Montenegro music version of "The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly".
Uh, I am looking forward to the day you review "Forbidden Planet". I have not seen it in years though. In fact, I have rarely ever seen it, even though it is a classic SciFi movie.
Maybe we can discuss movies someday. I have seen all the old movies, probably. ha ha ha But can't remember most of them anymore!
Yes indeed this was a "Spaghetti Western" also called a"Italo-Western"
it is a nickname for a broad sub-genre of Western film that emerged in the mid-1960s, so named because most were produced by Italian studios, usually in coproduction with a Spanish partner.
The typical team was made up of an Italian director, Spanish technical staff and a cast of Italian and Spanish actors and sometimes a falling Hollywood star. The films were primarily shot in the Andalusia region of Spain, and in particular the Tabernas Desert of AlmerÃa, because it resembles the American Southwest. (A few were shot on Sardinia.) Because of the desert setting and the readily available southern Spanish extras, a usual theme in Spaghetti Westerns is the Mexican Revolution, Mexican bandits, and the border region shared by Mexico and the U.S.
Great movie thanks :)
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