The Good The Bad and THe Ugly : Leone's epic deconstruction of the Western genre

The Good The Bad and The Ugly is the apex of the Dollars trilogy. This is where the skill and direction of Sergio Leone is at its peak in the Dollars trilogy. The scope in this movie is massive and blows the previous two movies out of water. The Good The Bad and The Ugly is one of the definitive westerns ever which captures the crude Wild Wild West perfectly through the craft of Leone and a career best performance by Clint Eastwood, Lee Van Cleef and Eli Wallach. The triad and the dynamic of these characters is the heart of the movie.

Sergio Leone's technical craft in this movie is refined and it delivers in the final product. The long tracking shots and the Leone closeups are dramatic and gives us an insight into the complexity of the titular characters spread across the canvas into the Wild Wild West. The editing in this movie is hyper stylised and is innovative with long wideshots turning into closeups which is deceptively sublime with good composition.

Leone's storytelling is more about pictures and less about words and it is a great example of visual storytelling. The American civil war sequence is a great example of it and it comments about the futility of war and the mission undertaken by our three titular characters. The American civil war is well shot and depicted and a sublime performance by Aldo Guiffre.

The characterwork in this movie is impressive and has its roots from classical archetypal storytelling with the titular Good, Bad and The Ugly. Clint Eastwood's portrayal as the Good is charming yet dangerous and self interested making him an inherently complex protagonist. Eli Wallach as Tuco is charming yet selfish and petty as a rat. These traits are balanced by Eli Wallach's acting skills and talent. Lee Van Cleef is the antagonist and he is charismatic and relishes playing the bad guy. These three characters depict the morality of the people in the Wild Wild West.

Ennio Morricone's score for this movie is iconic and evergreen. Ecstasy Of Gold is one of cinema's finest music pieces. His music in the trio gunfight is etched into the history books of cinematic history. Morricone's score captures the roughness of the Wild Wild West and it's a haunting score about the great wars. The trio gunfight sequence is a masterclass at editing, cinematography, acting performance, score and tension building. It is the perfect symphony.

Overall The Good The Bad and The Ugly is a great western and a definitive western for a lot of people. It's a movie which will be studied and talked about in cinema and that is the great legacy of The Good The Bad and The Ugly.