What is the first thing that comes to your mind when you just mention the word, “WESTERN?”…..
Floopy metal rimmed Stetsons, Gun totting cowboys, thudding hooves of the amazing animals, rippling flanks, belts glinting in the harsh sun, spurs on the boots, soft strums of the guitar, huge vacant landscapes of sand and its interesting dunes. Wisps of fine gold hued sand flying in the dry air. Wooden batwing doors, wooden tables and some amazing senorita’s dancing for the customers.
You also remember Clint Eastwood, John Wayne and Kevin Costner. You also remember the Good the Bad and the Ugly!!
The Premise
A box of gold buried by a Confederate soldier in his grave!!
The Players
Angel Eyes: Lee Van Cleef, The Bad. Known for his bad, unforgiving ways. Hardly speaks a word and lets his 6 shooter do the talking. Hard glint in his eyes and a sinister knowing glint in them, he hunts his prey as silently as a slithering snake and then throws the challenge by announcing his arrival. He kills with the swiftness of a rattler. Lethal, accurate and fatal. When he gets his eyes set on the box of gold because he knows the name of the man who buried it… he follows relentlessly, until…
Tuco: Eli Wallach, The Ugly. Not just for his looks but also for his brutal demeanor. Doesn’t think twice because he can’t, shoots first then asks… to a dead body that’s brutal… But he knows the name of the cemetery where the grave is buried in, not the location of the grave!! Follows trails and is very well accustomed to desert travel night or day… Until…
Blondie: Clint Eastwood, The Good. Speaks very little. Piercing blue eyes are always fixed on the lookout for rattle snakes, burning wood, smoked butts and the location of the grave in the cemetery. Crack shot with his six shooter, he silences his enemies faster than they can draw their guns….
When these deadly, dangerous than any living creature move out to stake a claim on the box of gold, there is bound to be brutality, mindless murders and of course lonely nights with only a tinsy fire to warm you and coyotes howling their presence…
Fistful of Dollars and For a Few Dollars More has sufficiently established Clint’s serene, calm good looks as the cowboy Blondie!! He just takes up from there and goes through the motions of studied calm, piercing blue eyes and the crooked twist of his parched lips holding dearly on to his thin cigar…
Lee Van Cliff and Eli Wallach have given tremendous support to their characters with their looks and actions that match their screen titles to the “T”. You wouldn’t have assembled such a magnificent star cast under the hot Arizona Sun.
And what a party that was!!
The entire script revolves purely around the paths of these three men who have their own means and methods and their own polished Smith and Wesson’s ready and cocked at a moments notice to further their thirst and their quest.
They constantly cross paths, rough it with each other… the other on the guillotines rope only to be rescued by the other again… The chase here is on horseback, dry sandy desert and sand storms… the entire setting is very male, reeks of intrigue and reminds you of the box of gold that is the reason for these madmen to cross and double cross each other.
When you have a pot of gold ready for the picking, you do not have good guy around. But you need a guy around to take you to that pot of gold only to be buried next to it!! Law of the desert gave rise to the most famous dialogue to be remembered for decades, “If you want to shoot, shoot… Don’t talk!” delivered very nonchalantly and as-a-matter-of-factly by Ugly!! It splits your guts.
There are very basic scenes which have been given a stand alone quality by Sergio Leone. They have the character of an individual sequence that has no direct connectivity to the next scene but has the script connecting it very tightly. When you have a canvass as large as the desert, whatever goes…. The bullet shots ricocheting in the far off, the horses neighing and the gallop thudding on the scrappy yet stone contoured surface give you a very basic thrill of the life that these gun toting cowboys live, happily!! Gun is the law, there aint no badge that has spoken to me face… always to my feet!!
“I aint doing no talking mister, my six shooter sure does!!” such is the belligerent arrogance of these men. “Dead men don’t leave no tales!!”… Better dead than talking…
The scene that really has been imprinted on my mind is the one where Clint is shown religiously cleaning his gun. The background is only the sound of the clinks of the gun parts that are being torn apart by Clint and then they are accompanied by the sound of hooves carrying the cannons in the town. What is actually done is the silencing of the arrival of the three hired killers on horse back hired to kill Clint…
I thought this to be very Hitchcockian and the twists that Sergio has given to the scene are for all to see.
The amazing Background score which salutes the tune as the title music for this film has been a favorite of many for decades and will continue to do so. Ennio Morricone has certainly given us a score that we will not forget or DARE to forget if I may say so. Tonnino Delli Colli’s cinematography is worth a million dollars. He opens his scene with a wide shot of the desert covering the details of the wild, oceans of sand rising in wisps of thin gold hued strings and then close ups of the cast that bring to you the quality of the situation the character is assessing or even experiencing!! The use of Close ups to wide to mid close or even the camera following the horse’s hooves at close quarters as though they have ran down from the lens of the camera all heighten the pleasure of viewing such gorgeous cinema.
There is nothing more to the film except the premise that I have told you about, but there is a lot more to see and experience!!
This is one DVD that you ought to posses in your collection. You can watch this film particularly to let the action supersede you if your feeling down, to rush you into a spirited ‘yeahh”… to let you know the meaning of winning OR just to walk down the memory lane when you had first seen this film on big screen!!
“If you have finished reading, go get this s**t to watch or all you gonna watch is down the barrel of my 6 shooters…!”…….’BAM
Samir, I have written this for you as I could recall. Took help of imdb for the names of the Cinematographer and the Music Scorer!!
Just wanted to shoot as fast as I can talk!!
