Friday, May 13, 2011

THE GOOD, THE BAD AND THE UGLY

Il buono, il brutto, il cattivo - Italian title
I due magnifici straccioni - Italian title
El bueno, el feo y el meo - Spanish title
El bo el lleig I el dolent - Spanish title
De geode, de harde, de vagabond - Belgium title
O Bom, o mal e o feio - Brazilian title
Três Homens em Conflito - Brazilian title
Den Gode, den onde og den grusomme - Danish title
Hyvät, pahat ja rumat - Finnish title
Goda, onda och fula - Finnish title
Le bon la brute le truand - French title
Zwei glorreiche Halunken - German title
O kalos, o kakos kai oashimos - Greek title
A jo, a rossz es a csuf - Hungarian title
Den Gode, den vonde og den hjartelause - Norwegian title
Dobrzy, brzydcy, zli - Polish title
O Bom, o Mau e o Vilão - Portuguese title
Bunul, raul si uratul - Romanian title
De Gode, den onde, den fule - Swedish title
Iyi, Kötü ve Çirkin - Turkish title
Dobar, los, zao - Yugoslavian title
The Magnificent Rogues - U.K. title
The Good, the Bad and the Ugly - U.S.A. title

A 1966 Italian, Spanish, West German co-production [PEA (Rome), Arturo González Producciones Cinematográficas, S.A. (Madrid), Constantin Film Produktion (Munich)]
Producer: Alberto Grimaldi
Director: Sergio Leone
Story: Luciano Vincenzoni, Sergio Leone
Screenplay: Age (Agenore Incrocci), Scarpelli (Furio Scarpelli), Sergio Leone, Luciano
Vincezoni, Sergio Donati
English Dialogue: Mickey Knox (Abraham Knox)
Cinematography: Tonino Delli Colli (Antonio Delli Colli) [Technicolor, Techniscope]
Music: Ennio Morricone
Song: "Story of a Soldier" sung by I Cantori Moderni
Running time: 180 minutes

Cast:
Blondie - Clint Eastwood (Clinton Eastwood, Jr.)
Tuco Benedicto Pacifico Juan Maria Ramirez/’The Rat’ - Eli Wallach
Sentenza/Angel Eyes -  Lee Van Cleef (Clarence Van Cleef, Jr.)
Captain Clinton - Aldo Giuffrè
Corporal Wallace - Mario Brega
Mondrega/John Stevens -  Antonio Casas (Antonio Barros)
Mrs. Mondrega/Stevens -  Chelo Alonso (Alicia Garcia)
Mondrega’s/Steven’s youngest son - Antonio Ruiz (Antonio Sambrano)
Baker -  Livio Lorenzon
Padre Pablo Ramirez -  Luigi Pistilli
Maria- Rada Rassimov (Rada Djrassimovic)
Clem - Lorenzo Robledo
Elam - Al Mulloch (Alfred Rogers)
Marshal of Mesilla - John Bartha (János Barta)
Mesilla deputis - Franco Doria, George Stevenson (Antonio Dimitiri)
Captain Harper -Antonio Molino Rojo
Sergeant at Confederate camp - Victor Israel (José Vilanova)
Jackson/Bill Carson - Nino Casale (Antonio Casale)
Milton - Enzo Petito (Vincenzo Squatriti)
Al Frisco - Enrique Santiago
Young monk - Angelo Novi
Tuco’s henchmen - Aysanoa Runachagua, Claudio Scarchilli, Sandro Scarchilli
Angel Eye’s gang - Benito Stefanelli, Aldo Sambrell (Alfredo Brell), Romano Puppo
Bounty hunters - Frank Braña (Francisco Pérez), Saturino Cerra
Socorro prostitute - Silvana Bacci
Socorro barman - Ricardo Palacios (Ricardo Diez)
Socorro dignitary - Sergio Mendizabel (Hermengildo Mendizabell)
Mexican bounty hunter - Natale Nazzareno (Nazzareno Natale)
Thomas ‘Shorty’ Larson/Confederate spy - José Terron (José Penaranda)
Blacksmith - Verano Ginesi (Veriano Ginesi)
Observer’s at Tuco’s Mesilla hanging- Lanfranco Ceccarelli, Ettore Arena
Confederate Sergeant Sentry - Joseph Bradley 
Confederate soldier - William Conroy
Mexicans - Attilio Dottesi, Amerigo Castrighella
members of Betterville band- Domingo Contreras, Juan Porias, ‘Pelines’
with: Natale Nazzareno (Nazzareno Natale), Pedro Baldo, Vicente Hita


In a desolate ghost town during the Civil War, a bandit named Tuco (‘The Ugly’) escapes an assassination attemp t by three bounty hunters, killing two and badly wounding the third. The scene shifts to see Angel Eyes (‘The Bad') who has come to the farmhouse of Stevens to obtain information about a missing man named Jackson who has taken on the name "Bill Carson" and a cache of stolen Confederate gold. He shoots and kills Stevens and his eldest son after the interrogation, but not before Stevens pays Angel Eyes to kill Angel Eyes' employer, another former soldier named Baker. Angel Eyes later collects his fee for Stevens' killing Baker. He always sees his job through

Meanwhile, during Tuco's flight across the desert he runs into a group of bounty hunters who prepare to capture him when they are approached by Blondie (‘The Good’), a mysterious lone gunman who challenges the bounty hunters to the draw, which he wins with lightning speed. Initially elated, Tuco is enraged when Blondie delivers him to the local sheriff for the reward money of $2,000. Hours later, as Tuco awaits his execution, Blondie surprises the lawman and frees Tuco by shooting the hangman’s rope; the two later split the reward money, revealing their lucrative money-making scheme. After Tuco's bounty is raised to $3,000, the two repeat the process at another town before Blondie, weary of Tuco's incessant complaints about the dividing of the profits from their scheme, abandons him in the desert, keeping all of the money. A livid Tuco manages to make it to another town and rearm himself with a revolver. Tuco enlists three outlaw friends to come with him to kill Blondie. As the three men break into Blondie's room, Blondie shoots and kills all three of them, but to Blondie's surprise Tuco climbs in through his back window and aims his gun at Blondie in the middle of a skirmish between Union and Confederate troops. As Tuco prepares to hang Blondie, a cannonball hits the hotel and demolishes the room, allowing Blondie to escape.

Following a relentless search, Tuco captures Blondie who is using the same scheme with another partner. Tuco forces Blondie to marches across the harsh desert. When Blondie finally collapses from dehydration and heatstroke, Tuco prepares to kill him but pauses when a runaway ambulance carriage appears on the horizon heading their way. Inside, while looting the dead soldiers, Tuco discovers a dying Bill Carson, who reveals that $200,000 in stolen Confederate gold is buried in a grave in Sad Hill cemetery but falls unconscious before naming the grave. When Tuco returns with water, he discovers Carson dead and Blondie slumped against the carriage beside Carson's body. Before passing out, Blondie says that Carson told him the name on the grave. Tuco takes Blondie (both disguised as Confederate soldiers) to a Catholic mission run by Tuco's older brother Father Pablo. The monks nurse Blondie back to health, and the two leave, still disguised as Confederates. They inadvertently encounter a force of Union soldiers. They are captured and marched to a Union prison camp named Betterville.

At the camp, Corporal Wallace calls the roll. Tuco answers for Bill Carson, catching the attention of Angel Eyes, now disguised as a Union Sergeant stationed at the camp. Angel Eyes has Wallace viciously beat and torture Tuco into revealing Sad Hill Cemetery as the location of the gold, but Tuco also confesses that only Blondie knows the name on the grave. Angel Eyes offers Blondie an equal partnership in recovering the gold. Blondie agrees and rides out with Angel Eyes and his posse. Meanwhile, Tuco, chained to Corporal Wallace, is transported by train to his execution. During the trip, Tuco tells Wallace he has to urinate and distracts Wallace long enough to grab him and jump off the train, taking the Corporal with him. He then beats Wallace's head on a rock, killing him, and uses another train to cut their chain taking the dead Wallace with it, freeing him.

We next see Blondie, Angel Eyes and Angel Eyes' gang arriving in a town that's rapidly being evacuated due to heavy artillery fire. Tuco also arrives wandering aimlessly through the wreckage of that same town. The bounty hunter that Tuco shot in the opening scene of the film is also in town and surprises Tuco when he takes a bath in an abandoned hotel room. Tuco shoots and kills the bounty hunter and Blondie investigates the gunshot, finding Tuco and informing him of Angel Eyes's involvement. The two resume their old partnership, stalking through the wrecked town and killing Angel Eyes' henchmen before discovering that Angel Eyes has escaped and left an insulting note for them.

Tuco and Blondie find their way to Sad Hill Cemetery, but it is blocked by a large force of Union and Confederate soldiers who are separated by a narrow bridge. Each side is preparing to fight for it, but apparently both sides have been ordered not to destroy the bridge. Reasoning that if the bridge were destroyed the soldiers would leave, Blondie and Tuco wire the bridge with dynamite. During the process, the two trade information, Tuco revealing Sad Hill Cemetery as the gold's location and Blondie saying that the name on the grave is Arch Stanton. The two then take cover as the bridge blows up and the two armies resume their battle. The next morning, the Confederate and Union soldiers have gone. Tuco abandons Blondie (who has stopped to tend to a dying young Confederate soldier) to retrieve the gold for himself at the cemetery. Frantically searching the sea of make-shift tombstones and grave markers, Tuco finally locates Arch Stanton's grave. As he digs, Blondie appears (now clad in his trademark poncho) and tosses him a shovel. A second later, the two are surprised by Angel Eyes, who holds them at gunpoint. Blondie kicks open Stanton's grave to reveal just a skeleton. Declaring that only he knows the real name of the grave, Blondie writes it on a rock in the middle of the graveyard and tells Tuco and Angel Eyes that "two hundred thousand dollars is a lot of money. We're going to have to earn it."

The three stare each other down in the circular center of the cemetery, before suddenly drawing. Blondie shoots Angel Eyes, who tries to shoot Blondie while he is down only to be shot by Blondie again and rolls into an open grave, dead. Tuco also tries to shoot Angel Eyes, but discovers that Blondie had unloaded his gun the night before. Blondie directs Tuco to the grave marked "Unknown" next to Arch Stanton's. Tuco digs and is overjoyed to find bags of gold inside, but is shocked when he turns to Blondie and finds himself staring at a noose. Seeking a measure of revenge for what Tuco has done to him, Blondie forces Tuco to stand atop a wobbling grave marker and fixes the noose around his neck, binding Tuco's hands before riding off with his share of the gold. As Tuco screams for mercy, Blondie's silhouette returns on the horizon, aiming a rifle at him. Blondie fires a single shot and severs the noose rope, just like old times, dropping Tuco face-first onto his share of the gold. Blondie smiles and rides off leaving Tuco, who has his gold but no horse.

YouTube link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9etarIaqF1Y

2 comments:

  1. Biltmore: You have Nazzareno Natale listed twice, twice.

    ReplyDelete
  2. It's a great movie.I saw it first time in 1972 and downloaded the extended version(torrent) couple of weeks ago. I'll recommend everyone to watch only the extended (2 h 58 min) version of this superb film.

    ReplyDelete