FILMMAKER MOVIE REACTION!! The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly (1966) FIRST TIME REACTION!! 

Some are good, some are bad, and some are ugly. Want to vote on what I should watch next? Click here! www.patreon.com/jamesvscinema 40 YEAR OLD VIRGIN FIRST TIME WATCHING will be uploaded Thursday! Enjoy the day!

Morricone's score is the fourth lead character.

“When you have to shoot, shoot, don’t talk.” One of the best lines ever.

I love how the civil war is just simmering in the background. The main characters kinda bounce in and out of it without really taking any real stance.

The music in this film is simply terrific. Ennio Morricone truly was one of a kind.

Everything from the graveyard "Ecstasy of Gold" scene onwards is pretty much the most epic thing ever filmed.

That shot where he tosses the water bottle onto the sand hill and it rolls down to hit Blondie in the head is criminally underrated technical brilliance.

"We didn't need dialogue. We had faces!" Norma Desmond in Sunset Boulevard

This is a true work of art. Has to be considered the pinnacle of the spaghetti westerns.

I remember watching this fairly young and thinking "wait a minute, they're all pretty bad" 😂

Tuco in the gun shop is one of my favorite scenes. It reveals a lot about his character, especially that he doesn't recognize boundaries. At least he let the shop owner keep his bottle of whiskey. You really can see how this movie influenced Tarantino. It's a series of set pieces, as so many Tarantino films are. Also the stylized violence.

"The Good" giving the young soldier a final smoke before he dies is really touching

"Im not bad they just drew me that way" Lee Van Cleef when James says he looks like the bad guy

Lee Van Cleef as The Bad is one of my favorite all-time villains. He's amazing in For a Few Dollars More too, the second in the Man with No Name trilogy.

You should definitely do the whole Dollars Triology!

Dude, Lee van Cleef is an iconic villain, one of my absolute favorites :D

Ennio Morricone wrote some of the most iconic soundtracks in the history of film.

In the opening scene of Leone's other masterpiece, "Once Upon a Time in the West", the silence and the ambient sound of buzzing flies or squeaking windmill IS the soundtrack. It's a very deliberate method of his.

Sergio Leone had a philosophy in this movie that scale was important in the sounds. Everything needed to be bigger than real life. A pistol shouldn't sound like a pistol, but a rifle or shotgun. A shotgun should sound like a cannon. A cannon should sound like a bomb, etc. It's in-your-face old skool tech and it works. The bridge scene is amazing, but they actually had to do it twice. They built the bridge and rigged it for the scene, but someone (its mentioned who in one of the making-of vids) set it off early. The Spanish army then spent the night rebuilding it for the final take. The amount of help they got from the Spanish government was actually pretty impressive given the leader at the time. By far the Ennio Morricone's score is the most impressive singular element in the entire film. A normal films' score would fill in the background, lending itself to setting the scene. Morricone and Leone were not content with a mere background. The majority of the music in the film DRIVES the scene. It's right there, next to the actors, building the scene in that moment in an almost physical force kind of way. There is serious power behind it and the music cannot be separated from the scene without killing both. Fantastic, memorable power. If you get a chance, find and watch a documentary called "Sad Hill Unearthed" on Netflix. Fans of the movie set about finding and restoring the location of the epic scene of the cemetery shootout. It's now a landmark and tourist attraction in Spain.

The power of this film is that it's framed so viewer sees what the characters see. There is no peripheral vision.

"Spaghetti westerns are more realistic" There speaks someone who has yet to see Franco Nero shooting from the hip with his ... um, 'large firearm' in _Django_

It was filmed in Spain. I love the bridge scene, because these characters who constantly deal in death, even they can't fathom the utter carnage over some unimportant bridge. Sure, they need the armies gone to go get the gold, but you can see with their interaction with the captain that they blow the bridge for more than just the gold.

It was only a matter of time right ? That final scene with the Trio staring at each other with that music is 👌 .

Check out “The Outlaw Josey Wales”, Clint’s other masterpiece Western role.

The ending of this movie is one of my earliest memories. Some Saturday or Sunday afternoon, everyone else was napping I think, I'm probably 3 or 4 years old, sitting in front of the TV all alone, transfixed by this sweaty, close-up, 3-way stand-off, having absolutely no idea what any of it was about. But it was so arresting and dramatic. The suspense😲 And then leaving the guy with the noose around his neck and riding away, wondering if the guy was going to lose his balance, a troubling scenario for a pre-schooler to be contemplating on a lazy afternoon🤔

Another good Clint Eastwood western is The Outlaw Joeys Wales, he directed it as well. I just saw it and it’s now one of my favorite westerns.

Only after watching the first two parts of the Dollars trilogy can you really appreciate how Blondies costume changes during this movie into the one we know and love at the end.

L'estasi del oro (the ecstasy of gold), the song played when Tuco runs through the cemetery, is one of the finest pieces of music ever written, period.

There are two kinds of people. One who think The Good, The Bad and The Ugly is a timeless classic and those, who have not seen it.

1:30 Spaghetti westerns are definitely NOT more accurate representations of the American West. They were indeed more stylistic representations of the West and more realistic in its depiction of violence (although not super realistic since the violence is stylized) than classic Hollywood westerns-- but that's because Hollywood westerns were limited by the Hays Code whereas Italian cinema was not limited in its portrayal of violence. Revisionist westerns are more accurate representations of the West (like "Dances with Wolves" or "Unforgiven").

This is my all time favorite movie. The scene at the end where he’s running through the graveyard is maybe my all time favorite scene too. It’s shot so well man

What i love about this movie is that in the beginning all 3 main characters ar not so different, the 3 are in some level bad. But as the film keeps going you can see how Blondie and Tuco are adopting their "names". Blondie becomes more empathic and noble while Tuco is still bad but you kinda see he has a heart. And Angel Eyes keeps being the bad xd.

Wow. Glad you got around to seeing this masterpiece. This whole trilogy is fantastic, although Once Upon a Time in the West is my favorite Leone film.

It's the epitome of 'Show, don't tell.'

Do Unforgiven with Clint and Morgan Freeman.

Notice how most people prefer "the bad" and "the ugly" in this film, probably because Tuco is the most human character, with hard childhood, but remains a comic relief, and Angel Eyes is charming and complicated: a villain who kills less than the protagonists of his film, keeps his contracts, unlike common western villains he doesn't rob, rape or use drugs, doesn't shot them in the back when he has the upper hand in the cemetery, shows some respect towards Blondie, complimenting his intelligence and has sympathy for extremely wounded soldiers. They are also superb actors and Lee Van Cleef, omg, what an attractive, sexy, fascinating man, with unique face features! I loved "the good", too, because of his genius level intelligence - he practically pulls the strings in the 2nd half of the movie, and the twist that he's not exactly heroic.

In my humble opinion, this is the greatest movie ever filmed.

You can also watch "High plains drifter" it's cool

I think one of the best part is the meeting between Tuco and his brother, because it shows what great director Leone is and how good is the screenplay: in just a couple of minutes Leone reverse our perspective on Tuco, turning him from a despicable asshole to a troubled antihero.

I love how "the ugly" makes the sign of the cross and then a sweeping gestures as if saying "whatever".

When Tuco looked up from the gold and saw the noose, the Curb Your Enthusiasm theme started playing in my head

So the thing about the guns, lots of them are anachronistic, primarily, you had to carry a flask of gunpowder, a pouch of lead balls (bullets) and load them individually into the gun, in The Good The Bad and The Ugly, you see the actors on screen load metallic cartridges, something that wouldn’t be in common use during the Civil War, but, there’s a good reason for this. If you think about how they do takes of certain scenes, one of those historically accurate black powder revolvers takes upwards of 20 minutes to reload to maximum capacity, and there’s an issue involved with sourcing genuine black powder, wadding, and blasting caps, and to do that for a hundred other characters with what was considered a measly budget in places where that kind of material was scarce or impossible to find anyways (they filmed the movie in Spain and Italy, hence ‘spaghetti westerns’). So to allow the characters to shoot blanks and capture the visuals of a gun being fired with all the appropriate smoke and flash, they gave them replicas that were cartridge converted, so instead of taking 20 or so minutes to reload the guns between takes or scenes, it would take them a few seconds since the guns were converted to take metallic cartridges. Now, there were guns out there in the early to mid 1860s that took metallic cartridges, the kind we see today and the kind that were much easier to find locally, but regardless, it’s an anachronism. I will say though, despite the fact that none of them were truly in common use with either army or the civilians in their midst, I think it deserves a pass because of the obvious logistical setbacks, and the fact that they did a fantastic job with the effects and aesthetic with or without historically accurate guns. There were a few anachronisms and goofs when it came to Clint’s lever action, the one he uses to free Tuco during the former portion of the film, and a few historically inaccurate guns during the gun shop scene, it’s also impossible that Tuco put a gun together made of parts by several different manufacturers and was able to make the thing work, but it’s a cool scene, and it has some cool inspiration, I think it was inspired by Samuel Colt mixing and matching revolver parts for an audience in London, though they were all Colt parts.

I like how James appreciates real and gritty westerns. Sam Peckinpah has a similar viewpoint of the western genre. Esp. Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid.

Should be noted that though this is the last film in the Dollars trilogy, chronologically it's the first film. It takes place in an earlier time period when the Civil War is still underway. More important Blondie doesn't have his iconic hat and poncho until the end of the film.

25:03 I love the way the camera pans up as The Ecstasy of Gold starts. Tuco has reached his destination, only to find one final, maddening obstacle: graves that seemingly stretch on into infinity. The one he needs is somewhere in there. And all he can do is run in circles in sheer desperation, because by that point he has _nothing else._

Grew up on films like this at the Drive-in. Please try “Cool Hand Luke” 1968 film starring Paul Newman. Has some of my favorite movie quotes.

This is my absolute favorite western. It's truly epic in every way. From the way Sergio Leone films every scene to the late Ennio Morricone incredible score it's a perfect western in every way possible.

Eli Wallach as Tuco is so great. He was never afraid to be grungy or unlikable in his roles, but he could also do incredibly endearing (see The Holiday). He was a magnificent character actor.

I know everyone has their western recommendations, but since you've watched Blazing Saddles, I think you ought to react to Three Amigos. Second best western comedy out there.

The best improvised line ever " When you have to shoot,shoot,don't talk! "

"I just haven't, damn it!" So true. Especially now with the modern TV age. Everyone is always on my back with "How have you not watched X, Y and Z yet?!" "Because I been busy with L, M and N! You watched any of them yet?" "No. I haven't heard of them." "Then STFU." Anyway, thanks for watching my #1 all-time favourite film.

You wonder about a tune from a movie. It is grand. It is epic. Truly epic. You wonder what kind of epic scene it was about. Well, it was for a guy running around in a graveyard searching for a grave.

The scene where Tuco builds his gun was given a nice homage when John Wick did the same thing in the 3rd movie in a museum

@25:22 The re-review of this movie by Roger Ebert is really illuminating. This movie used somewhat comic book rules in which the characters don't notice anything until the camera does. The most obvious example is when Tuco and Blondie stumble upon the encampment at the bridge that ends up getting blown up. But the reveal of the expanse of the cemetery is perhaps the most awesome example.

"He who double crosses me and leaves me alive, he knows nothing of Tuco. Nothing."

Fun Fact: Sergio Leone never used storyboards. He knew exactly what he wanted to shoot, everything was in his head. He also asked Ennio Morricone (who went to school together with Leone btw) to compose the music first, and THEN he would shoot the scenes with the music in mind.

I would honestly recommend the entire man with no name trilogy which are "A fistful of dollars , A few dollars more and as u watched above the good, bad n ugly". For a few dollars more is particularly one of my favorites. They are meant to be self contained stories with clint at its center. If u noticed, he never had a definitive name... just Tuco calling him Blondie lol. So glad u checked this out :)

Epic. I really can't imagine anyone attempting to film anything as big as this today. It really has everything, humour, drama, pathos

fun fact: the good kills a lot more people than the bad in this movie

Don't sweat the "oh maaan, you haven't seen X?!" crowd. It's jus a nothing auto response. Like, would you walk up to a child and be like "Brooo, you're in preschool and you've never done TAXES?! XDXDXD" Real salt of the earth people, y'know?

The theme song never gets old and it's still used to this day.

I just realized how the first scene with The Bad was much like the first scene in inglorious bastards. No wonder it’s quentins favorite movie.

My favourite ever film. Perfection. The scene where the bridge blows up had to be re-filmed because the stunt director accidentally blew it up before the camera's were rolling. Leone co-opted in the Spanish army to rebuild the entire thing! Eli Wallach (Tuco) was almost accidentally killed twice during shooting; the first time when he was being hanged and the rope didn't break cleanly, and the second time on the railway tracks, when he realised just within the nick of time, that a wrought iron step on the approaching train was a bit too low and would have decapitated him. You can see Wallach quickly shuffle down the sandbank. My favourite shot has to be the scene in the desert, where Blondie tumbles down the sand dune and Tuco lobs the bottle of wine. The shot where the bottle perfectly rolls down the dune to crack Blondie right in the head must be almost impossible to pull off, especially given the problematic sand and footprint issues. Great reaction and review James.

The scene in the fort with Angels Eyes looking around was the first shot that made me appreciate cinematography as a kid, and the score and just the general emotion of the scene was one of the first film scenes I ever really appreciated in general.

Once Upon a Time may be Leone's pinnacle achievement, but this has always been my favorite. "When you have to shoot, shoot. Don't talk." Good advice for life and filmmaking! Edit : and Lee Van Cleef, man. What a villain.

The character who's name was borrowed, for Tuco in Breaking Bad. Never mind how many shots and techniques yoinked from Leone films for the look of Breaking Bad. So much tribute.

Elli Wallach gave us one of the best performances ever seen in film... and by the way, the movie was shoot in Spain, specifically, Almería in Andalucía... there's a desert there and other different kind of environment, so it's perfect for shooting a western, and many many spaguetti westerns were shot there... But, he cemetery scene was shot in Santo Domingo de Silos, a small village in the province of Burgos... the whole cemetery was built for the movie only. The cemetery still exists. Other movie shot in Burgos partially, was the wonder that is Dr. Zhivago, the film by David Lean. Every David Lean movie is strongly recommended

James, you know what you are!? You're just a great Reac-AHAHAHAAAAAAAA

They shot the film in more than one location, but most of the outdoor and riding scenes were shot in Spain. This is my dad's absolute favourite western, so we travelled to Spain once, to ride the trails and areas Eastwood rode in the movie. My fav was definitely around Granada, that's where they shot the desert scenes with the canyons in the background. Also, the film mostly used Andalusian horses (Iberian/Spanish breeds) and few to none American breeds which I feel like are the only "spaghetti" aspect in this true western setting!

Never clicked faster! My favourite movie right here! and my older brothers now too, lmao. I convinced him, he had to let Godfather II go.

Hell yes, we’re here for one of my favorite films of all time!

The only word that comes to mind is EPIC. Sound, visuals, characters, everything!!!!!

Sergio Leoni + Ennio Morricone = film masterpieces.

To dive deeper into the aesthetic that evolved into the Spaghetti Western, I would suggest comparing/contrasting Yojimbo and Fistful of Dollars or Seven Samurai and Magnificent Seven (the original). Samurai films, particularly those of Akira Kurasawa, had a huge influence on the style of Westerns.

I think the craft of this film can be summarized in the short shot of him throwing the bottle and it rolling down the hill perfectly to hit Eastwood in the head. You were kind of talking during that but its really an amazing testament to the work put in. Just imagine the work they put in to get him rolling down the hill and landing perfectly in frame, the bottle throw, and camera all to sync up and the amount of time it would take to fix all the sand if it didn't work. It blows my mind every time i think about it.

Did you know that Leone and Morricone knew each other since they were kids in elementary school?

22:23 I'm so happy you laughed at that because I also thought that tiny little hand movement was hilarious

The music is the 4th character imo,and this trilogy that technically isn't a trilogy is the best ever made. My fave one is For a Few Dollars More. I have seen these films countless times and the glorious details never get old. Thank you so much for doing this ❤

The film was shot in Spain in the 1960s. The cemetery was restored and can be visited today in Burgos in central Spain. As a curiosity, more than 2000 military extras were used for the battle scene and the bridge was blown up and built twice because the first time it exploded by mistake😂

Apparently many people actually left the theater during Tuco's torture scene in the camp. The modern viewer in the US was not familiar with that type of violence.

As an Italian myself, I could not expect anything better than this...an American watching and reacting to a classic spaghetti western! LOVE MAN!

Unforgiven deconstructs these classic westerns. It's a good watch.

This movie held the Guinness record for decades for most people used to film a scene, with the combat at the bridge. Not sure if it still holds the record but last I checked, it had held it for like 30 years.

Epic. Absolutely epic. This movie is a deconstruction of Western-as-myth, where all the characters are given different titles but they all have the same theme tune, played on a different instrument. It begs the viewer to ask whether each one deserves that title. The Good kills more men, but he also leaves Tuco exactly the way he finds him, only richer. The Ugly is more like an Everyman who must do whatever it takes to survive. Eli Wallach absolutely steals this show from everyone except the cinematographer and the composer. Just grade A epicness all the way around.

In the scene where Tuco just enters the graveyard, a random dog had wandered onto the set and into the shot and it surprised Eli and itself and it was just perfect.

Yes! One of the few movies I rate a perfect 10 out of 10. The characters, the music, the frames, the juxtaposition of extreme closeups and extreme wideshoots (somewhat of a trademark of Sergio Leone)....just absolute awesomeness. The great lines If you gonna shoot, shoot, don't talk There are two kinds of people in the world, those with loaded guns and those who dig - you dig and so many more And then there is the glorious finale. The last 15 or so minutes beginning with the reveal of the graveyard to the greatest standoff in cinema history - absolute perfection. Boy I could go on for hours about this movie. My favorite Western of all time and as mentioned before, one of not many movies that I consider perfect BTW: The prison camp scene was most likely (at least in part) inspired by the Andersonville POW camp, which was run by the confederates, and the brutality that went on in that camp.

"but you know, the pity of it is, when I'm paid, I always see the job through. You know that" I love that line as it shows Angel Eyes as what he is. Professional but also sadistic

That one scene with the bridge being blown up? You can see a few stones land perilously close to Eastwood, cause there were much less safety regulations back in the day. He was pretty goddamn pissed about it, apparently. Also - at the last showdown, did you notice Lee van Cleef missing the tip of his middle finger? Not many people do.

Some of the dialogue had to be redubbed since some scenes were cut and had to be restored. By the time it was restored Lee Van Cleef ( the bad) was dead and Eli Wallach and Eastwood were in their 80’s. So they hired a soundalike for Van Cleef’s role.

If you watch the Leone/Eastwood movies in order, each one establishes one of the character archetypes. First Eastwood (Fistful of Dollars), then Van Cleef (For a Few Dollars More, aka my favorite), and Wallach in this one. Also, if you watch Once Upon a Time in the West, they use the same archetypes but with different actors. This was filmed in the deserts of Spain.

Favorite line of the movie Tuco- you’re joking blondie? You wouldn’t play a joke on me like that!? Clint- it’s no joke…. It’s a rope tuco. (Dramatic pause) now I want you to stand up there and put your head in the noose Just pure gold

"If you want to shoot ... SHOOT... DONT TALK!!!"

When Tarantino made The Hateful Eight, since it was a western, he got the best composer for what he wanted. Ennio Morricone, the man who wrote the score to The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly

One thing to notice here, Tuco is the main protagonist.

So I'm pretty sure it's been mentioned, but the scene where Tuco makes up a new revolver in the gun store, that was actually improv!

First time watching this masterpiece? Very cool

I think most of this was shot in Spain, possible the island of Mallorca. Lee Van Cleef was actually a Western fan and rated as a quick draw to out match many of the actual Western gunslingers. The first of this trilogy "A Fistful of Dollars" is actually a sort of remake of Japanese director Akira Kurosawa's "Yojimbo". A film that is well worth checking out.

The guns are decently accurate, just a few years early in some cases. There was a theater of operations in Texas and New Mexico, though the Confederate troops seldom were as uniformly clothed as they are here. In short, not perfect but not bad.

Someone else probably mentioned this, but Leone originally wanted the three main actors (Eastwood, Van Cleef and Wallach) to play the three men Harmonica kills in the opening scene of "Once Upon A Time In The West" to surprise viewers. He was not able to get all three, so he went with recognizable character actors from other westerns.

Love these reactions. Since you're taking a look at classic epics, I would definitely be interested in seeing your take on Lawrence of Arabia.