Two Great Western Films

So what prompted this blog, you ask? Why recommend these movies?

Pure whim. And because I feel like it. I wish I had a better reason.

Fortunately, the movies are exceedingly good. Both are directed by Sergio Leone. They’re among my favorites.

The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly (1966)


One of the greatest of all Westerns, and one that is highly watchable even for those who don’t like the genre.

Directed by Sergio Leone and starring Clint Eastwood (the good), Lee Van Cleef (the bad), and Eli Wallach (the ugly), the film follows these three men as they search desperately for a chest full of stolen Confederate gold.

And that’s about it for the film’s plot. Sure, there are plenty of double crosses and not a few side-trips (one to a monastery, another to a POW camp, and to various nameless towns), but the plot as a whole really is that simple, and from it Leone somehow manages to extract three very entertaining hours.

Much of this success lies in Leone's style. The film is funny in a highly laconic way, and the irony of the title as applied to the film’s main characters cannot be lost on the audience. Not one of these men is particularly good, and the definition of the term ‘bad’ here proves highly relative. This is Leone’s ironic statement about the nature of the American Western, and the way in which it often painted the world in terms of black and white – pure good and pure evil.

And while the viewer may root for Eastwood because, let’s face it, it’s Clint Eastwood, it is interesting to note that of all of the characters, it is only the wily Tuco (Wallach) who displays any real, relatable emotion; as a consequence, it is only he who elicits any real sympathy. As critic Richard Schickel notes on the commentary track of the restored DVD, this was entirely intentional on Leone’s part, as he identified with Tuco’s hardscrabble background.



The film was known at the time for its violence, and while in some scenes it still has an impact, that violence is – by current standards – fairly tame.

The movie as a whole is extraordinary fun, and an exercise in pure style.


Once Upon a Time in the West (1968)
Leone’s follow up to ‘The Man With No Name Trilogy,’ this is his final true Western and, like The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly, one of the greatest examples of its genre.

Also like its predecessor, it does not feature an overly complex plot, though here Leone has at least added a few extra plot strands. In this case, Charles Bronson plays a man (known only as Harmonica) seeking revenge against Frank (Henry Fonda). Frank works for the railroad and is determined to take over a tract of land held by the widowed Claudia Cardinale, who wants revenge of her own. Lurking comically along the sidelines is Jason Robards as a half-Indian(!) outlaw wanted for crimes he didn’t commit. Things turn out more or less as you'd think they would in a classic Western, but it's the process of getting there - the style of the piece - that is the reason to see the film.

Where his earlier film played like a grand comic opera, Once Upon a Time in the West plays more like a straight opera. Legend has it that Leone asked his brilliant composer, Ennnio Morricone, to write and record the film’s score before shooting had even begun, so that the actors could play their scenes in time with the music.

It worked. Some have accused the film of being too slow (often citing the film’s famous, dialogue-free ten-minute opening as proof), but the pace is in tune with Leone’s operatic notions of the story. You'll find one example below - though be forewarned: it does contain a major spoiler.



Where The Good, and Bad, and the Ugly highlighted the genre’s absurdities, this film celebrates its traditions.

And everything works. Bronson is suitably silent and brooding, while Fonda convincingly plays against type (to a degree that was shocking at the time) as the villain. It is left to Cardinale and Robards to provide the film with a sense of humanity, and that they do quite well.



I should again mention the musical scores written by Morricone. On many films, the music is almost incidental to the action. Not in Leone’s films – and especially not in these two masterpieces. To think of these films without Morricone's music is horrifying.

Brilliant.