The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (18)

Time Out says

Tue Jul 29 2008

One of the monumental achievements in narrative filmmaking, Sergio Leone’s grandiose 1966 western epic is nothing less than a masterclass in movie storytelling, a dynamic testament to the sheer, invigorating uniqueness of cinema.

Clint Eastwood and Lee Van Cleef are their usual taciturn selves as rival gunslingers pursuing a cache of lost gold. So it’s left to Eli Wallach’s Tuco to steal the show, the archetypal pitiable, self-deluded villain, the rotten heart of Leone’s colossal canvas.

It’s hard to name another film with so many iconic, indelible sequences: Tuco following a trail of half-smoked cigars; the unmanned stagecoach thundering through the desert; the operatic Mexican standoff in the graveyard, as Ennio Morricone’s peerless score mounts over five nailbiting, wordless minutes. But what impresses most is the intimacy of Leone’s vision, sketching a vast array of ruthless characters with broad but subtle visual strokes, never losing sight of the humanity amidst the carnage.

Author: Tom Huddleston