The Good, The Bad And The Ugly - Extended Cut (1966) ****
I know that The Good, The Bad And The Ugly (1966) is widely regarded as the best of the Dollars Trilogy and should be my favorite, but it's not and never has been. That honor goes to For A Few Dollars More (1965) (review). Don't get me wrong, I think TGTBATU is an excellent film, features some of the best moments of the series (particularly the final standoff, which is one of the all-time great moments of cinema) and deserves all the praise it gets, but it just doesn't hit me the same way the second film does.
One of my favorites things about this series are Clint Eastwood’s mannerisms, which he maintains throughout all three films, centering around his signature cigars—the chomp, slight roll, and spitting out little bits (not that I endorse smoking). Lee Van Cleef is great as the baddie, Angel Eyes, but I still enjoy his character Mortimer from FAFDM more. Eli Wallach is an obvious scene stealer as Tuco and really helps make the film work. I do feel that Eastwood is relegated to the background a bit too often in TGTBATU though. The third Dollars film does feature the best overall Morricone score. The theme song is one of the most iconic pieces of film music ever written and many of the other cues are extremely memorable and vital to the film.
One of my favorites things about this series are Clint Eastwood’s mannerisms, which he maintains throughout all three films, centering around his signature cigars—the chomp, slight roll, and spitting out little bits (not that I endorse smoking). Lee Van Cleef is great as the baddie, Angel Eyes, but I still enjoy his character Mortimer from FAFDM more. Eli Wallach is an obvious scene stealer as Tuco and really helps make the film work. I do feel that Eastwood is relegated to the background a bit too often in TGTBATU though. The third Dollars film does feature the best overall Morricone score. The theme song is one of the most iconic pieces of film music ever written and many of the other cues are extremely memorable and vital to the film.
This is the second time I've watched the extended version, which is 3 hours long. I really don't feel that the added scenes contribute anything much to the film, barring one scene with some amusing dialog from Blondie comparing the number of bullets in his gun to his rivals. The added scenes are also somewhat jarring due to the fact that Eastwood, Van Cleef and Wallach were brought in for dubbing in 2003. While it's nice that the studio took the time to get the original actors, their voices clearly don't sound the same, particularly Eastwood's (one scene doesn't even sound like him).
In fact, I think the film is already overlong at its theatrical length of 162 minutes (though I definitely prefer it to the extended cut). A lot of The Civil War stuff just doesn't do it for me. I've never felt it added much to the story, other than to take the characters from point A to point B. Many scenes hinge on events that happen around or directly to the characters, but others just make the movie drag, in my opinion. The seriousness and poignancy of some of the Civil War scenes always takes away from the amusing and entertaining tone of the rest of the film. Maybe it's sacrilege to say so, but I think The Good, The Bad And The Ugly would have worked fine with about 30 minutes shaved off.
Sergio Leone would go on to make his best film two years later—Once Upon A Time In The West (review), my favorite western. OUATITW also features my favorite overall Morr-score (for a Leone film). OUATITW's running time is also the same as the theatrical version of TGTBATU, but has never felt overly long.
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