The Good, The Bad, And The Ugly -- 1966 -- R

Currently listed as number 5 on IMDB's top 250 movies of all time, this is the first "Spaghetti Western" I recall seeing end to end and pay attention too. This class of movies is called this because it was produced by Italian studios. I also learned that this film is the third in the "Man With No Name" or "Dollars" trilogy which includes A Fistful of Dollars and A Few Dollar More (titles you cna be assured will be showing up here in short order).

This film follows three men (can you guess how they're referred to?) who lead dissimilar lives that converge over a single thing: money. A lot of money to be specific, but to tell too much would be to give away too much. Lots of little twists and reversals all over the place, some more minor than others, make it difficult to discuss this film without giving away very much of the plot.

To give some generals, these thre are no buddies by any means. We get introduced to them one at a time as they do what they do in their lives before they converge. The opening seven or so minutes of the film is completely without dialogue and very well done. Little moments that a weaker filmmaker would have put some line in such as "come on, honey" were left fully visual as the dialogue would have given us nothing. Dialogue is given at moments whre it is needed, and left out at all the right moments.

The main three characters are pretty well rounded out and believable, even if we're given precious little info about who they are. We get their personalities and how they would act and they are kept consistent throughout, making it a lot of fun to watch them all go at it.

The plot unravels fairly naturally and logically as they go from place to place. I would say there was only one part where I wished they'd just skipped it and moved on, and this was fairly near the end when they ran across some Civil War soldiers...again. They had quite a few Union and Confederate run-ins and by the time they hit their last one, I was ready for the 3 hour epic to be over. This sequence really didn't add much to the overall tapestry beyond a cool explosion and some very humorous moments.

The ending worked out perfectly with a three-way shoot-out (come on, that's not really a spoiler, is it?), and of course, it ended the mot logical way it could end.

Definitely a classic that deserves the props it's been given. It contains one of the most famous western movie themes ever; here, I'll whistle a few bars. (...) Hear that? Oh, yeah, computer. Sorry. It's very well constructed and a great film to watch. And if you like Taratino films, you'll find he's rather fond of this film too; he homages it a lot. So it's a must see if you haven't and you're a film guru.