First time for everything Tony! You have until Sunday night, and you I suggest Divorce - Italian Style or Johnny Stecchino. I expect a full report on my desk by the close of the 16th.

edit** I'm surprised you're never seen any of the Spaghetti Westerns FILMO has been talking about?

Those sound like chick flicks.

I have The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly DVD, but haven't gotten around to watching it. I have a shelf full of unseen 3 hour long movies that just sit there and mock me and my damned ADD.

Anyhow, I've been to Italy... I should get bonus points for that.

Nope. They are slap-stick comedies I think you'll like. Check out my quick notes on them on the previous pages for the 60's and the 90's. FILMO did a bit on Leone and Eastwood, etc, too. So we'd love to hear what you thought of The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly. It's my favorite, even better than Once Upon a Time in the West, which i think is FILMO's favorite. So we might have to fight over you.

Ok, but only if it's a fight to the death with plastic spoons.

In honor of the International Film Festival, I shall finally dust off and watch TGB&U.

You'd be surprised how close to the mark you just hit...





Thanks Tony!

I watched The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly tonight. Overall a very good film, and a lot different than what I thought it would be (I really didn't know that much about it going in). I was surprised to see it weave in the civil war into a western. I don't believe I ever have seen a movie with civil war scenes set in the dessert before.

I really liked Tuco (the Ugly)... it was neat how the movie made him likeable, but at the same time he was not a good guy and was a complete moron. The whole style of the movie was top notch... it looked like a movie that was well ahead of its time. I'm not a big fan of westerns, but really enjoyed this one. Easily the best one I have seen... it didn't adhere to the typical western formula.

My grade for TG,TB,&TU... A-

One question... in the DVD I saw the actors were speaking English, but the movie appeared dubbed in English (why would they dub English over English???). In the deleted scenes the actors were speaking Italian with English subtitles. What's the dealeo with that?

Tony, hence why they're called Spaghetti (Italian) Westerns. its odd, but all shot in italy, and with a few of the main characters being english speaking, but outside of that, everyone else spoke Italian. All extras, often the "bad" guys (The most famous of Leone's was Gian Maria Volente who spoke Italian). So when they dubbed, they had to do full dubbing. So even the english speaking actors had to go over their lines again. Its notorious how Pippi Longstocking-esque Spaghetti Westerns look.

I'm glad you liked it. The Spaghetti Westerns were the precursers to the anti-westerns (Basically the stuff Eastwood and others did later). They don't have heros in the same way the 40's and 50's American Westerns did. They didn't quite yet have anit-heroes either...which developed later. They had these oddly straightforeward, sympathetic, but also quite rude characters. Almost realist, imo. The fact is, little seperated the three characters. What made one good, the other bad, and the other ugly? They were all going for the same gold, and all using any means possible to get it. The only difference, imo, is what was available to them for use. Tuco and Blondie just had themselves, which is more appealing than someone who was in power, and could use an entire army to get at it.

I also found moments of humanism, like when Blondie and Tuco blow up the bridge during the battle. To me, the entire movie is a metaphor of the post Civil-war ravaged coast looking west for the mineral rushes. But I might be pushing it with that interpretation.

Did you not LOVE the sceen with Tuco running in the graveyard around and around? Glorious. With Morricone's music. Its really humourous and yet beautiful as well.

Anyways, I have a movie poster I purchased for the movie, so thought you might be interested in seeing it. I own this one:

I know what you mean... that all the characters were basically equal, but I noticed subtle differences in them that I think made them "the good", "the bad", and "the ugly". For example, Eastwood's character (the good) always seemed to genuinely care about other people. For example, the wounded soldier that he gave his cigarette to, and that he continually helped Tuco (although he did seem to enjoy abusing him) despite the fact Tuco was genuinely trying to kill him most of the time. But, yes... what I really liked about it was that they weren't cookie cutter characters. They weren't cut and dry black and white. All of them were somewhere in the middle, even though they may lean toward opposite directions. That is completely different from most westerns.

There were so many impressive shots (like Tuco running around the cemetary) that I lost count. That was the thing that surprised and impressed me the most. I knew I was in for a treat when I saw the opening credits (very artsy, but cool) and then the first few minutes went by without a word, but lots of great visuals.

I forgot to mention that I loved the little touches of humor... I loved the line when Clint Eastwood read the note... "Idiot.... it's for you". Good stuff.

Anyhow, great recommendation, and I'm glad I finally watched it.

Okay so i promise to watch the dvds between tomorrow and wednesday. Kissies.

Ive just been busy and largely intoxicated and sick all at the same time.

Start with La Dolce Vita! I'm pretty sure you'll like it just from what I've seen of your photos, and also your personality.

I heart you. If you mean my obsession with femme fatales and elegant women? Its one of the main reasons I chose this movie.

The good the bad and the ugly was awesome, my favorite western

For a very long time, this was my all time favorite western, perhaps my favorite movie period. Admittedly some of this had to do with it being pretty much the first movie I can recall ever seeing--albeit in front of television in the early 70s, so there is a big nostalgia factor for me. Now, I'd probably say my favorite western is Unforgiven, then Once Upon a Time in West, and finally The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly [though more like it is a three-way tie with top honors depending on my mood]. For the two Leone films, it cannot be emphasized enough how much the score makes those movies, especially TGTBTU. I don't think that movie would have been watchable without the strength of that score. FILMO already gave very good background on Once Upon a Time in the West earlier, and the one tid bit I find interesting is Leone had in mind Eastwood, Wallach, and Van Cleef to play the three gunmen at the beginning of the movie. I cannot help but wonder how cool that would have been.