10 Genius Editing Decisions That Made Movie Scenes Great
5. The Final Duel Was Filmed & Edited To A Pre-Recorded Score - The Good, The Bad & The Ugly
The climactic three-way duel between Blondie (Clint Eastwood), Angel Eyes (Lee van Cleef), and Tuco (Eli Wallach) in The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly is one of the most iconic scenes in movie history - and for damn good reason.
It's a dizzying, prolonged spectacle in which the three men stare one another down for almost five minutes before Blondie shoots and kills Angel Eyes, with the entire sequence set to Ennio Morricone's gloriously epic musical score.
And while it's still typical for a movie's music to be composed in post-production, Leone took the unconventional approach of having Morricone record the score first, allowing him to play it on set and help him plan the composition of pivotal scenes.
Given how beautifully the duel is cut to Morricone's track "The Trio," it was certainly a smart decision to have that presence on set during shooting.
Not only did it allow Leone to get a feel for the scene's rhythm before he went into the editing suite, but it also helped the actors sense the mood he was aiming for. Perfection.