46. Quote - Learning To Read
Tuco - "See you soon, id... " "id... " "ids... " Blondie - ""Idiots". It's for you."
47. It Gave Leone The Opportunity To Make Even Grander Films
In the wake of The Good, The Bad and the Ugly's success, Leone had the freedom to produce more ambitious projects with even larger budgets and on a grander scale. He followed up the conclusion to the Dollars trilogy with the masterpiece 'Once Upon A Time In The West', which boasted a more lavish production and a cast including Charles Bronson, Henry Fonda and Claudia Cardinale thanks to backing from Paramount Pictures. Following Once Upon A Time In The West, Leone directed the underrated Mexican revolution epic 'A Fistful Of Dynamite' (aka. Duck, You Sucker!) and the hugely ambitious and astounding 'Once Upon A Time In America'. While it suffered from a difficult production and was massacred by Warner Bros on its original release (they cut more than 2 hours out of it and changed the structure of the narrative) in its extended form Leone's final film is an absolute masterpiece and one of the finest portraits of organized crime ever made, even surpassing The Godfather..... Yup, I said it.
48. And Taught Eastwood A Thing Or Two About Directing Westerns
Despite becoming a Hollywood icon, Eastwood's true aspirations were grounded in his plans to eventually direct as well as star in his own films, giving him full creative control. His directorial debut was 1971's brilliant thriller 'Play Misty For Me' which he followed with his first western 'High Plains Drifter' in 1973. Eastwood has directed six westerns including 'Pale Rider' and 'The Outlaw Josey Wales', culminating in his final tribute and eulogy to the genre with the Oscar winning Unforgiven in 1992. While his own depiction of the West is entirely different to Leone's, it's indisputable that the shadow of his role as The Man With No Name hung over his forays into the genre, while he later dedicated 'Unforgiven' - his final western - to Sergio Leone and Don Siegel.
49. It Shows That Critics Can Often Be Wrong
The Spaghetti Westerns were considered exploitation movies, often taking the style of their American counterparts, chucking away the morality and throwing in more violence, explosive action and gruff anti-heroes which made John Wayne look like a sissy. Alongside all of this, the films are reflective of their modest budgets with bad dubbing, poor acting from minor characters and lower production values. The result was that Leone's films often received a largely negative reaction at the time of release, only to go on to be considered classic westerns many years later. The Good, the Bad and the Ugly was considered an amoral and curious film, especially compared to what audiences were used to seeing coming out of Hollywood studios.
"It must be the most expensive, pious and repellent movie in the history of its peculiar genre." - The New York Times "temptation is hereby proved irresistible to call The Good, The Bad and the Ugly, now playing citywide, The Bad, The Dull, and the Interminable, only because it is." - Los Angeles Times "The Good, the Bad and the Uglya title that might serve as the film's own capsule review." - TIME Magazine "Ennio Morricone's insistent music and Carlo Simi's baroque art direction further contribute to the pic's too-muchness." - Variety
50. It Has One Of The Most Epic Final Battles In Cinema History
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XP9cfQx2OZY Seriously, one of the most epic scenes ever put to celluloid. There's barely a word spoken, just music and images combined to create a sequence which is tense, exciting and beautifully constructed. If you don't find this a riveting and stunning piece of filmmaking then I have no time for you. Good day Sir ! ___________
Do you think The Good, The Bad & The Ugly deserves to be considered the greatest film of all time ?