ViewGuide

Created May 17, 2012 11:16PM PST • Edited May 23, 2012 09:48PM PST

1. Quality

2. Summary

   Good 3.0

   Good, legendary, and disappointing. Yes Sergio Leone’s classic is a good movie, legendary even. Disappointing too, a bit mannered and dangerously close to self-parody given its protracted length.

   Whining out of the way, let’s now sing the praises of The Good, the Bad and the Ugly.

   • The iconic title shoots through the story, even though the Good guy isn’t, really.
   • The iconic music works in a weird sort of way.
   • Three iconic stars, especially Clint Eastwood and Eli Wallach.
   • Surprises that are well delivered, visually and plot-wise.

   So just a good movie? Yeah. Faint praise? Yeah. So what if Tarantino and a host of big time critics consider it one of the greatest movies ever. Bully for them.

   PS – Check out the trailer. It calls Eli Wallach the Bad and Lee Van Cleef the Ugly. Twice.
   Whoops + Double Whoops. How do you get that wrong? Twice.

   PPS – No their mouths don’t match the dialog. Spaghetti Westerns were shot in Italian. Capiche?

4. Acting

   Great 4.0

   Clint Eastwood’s Man With No Name is called Blondie. Who knew? Old Blondie sure has charisma.

   Eli Wallach’s cackling bandito is the most legendary role. However his cackling gets old after a couple of hours, especially because the movie’s sole lively part is essentially a one note performance.

   Lee Van Cleef is full of understated malevolence. The Bad? Absolutely.

5. Male Stars Really Great 4.5

6. Female Stars Very Good 3.5

7. Female Costars Very Good 3.5

8. Male Costars Great 4.0

10. Film

    Good 3.0

    Sergio Leone’s classic hasn’t aged especially well, though it’s still iconic.

11. Direction Good 3.0

12. Play OK 2.5

    No honorable men exist in this film. If it were a Bible story, they’d all turn into pillars of salt.

    However, the reason for rating the screenplay as just OK is because the motivations and several plot devices don’t hold water.

13. Music Really Great 4.5

14. Visuals Very Good 3.5
15. Content

16. Edge

    Risqué 2.5

17. Sex Titillating 1.6

18. Violence Brutal 3.5

19. Rudeness Salty 2.5

21. Reality

    Surreal 2.1

22. Circumstantial Glib 1.9

23. Biological Surreal 2.4

24. Physical Surreal 2.1