Movies - The Good, the Bad and the Ugly

Home > Listing Index > Movies > The Good, the Bad and the Ugly

	Movies - The Good, the Bad and the Ugly

This enables the audience to be closer to the character as we see what he sees and it also enables the film to achieve a certain mystical feel.

Allegory

The movie has been interpreted by some viewers as an allegory for the relationship between God, Satan and Humanity. Although Leone never indicated that his film was to be taken in anything but the literal sense, the movie is filled with symbolism to support the argument. Most notably in the scene where Tuco takes Blondie to his brother's (who is a priest) church to rescue Blondie. The climactic graveyard scene also supports this argument.

In the shootout, it is only Blondie and Angel Eyes (The Good and the Bad) who had any hope of winning the shootout while Tuco (the Ugly) can only watch. This is seen to represent the battle between God and Satan for the souls of mankind. In that same scene, Tuco (the ugly), can be seen standing upon the cross of the unknown grave as he struggles to maintain balance and thus prevent his own death. Man, as represented by the Ugly, both attempts to stand upon the firm foundation of the cross, christianity, while simultaneously attracted by the "bad" force of greed to the $100,000 sitting in front of him.

Another important yet subtle clue that supports this interpretation is the fact that on the occasions when Blondie was at his most vulnerable, he was rescued by lucky coincidences. Tuco has Blondie cornered and is about to execute him when remarkably for no reason, a cannon is fired into the room and Blondie escapes. In the desert torture scene he is about to be finished by Tuco when a carriage arrives and diverts his curiosity. Blondie overhears information which Tuco needs and so he takes him to his brother's house where he is healed. In the prison camp, Tuco is brutally tortured by Angel Eyes while Blondie is asked to accompany him. These recurring occurrences of deus ex machina hint towards Blondie's allegorical position.

Moral Ambiguity

The other point of discussion among both fans and critics is the meaning of the phrase: The Good, the Bad and the Ugly. The opening scenes which introduces the audience to each character is accompanied by captions telling the audience who is Good, who is Bad and who is Ugly. Yet, Clint Eastwood's character like the earlier films is presented as morally ambiguous. He abandons Tuco in the opening scenes without leaving him any money and Tuco follows him in a quest of revenge. Tuco who is a criminal of considerable crimes is explained later in the film to have turned to crime in order to avoid poverty. Angel Eyes is established as a ruthless cold blooded murderer, yet in the opening scene after killing a man and one of his sons, he leaves the other son alive. In the Italian version of the film Angel Eyes is not meant to be the personfication of wickedness he became in the 1968 US cut. At one point he too shows that he is capable of compassion when he gives a bottle of whiskey to a group of wounded soldiers to ease their pain. A rare sentimental moment for a hardened drifter and bounty hunter, yet such ambiguous traits were anathema to the approach to the genre of Hollywood directors such as John Ford and Howard Hawks. In fact it is hardly surprising that US distributors would have dispensed with scenes mitigating Lee Van Cleef's character.

One interpretation is that the title refers to 'The Good, the Bad and the Ugly' present in each human. This has credence given the revisionist nature of the spaghetti westerns which stood in sharp contrast to simplistic nature of the earlier western films. In this sense, the title is meant ironically as the film questions and rejects the simplistic good/bad morality of the Western.

Other interpretations state that the events of the film are something of a test for the characters in order to show each one's true nature. Tuco betrays Blondie after he reveals the location of the grave (about which Blondie lied), Angel Eyes brutally tortures Tuco in order to extort information from him, and finally Blondie, after defeating Angel Eyes, chooses to split the gold with Tuco (and to split the rope about to hang him) when he could have admittedly walked away with the entire treasure without any fear of fatality.

Anti-War

The film is also notable for it's anti-war themes. While the main plot is a treasure hunt, the film as noted by Ebert and other critics is actually a commentary on the American Civil War and perhaps War in general. These themes are present on both the macro and micro levels.

Blondie and Tuco frequently find themselves in situations concerning the war, most notably when they are captured and when they later blow up the bridge in the final. However, the film takes an ambivalent view and presents both the Union and Confederate sides fairly. The Union camp is headed by a crippled general who wishes to treat the prisoners of war with dignity though he is supplanted by Angel Eyes. In one of the most haunting scenes of the film, Blondie and Tuco later come across a battlefield where thousands of soldiers die and when Blondie comes across one of them who is about to die, he offers him a cigar to give him a final moment of reprieve before he dies. Another powerful image is in the Union POW camp where a group of soldiers are forced to play music in order to hide Tuco's screams while he's being tortured.

[ Visit the complete Wikipedia entry for The Good, the Bad and the Ugly ]

This page is based on the copyrighted Wikipedia article The Good, the Bad and the Ugly; it is used under the GNU Free Documentation License. You may redistribute it, verbatim or modified, providing that you comply with the terms of the GFDL.

Searches on eBay