The Good, the Bad and the Ugly

People tended to treat Sergio Leone's work with a considerable degree of disdain, but watching this in 2020 it is still amongst the very best of the genre. A good-looking, calculating Clint Eastwood ("The Good"), is the itinerant bounty hunter who has an uneasy partnership with a scene-stealing Eli Wallach ("The Ugly) to trick the local authorities of the reward money due for his capture before escaping and dividing the spoils. They happen upon a recently robbed stagecoach where they learn of the whereabout of a huge stash of gold - but they both possess different clues as to the location, so must - despite themselves - work together to track down the loot. Meantime, a thoroughly nasty Lee Van Cleef (“The Bad") hears about their treasure hunt and is now joined in the race to the money. There is a paucity of dialogue that only enhances their performances - there are bouts of humour and although the premiss is pretty violent, there is actually very little by way of grisly, gory depiction seen on screen. The scene near the end in the graveyard with the magnificent Morricone "Ecstacy of Gold" theme is as good as Westerns get. The editing is not great, it has to be said - but the cinematography gives a great showcase to the scale and grandeur of the locations. Not a word I use often, but this really is a masterpiece of the cinema.