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Also Known As: Il buono, il brutto, il cattivo / Le bon, la brute et le truand |
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| Year of first release: 1966 | |
| Director: Sergio Leone | |
| Actors: Clint Eastwood, Lee Van Cleef, Eli Wallach | |
| Country: I, E, D | |
| Genre: Western | |
| Conditions of visioning: 09.03.2014, Bluray | |
| Synopsis: A bounty hunting scam joins two men in an uneasy alliance against a third in a race to find a fortune in gold buried in a remote cemetery. | |
| Review: My home cinema light is just built and for the first try I wanted a cinemascope movie, to enjoy the large picture. The first cinemascope I had in mind is this classical by Sergio Leone. A masterpiece! The roughness of the cowboys, the American History, the happy life (family at the beginning, etc), the quest for money. Great music on the great scenes where suddently no word is necessary to explain the story nor to transmit the emotion. The picture building is not so complex but uses all the simple means possible, in the street and inside building for the sake of the suspense in the quest; with a lot of close-ups on actor's faces. The movie is long, but as there is no useless scene, this feels exactly as long as it should be. | |
Rating: 10 /10
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More than entertainment, an Art.
Tuesday, March 25, 2014
The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (1966)
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I remember that we watched it together late at night on my Home cinema some years ago, and I realized only after two hours that there was still one hour to go! I had never seen this extended version before, when I was watching the movie on TV in my youth. I must watch it again soon.
ReplyDeleteBy the way excellent choice of first movie on your new Home cinema.
I got tempted to watch this movie again after going to a Metallica concert in which they use the famous theme of the movie "The Ecstasy of Gold" as opening, and this time they were even showing the scene of the movie that goes with the music. So I watched the Blu-ray on 07.06.2015.
ReplyDeleteUntil then I thought I had only seen a short version on TV when I was young, but in fact I may have seen that version but never got to watch it until the end! What a pity. Now I could correct that, and in the best conditions although the sound is a bit muffled, defect more likely due to the recording technique rather than the restoration one. I anyway proceeded with buying the re-mastered Soundtrack by Ennio Morricone to enjoy it again and again. It is a integral part of the movie and some scenes seem to be built around it.
The image quality is quite OK for a 50-year old movie, but not exceptional like in the big American productions of the same period. But this doesn't matter as it is amply enough to appreciate the amazing compositions created but Sergio Leone: desert landscapes, massive scenes involving hundreds of extras, outlaw duels in CinemaScope and close-up on the strong face of some actors. Such shots make me want to watch Once Upon a Time in the West again.
The converging stories of the three main characters, all playing very well especially Eli Wallach, are great to follow and it is interesting that they take place at the same time as the one in Gone with the Wind, although in a different part of the Country and depicting outdated characters that couldn't care less about the Civil War but are just living their bandit lives as before. I appreciated this contrast that seems to mark the end of the West.
The only things I can criticize about the movie is the amount of incredible coincidences.
A breathtaking experience until the very last second of the movie. My rating: 10/10 as well.