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The Good, the Bad, the Ugly


Mach 1

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Watching it for the 20th time or close to it..

Best Western of all time?  Check

Best movie of all time?  Top 10, only thing holding it back is the awkward voice overs.

Eli Wallach - robbed for an Oscar nomination

Lee Van Cleef - best Western villian 

Clint - he's Clint

I defy anyone to watch the Tuco sprint through the cemetery while the music is playing to not think they are watching greatness.

And the close out.  Perfect.

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7 minutes ago, atomheartbevo said:

Best western ever?

 

CloseFarDeermouse-small.gif

giphy.gif

 

My avatar, uh, well duh yeah.

Fucking greatest movie ever.  Have never seen one with such great cinematography, winding, up-and-down epic Odyssean story (in fact, it has been compared to the Odyssey in a lot of film critiques I've seen), set design, acting (even dubs, lol), and MUSIC all blended into one.  Okay well the dialgoue isn't Dylan Thomas'ian but it's not supposed to be.

No one could do Westerns like Leone IMHO  No one.  Nada.  

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Some trivia:
1) They fucked up when they blew up the bridge (Spanish army), so they had to rebuild it and blow it up again.
2) Eastwood/Wallach are almost butchered by some flying shrapnel when the bridge blows up... watch carefully how close a piece of "something" (wood shank?) comes to them.
3) When Tuco is running through the cemetery (OP). a dog came out of nowhere and scared the living shit out of him.  Leone left the scene in (but dubbed the bark into it) because Wallach's reaction was so good.

Plus, Leone having Morricone on his team is like your intramural team having Tom Brady as QB. 

Tons and tons more you don't care about.

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8 hours ago, Mach 1 said:

I defy anyone to watch the Tuco sprint through the cemetery while the music is playing to not think they are watching greatness.

 

This is a great piece of music to run to, if you're into that sort of thing. 

 

"Unk, unk.  There's no name on it!"

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5 hours ago, Eskimohorn said:

 


Peckinpah was not a traditionalist. Ultraviolence, slow motion, anti-heroes, fuckin’ Bob Dillon. You meant John Ford.

 

This.  Peckinpah was awesome when he was on (and kinda bad when he wasn't).  Not a traditionalist, however.

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1 hour ago, Ten Bears said:

When you have to shoot, shoot.

Don't talk.

According to IMDB, Wallach simply made that up on the spot, thought it was the most natural thing to say.  But the crew laughed so hard at that they almost had to redo the shoot.  Wallach didn't see what was so funny, he thought it was natural.  Leone dubbed in Morricone riff over the laughter.  

God I love this fucking movie.

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no,  in fairness to them, the movie does drag on a bit.

I made them watch it as part of "pop-culturally significant" films night.    For the most part they enjoy it, but it was a bridge too far for my 13yr old daughter.

They also couldn't stop cracking up and the sound track.  But they did recognize that modern cultural references to that movie and sound track are pervasive.   On a lot of these movies, when we talk about them afterwards, they are like "I never knew where that came from...  I totally get it now"

Lots of their friends quote old famous lines from Airplane, Vacation, Forrest Gump... etc but they've never seen the movie, so they are only getting half the joke.

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14 hours ago, RPM said:

I'll get tons of hate for this, but not a fan of spaghetti westerns. I'm more of a traditionalist. Give me Peckinpah over Leone every time. 

Peckinpah's early work was more traditional. Through the fifties, he did the Rifleman, Gunsmoke, etc. Leone did the man with no name trilogy from 1964-66. He heavily influenced Peckinpah, who did the Wild Bunch in 69, and went on to get the reputation for ultraviolence. It could be Peckinpah always wanted to do that, but until Leone made the breakthrough, he couldn't get it approved. 

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2 minutes ago, Loco said:

no,  in fairness to them, the movie does drag on a bit.

I made them watch it as part of "pop-culturally significant" films night.    For the most part they enjoy it, but it was a bridge too far for my 13yr old daughter.

They also couldn't stop cracking up and the sound track.  But they did recognize that modern cultural references to that movie and sound track are pervasive.   On a lot of these movies, when we talk about them afterwards, they are like "I never knew where that came from...  I totally get it now"

Lots of their friends quote old famous lines from Airplane, Vacation, Forrest Gump... etc but they've never seen the movie, so they are only getting half the joke.

I was just going to post on this. If you look at the number of jump cuts in movies now, and the number of plots they try to push into one movie, it's the rare older movie that doesn't seem to drag for younger people. 

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10 hours ago, phdhorn said:

giphy.gif

 

My avatar, uh, well duh yeah.

Fucking greatest movie ever.  Have never seen one with such great cinematography, winding, up-and-down epic Odyssean story (in fact, it has been compared to the Odyssey in a lot of film critiques I've seen), set design, acting (even dubs, lol), and MUSIC all blended into one.  Okay well the dialgoue isn't Dylan Thomas'ian but it's not supposed to be.

No one could do Westerns like Leone IMHO  No one.  Nada.  

giphy.gif 

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So I saw a scene last night I've never seen before - I guess there's an extended cut of the movie out now.  It's where Tuco hooks up with his crew before catching up with Blondie at the hotel.  I thought Tuco just hired some guys to take the first round of bullets, but nope, he had a gang.   

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36 minutes ago, Turkleton said:

Leone was not a fan of editing his films. They were good, but would drag...

Sometimes more is better

The studio edited his “Once Upon a Time in America” and that version is crap. The longer cuts released later are pretty awesome, though long

Same with his “Fistful of Dynamite” (aka “Duck You Sucker”), which the studio cut.  The director’s cut released years later restored scenes that added a lot to the story (and explained some things)

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Love Good, Bad and Ugly, but in terms of great "traditional" Westerns, my list would go something like:

1. Unforgiven

2. The Outlaw Josey Wales

3. True Grit (Coen Bros. version)

4. G, B, U

5. Tombstone (not kidding)

If you want to throw in "non-traditional" Westerns, then No Country for Old Men would be #1.

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3 hours ago, oSuJeff97 said:

Love Good, Bad and Ugly, but in terms of great "traditional" Westerns, my list would go something like:

1. Unforgiven

2. The Outlaw Josey Wales

3. True Grit (Coen Bros. version)

4. G, B, U

5. Tombstone (not kidding)

If you want to throw in "non-traditional" Westerns, then No Country for Old Men would be #1.

Random neural firings:

The stuff the John Wayne True Grit messed up, the Jeff Bridges True Grit got right. The opposite is true, also. Strother Martin was great as the auctioneer. Kim Darby and Glen Campbell were not great in their roles. Robert Duvall as Ned Pepper was better. 

Other traditional westerns: The Searchers, Man Who Shot Liberty Valance. 

Treasure of the Sierra Madre. Is that a western or a Southern? Made in 1948 and people still quote it. "Hey mister, can you stake a fellow American to a meal?" "Badges? We ain't got no badges. We don't need to show you no stinking badges."

Another one I'd never call great, but was a seriously fun watch was "El Dorado."

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original True Grit = dogshit.  Everything about the movie was rushed, and the acting was terrible across the board.

I'll give my review of the newer one in a few weeks.

Leone was a fantastic storyteller, and the music in his movies matched the landscape shots.  Epic.

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On 1/16/2019 at 9:34 AM, oSuJeff97 said:

Love Good, Bad and Ugly, but in terms of great "traditional" Westerns, my list would go something like:

1. Unforgiven

2. The Outlaw Josey Wales

3. True Grit (Coen Bros. version)

4. G, B, U

5. Tombstone (not kidding)

If you want to throw in "non-traditional" Westerns, then No Country for Old Men would be #1.

Define your traditional, please.

When I see traditional westerns I think of Fort Apache, Hondo, Seven Men From Now. IOW pretty much the classics made before the 60's. So I look at the Spaghetti Westerns as following in that mold. 

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Ok, confession and unpopular opinion time. Been holding off because of the pending vilification. 

I am 40 and had never seen the spaghetti westerns.  Started the documentary on finding the old cemetery set, decided to watch the movie first. 

I’ve tried 3 times now to sit and watch GBU and I’m only about half an hour in. It’s just creeping along. 

I decided to stop and watch fistful of dollars, and had no problem watching that, and enjoyed it. 

I will get back to gbu, as I’ve read enough about it to know that the end should be fantastic, but I’m just having trouble getting there. 

I’ll take my blindfold and cigarette now. 

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1 hour ago, Pato del Muerto said:

Ok, confession and unpopular opinion time. Been holding off because of the pending vilification. 

I am 40 and had never seen the spaghetti westerns.  Started the documentary on finding the old cemetery set, decided to watch the movie first. 

I’ve tried 3 times now to sit and watch GBU and I’m only about half an hour in. It’s just creeping along. 

I decided to stop and watch fistful of dollars, and had no problem watching that, and enjoyed it. 

I will get back to gbu, as I’ve read enough about it to know that the end should be fantastic, but I’m just having trouble getting there. 

I’ll take my blindfold and cigarette now. 

You should delete this right now and never speak of it again.....  Seriously.....

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Ok, confession and unpopular opinion time. Been holding off because of the pending vilification. 
I am 40 and had never seen the spaghetti westerns.  Started the documentary on finding the old cemetery set, decided to watch the movie first. 
I’ve tried 3 times now to sit and watch GBU and I’m only about half an hour in. It’s just creeping along. 
I decided to stop and watch fistful of dollars, and had no problem watching that, and enjoyed it. 
I will get back to gbu, as I’ve read enough about it to know that the end should be fantastic, but I’m just having trouble getting there. 
I’ll take my blindfold and cigarette now. 
Man my experience sure is the opposite. The tension to begin the movie is sweltering. It hooks me immediately every time I watch it.
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