Director: Sergio Leone
Screenplay: Sergio Leone
Starring: Clint Eastwood, Eli Wallach, Lee Van Cleef, Aldo Giuffrè, Antonio Casas, Rada Rassimov, Aldo Sambrell, Enzo Petito, Luigi Pistilli, Livio Lorenzon, Al Mulock, Sergio Mendizábal, Antonio Molino Rojo, Lorenzo Robledo, Mario Brega
Country: Italy, Spain, West Germany
Running Time: 177/161m
Year: 1966
Sergio Leone is a miracle in the history of cinema. He slipped in under the radar, ripping off Akira Kurosawa: A Fistful of Dollars is incredible, but it is second. If we’re being picky.
For A Few Dollars More proved Leone could produce something more ambitious. And yet, it couldn’t quite shake that sequel feeling. If we continue to be picky. Honestly, this is silly. Those two films remain astonishing, especially in the recent superb Arrow releases. Which continue this month with The Good, The Bad and The Ugly. It has already been released in an incredible Collector’s edition, but this release is pretty damn thorough. Both the extended and international cuts are included.
Somehow, the closing part of Leone’s trilogy isn’t just better than the previous two. It’s transcendent. It redefines the over-used term “masterpiece”. Especially as Leone was yet to make Once Upon A Time in the West.
And these are supposed to be B-movies; oft-derisively labeled” spaghetti” Westerns. In truth, Hollywood was struggling to claim any kind of artistic precedence anyway. The Good, The Bad and The Ugly could, however, claim a pedigree steeped in Italian neo-realism. Starting with key films such as The Bicycle Thieves, neo-realism developed into such a sophisticated state that the gap between a film and its audience was bridged. Pier Paolo Pasolini’s Mamma Roma was a key example because it included mistakes. They happened and belonged to the film, even though it was purely fictional.
Leone’s grasp of mise-en-scene was about treating the film and its audience as equals. A sense of theatrics, consummate direction, full blooded performances, all contribute to a singular experience. And while Leone, somewhere between this and Once Upon A Time in the West, was achieving the peak of cinema as an art form, his films remain such bloody fun.
Lofty waffle aside, the key to The Good, The Bad and The Ugly’s success is the increase in confidence, giving the cast room to ham it up. Lee Van Cleef, the Bad, is an utter bastard, not the same as his noble role in For A Few Dollars More. Eli Wallach is hilarious as the Ugly newcomer and thanks to Leone’s sense of theatrics, Clint Eastwood is never outshone even though his is saddled with the Good. Ish. Still the anti-hero of course.
There are moments so profound between the three leads, their director and Maestro Morricone behind the score, that they have never been surpassed. There’s a reason Metallica embed Ecstasy of Gold in their performances. Next time you consider the greatest films of all time, remember the Flashpoint Leone exploited in cinema history. Sometimes greatness can be quantified.
VIDEO
As with the films themselves, the transfers are only getting better. It looks fresh, but not new, which is a perfect middle-ground. It’s a gorgeous image: a dark tone, full of sweaty detail. A harsh contrast makes for a bold presentation, but not lacking in detail. Wider shots soften, as expected, but remain consistent. It’s not perfect. It’s not supposed to be.
The extended cut contains an extra scene, which you can choose to include or not. The original elements have never been available to be restored to the same standard as the rest of the film, so it does still sit rather awkwardly.
AUDIO
This is another level of Ennio Morricone’s astonishing work. It is part of the film, another character; in fact, the main theme is a merging of motifs for each of the principal leads. The famed Ecstasy of Gold sequence is one of cinema’s greatest moments and the presentation in 5.1 soars; it will never be perfect, thankfully, but this is the best it has been. Punchy, centred and consistent.
EXTRA FEATURES
This is a monumental set of three discs. Both versions of the film presented immaculately. All the extras you can imagine including everything (so far as I can tell) from previous versions. Interviews with seemingly everyone Arrow could track down comprises most of the new stuff, alongside a video essay by Lovely Jon, who looks at Morricone’s astonishing score.
The extended cut includes a choice of including the notorious ‘Grotto’ scene, plus more deleted scenes. Commentaries are by Christopher Frayling and Richard Schickel. Frayling’s will always be my favorite. He’s Leone’s biographer and his knowledge is encyclopedic, but he’s cheerful and entertaining on the track, filling in a lot of gaps.
There’s a commentary from Tim Lucas on the international cut. A little dry, but thorough.
DISC 1 – INTERNATIONAL CUT (4K ULTRA HD BLU-RAY)
– New 4K restoration of the 162-minute International Cut using the original 2-perf Techniscope negative
– 4K (2160p) UHD Blu-ray presentation in Dolby Vision (HDR10 compatible)
– Newly restored original lossless English mono audio
– Optional newly remixed lossless English DTS-HD MA 5.1 audio
– Optional English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing
– Audio commentary by film critic and historian Tim Lucas
– Theatrical trailers, TV spots and radio spots</p>
DISC 2 – EXTENDED CUT (4K ULTRA HD BLU-RAY)
– New 4K restoration of the 179-minute Extended Cut, using the original 2-perf Techniscope negative
– 4K (2160p) UHD Blu-ray presentation in Dolby Vision (HDR10 compatible)
– Newly restored original lossless English mono audio
– Optional newly remixed English DTS-HD MA 5.1 audio
– Optional English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing
– Audio commentary by film historian and Leone biographer Sir Christopher Frayling
– Audio commentary by film historian and Eastwood biographer Richard Schickel
– Seamless branching options to watch the Extended Cut with the uncut torture scene (mono only) and/or without the ‘grotto’ scene originally removed after the premiere
– Deleted and alternate scenes
DISC 3 – EXTRAS (BLU-RAY)
– A Circular Trilogy, a newly filmed interview with film historian and critic Fabio Melelli
– The Laughter Behind the Epic, a newly filmed interview with Giacomo Scarpelli, son of co-writer Furio Scarpelli
– Three Colors, a newly filmed interview with Stefano Delli Colli, son of cinematographer Tonino Delli Colli
– Sergio and Sergio, a newly filmed interview with camera assistant Sergio Salvati
– The Hand That Drew The West, a newly filmed interview with Giuditta Simi, daughter of set/costume designer Carlo Simi
– They Call Him Angel Eyes, a newly filmed interview with filmmaker and Lee Van Cleef biographer Mike Malloy
– From Falls to Fame, a newly filmed interview with stuntman Fabio Testi
– The Man, The Cut, The Masterpiece, a newly filmed interview with editor Eugenio Alabiso
– Frames of Glory, a newly filmed interview with post-production supervisor Enzo Ocone
– That Magic Sound, a newly filmed interview with guitarist Bruno Battisti D’Amario
– The Voice Behind the Gold, a newly filmed interview with singer Edda Dell’Orso
– Call of the Coyote, a newly filmed interview with Morricone biographer Alessandro de Rosa
– The Good, The Great and the Moody, a new visual essay exploring the film’s iconic soundtrack by musician and disc collector Lovely Jon
– Leone’s West and The Leone Style, two archive featurettes with Eastwood, Wallach, Schickel, Alberto Grimaldi and Mickey Knox
– Reconstructing the Film, an archive featurette on the assembly of the Extended Cut
– Il Maestro Parts One and Two, two archive featurettes with film music historian Jon Burlingame
– The Socorro Sequence: A Reconstruction, a featurette on a deleted scene
– The Man Who Lost the Civil War, an archive featurette on the film’s depiction of the Civil War
– Vignettes (Easter Eggs), four short interviews with Eastwood and Wallach
– Alternate credits sequences
– Four comprehensive image galleries
– Reversible sleeve featuring original and newly commissioned artwork by Tony Stella