The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly (1966) ✦ Full-Length Watchalong Reaction
Added 2025-05-04 21:00:06 +0000 UTCHi everyone! My first "official" Western is now ticked off. And I didn't realize until that scene hit, that this is the movie James Hetfield loves so much and why Metallica plays The Ecstasy of Gold in almost all of their live shows. 😊 [Direct link here.]
⭐ It seems that only the extended edition is available to me across all platforms, so the runtime I watched is 02:58:36.
Please enjoy and I'm looking forward to your comments!
Cheers,
✦ KL
Comments
Just finished it. My first ever watch along of this movie. I enjoyed it but could’ve been shorter for sure. This was my first young Clint Eastwood film. Everything else I’ve seen of his are when he’s way older. I do know that Metallica did a cover of Ennio Morricone’s “Ecstasy of Gold” for a tribute album. 🤘🏼
HugoBoss435
2025-05-14 23:54:38 +0000 UTCIt's a shame you're watching the last one in the trilogy, first. But, as you are watching them out of order, I highly recommend For A Few Dollars More (the second one in the Dollars trilogy). It is, despite the original sniffy reviews, the best film in the series. And regardless of what anyone says, the score is far superior to The Good The Bad & The Ugly.
Sam
2025-05-05 21:05:01 +0000 UTCYes, I know about that from Wilderness First Aid training back in the day. I probably could have made my thoughts more clear. Drinking a LOT of water all at once is dangerous, but I was expecting Blondie to at least start sipping more than he was. And Tuco saying not to drink kind of means don't drink at all, which is not good advice.
kaiielle
2025-05-05 18:30:14 +0000 UTCOh, and one last thing: My understanding is that Tuco telling Blondie not to drink is actually correct. I can't find it via Google right now but I think it's actually bad to just drink a bunch of water when you're dying of thirst -- might have something to do with your kidneys not being able to take the rapid switch from working without water to working with an excess of water (different in reason but similar in principle to the idea of taking an extremely hot pan off the stove and dumping ice cold water on it). I could be wrong, but I think you are supposed to apply it to the skin first, allowing the body to absorb some liquid that way, and then slowly sip a very small amount of water and let your body work through it.
Tyler Foster
2025-05-05 18:14:14 +0000 UTCOnce upon a time in the West (1968) would be my personal choice for the next sergio leone movie. I do like A Fistfull of Dollars and For a few Dollars more, but i do think Once upon a time in the West is on another level (cinematography, music is just incredible). Italo-Western were mostly filmed in spain (i do think the dollar-triology was as well).
DracJeriba
2025-05-05 13:28:17 +0000 UTCEdited the above comment after watching the video as of course you explained you'd already read about some of this stuff. I also corrected my misconceptions about what was added when I looked it up. While you did watch the last one first, I actually think 3, 1, 2 creates a fitting order for the series. The main cue in this movie is that the poncho is part of the character's look in the other two movies, yet he appears to find it in this one, suggesting it should go first. There's more to it, but that's for after you've seen the other two, whenever that is. In any case, there really shouldn't be many people upset about the order because these are not a traditional series, even if Leone understood how it went together; it's not a series with much continuity beyond Eastwood and Leone. ("Dollars Trilogy" takes its name from the first two films, A Fistful of Dollars and For a Few Dollars More, but the other name is "The Man With No Name Trilogy," because Eastwood's character even has different nicknames in each movie.) Many of the soundtrack cues in this were reused in Tarantino's catalog, primarily in the Kill Bill movies. Tarantino would go onto work with Morricone, who worked on one song for the Django Unchained soundtrack and scored The Hateful Eight. Also, it's funny I didn't think of it while in yesterday's Patreon Live, given the subjects came up back-to-back, but one of my favorite scenes in one of the John Wick movies is a direct homage to a scene here; I think you'll figure it out whenever you see it, so hopefully that'll be something we all get to enjoy in a reaction. It's not the only homage to this trilogy in there, either. Also, unrelated: hope we're alternating contemporary and classic Westerns because I'm still dying for True Grit (2010)!
Tyler Foster
2025-05-05 05:06:34 +0000 UTCMETALLICA!!! Ahhhhh!!!! My profile picture is of me at their 72 Seasons concert in Los Angeles 🤘🏼 I’ve never seen the movie so will find the extended version and do the watch along soon!
HugoBoss435
2025-05-05 00:12:01 +0000 UTCNot sure if you're a fan of Stephen King's Dark Tower book series, but King formulated the idea for the series after reading Lord of the Rings and watching this film in the theater. It led King to conclude that he should try to write something truly epic in scope--which he did!
Nicholas Bielik
2025-05-04 23:38:22 +0000 UTCJoined patron again lol. Been waiting for this one for a while. Probably more your Dad kind of movie but I can’t wait to watch your reaction. 😍😍😍😍😍😍
Perry Campbell
2025-05-04 21:46:49 +0000 UTCMy personal favorite Sergio Leone movies are A Fistful of Dollars (a spaghetti western remake of Yojimbo by Akria Kurosawa--also spectacular) and Once Upon in the West...but goddamn this one is good. Aside from Clint Eastwood eastwooding the fuck out of this flick, I think my favorite aspect is the music, which is just beautifully epic.
Steve Mercier
2025-05-04 21:46:39 +0000 UTCLeone is such a unique filmmaker. By the way, if you're interested in the older Westerns, I'd highly recommend The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance. Amazing cast, and an incredibly thought-provoking film that examines courage, masculinity, and adapting to changing times.
Orson Wellbutrin
2025-05-04 21:10:44 +0000 UTCThe difference between the theatrical and extended is mostly three scenes, as well as some small extensions to existing scenes. The first major addition is where Tuco goes to an empty hideout looking for old acquaintances to help him confront Blondie, the second is when Angel Eyes goes to one of the Confederate camps and meets the bitter guy cooking corn, and the third is when Blondie shoots his first of Angel Eyes' goons. You can see a full list here: https://www.movie-censorship.com/report.php?ID=1622 These were restored primarily because they were discovered, but the opinion of some researchers seems to be that Leone intentionally cut these scenes after the Italian premiere and they should not be part of the film, so the recent-ish 4K UHD of the movie was the theatrical cut with these scenes back out of the film, but I don't think they really detract from the movie (or add much either -- I'm indifferent). Another reason they are contested among fans is the dubbing issue you mentioned. This stems out of the way 1960s Italian films were shot; all the actors speaking their own language, and often recorded without sound. So Italian films up to a certain point technically have no "original language" -- every version of every film is dubbed over from beginning to end. In the case of this movie, Eastwood, Wallach, and Van Cleef are all speaking English and so their lips should generally match, although unlike modern looping or ADR, the actors weren't necessarily that concerned about getting this part right, given pretty much everyone else is Italian and thus will not sync. When the scenes were discovered and restored into the movie, it was 2003, which is why the dubbing isn't up to some people's standards.
Tyler Foster
2025-05-04 21:07:45 +0000 UTC
