Of the "dollar trilogy", this is the last, and for me, certainly not the best. The plot line is meandering and it's simply too long for the content. By the time that both Eastwood and Leoni had gotten this far, they had both "made it" in professional terms. The Good, The Bad and The Ugly was the first studio (UA) financed film that Eastwood had starred in and Leoni had produced/directed. Eastwood's role as the man with no name was beginning to jump the shark in this movie and he correctly decided not to appear in Leoni's following movie, Once Upon A Time in the West. For sure it contains iconic scenes, which are often beautifully photographed, but also contains sadistic violence, which even now I find shocking. Part of great filmmaking is plotting an adventure that lasts mosts people's attention span of about 90-120 minutes. This is a 60 minute story in a 180 minute movie.
Review of The Good, the Bad and the Ugly
