Author:
Simulacrum
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Date:
8/10/2020 6:02:18 AM
Subject:
RE: i dont have anyone to talk about spaghetti wes
Sergio Leone's success spawned an unfortunate pottage of bad Italian westerns with inappropriate casts and byzantine plots. They were properly dismissed as "spaghetti westerns." I prefer to call Leone's movies the "dollar trilogy" or the "dollar westerns" in order to distinguish them from his imitators. This distinction is necessary because Leone was a genius; the others were hacks.
It's common knowledge that A Fistful of Dollars was a remake of Akira Kurosawa's
Yojimbo
. I can't decide which movie I like better. Both are interesting re-imaginings of cultural icons, the Western loner and the samurai. Kurosawa divests his figure of any nobility. Likewise, Leone's main character is motivated solely by personal gain. This had been done before but not in such a studied, relentless manner.
I think my favorite Dollar movie is the sequel, For a Few Dollars More. I liked the plot and the competitive father-son relationship of the two principal characters. The gunfight at the end was absolute art.
The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly is a little too long and over-produced, but it is Leone's best character study. He does a lot of playful things with the title/character relationship. It's clear that Blondie, while hardly virtuous, is the closest thing to "good" in the movie's world. It's his idea to blow up the bridge and fulfill the captain's wish of ending the violence. He feels regret when Tuco forces him to abandon Shorty. He comforts the dying young soldier. He kindly keeps his counsel after Tuco's terrible reunion with his brother (and offers him a cigar).
Angel Eyes is unequivocally bad, sharing neither Blondie's compassion nor Tuco's need to philosophize about his bad actions. He's simply without conscience.
Which brings us to the central character. Tuco is "ugly" because, unlike Blondie or Angel Eyes, his values are unsorted. He believes he must be bad to succeed in a world that values money, but part of him regrets not taking the good path like his priest brother. So he tries to fight down this conflict by making a career of greed and attempting to simplify the complications of life with his refrain of "there are two kinds of people."
Blondie finally gets the Arch Stanton gold, not because he's conventionally good, but because his values aren't conflicted. Even so, he perfectly ends the tale by "rescuing" Tuco for the last time.
The movie has its flaws, but I think it's a masterpiece.
