When Sergio Leone and Clint Eastwood first collaborated on A Fistful of Dollars, they have made something quite unique and maybe transcendent for the Western genre. They made tension in just close-ups of potential victims about to die with Ennio Morricone's music swelling up and of course, Eastwood's character kills them all within a few seconds via gunshot. It's that standoff scene that pushed a future icon into the history of cinematic characters. It was a good movie and so is the sequel, For a Few Dollars More. But, when the third movie by Leone and Eastwood came out, this movie knocked the trilogy out of the park and has cemented itself with the best westerns of all-time and probably one of the best movies of all time.
Tuco (Eli Wallach) is a Mexican bandit that has just escaped from a killing from three bounty hunters and leaves while mercenary Angel Eyes (Lee Van Clef) interrogates former Confederate soldier Stevens, whom Angel Eyes is contracted to kill. They talk about a fugitive stealing a cache of Confederate gold and Stevens offers Angel Eyes a contract of $1,000 to kill Baker, his former employer. He kills both Stevens and Baker.
As Tuco is still running from the law, a man named "Blondie" (Clint Eastwood) rescues him from three bounty hunters who delivers him to the sheriff for the $2,000 bounty. But as Tuco is about to be hanged, Blondie shoots the deputies' hats to confuse them and shoots Tuco's noose and they both escape. They do it a few more times for Blondie to collect more money but when he gets tired of Tuco's complaints, he abandons Tuco penniless in the desert.
Later, as Tuco tracks Blondie down, he holds him captive and force-marches him across a desert and he collapses from dehydration. But when Tuco is about to kill him, he sees a runaway carriage full of dead soldiers. Inside is Bill Carson, the fugitive who stole the cache of Confederate gold that is worth of $200,000, promises Tuco that money that is buried in a grave in Sad Hill Cemetery. But, Carson is about to die and while Tuco goes to get the water, Blondie creeps up to the dying Carson regarding the name of the grave and after Carson dies, Blondie tells Tuco that if he kills him, he will never know where the money is. Tuco keeps him alive and goes to the mission to have him healed because he wants to be partners with Blondie to get the money.
This movie is exceptionally well-crafted with sublime cinematography, brooding storytelling, magnificent production designs, terrific action and memorable characters throughout the story. But, who were following throughout the movie are anti-heroes. Why do we care about people who are anti-heroes? It is because they are motivated by greed and they are all chasing the same pot of gold at the end of rainbow: a sum of $200,000. Yes, they have their ways of investigating and tracking down the money. If it is necessary, Blondie will kill people who gets in his way. Tuco does not kill people who interferes with the money. He only kills when he is threatened or needs to escape because he is a fugitive in the end. Angel Eyes will kill anybody. He is a cold-hearted character.
The three examples of the latter two characters are one memorable scene and two short scenes. When Tuco finally reaches back to the town after Blondie abandons him, he stops by the gun store to purchase a gun that can match Blondie's wit and style. But, Tuco does not buy a gun, but he manages to buy some parts from some gun and assemble them to one gun which was awesome. After he tests the gun and calmly robs the store, Tuco just leaves the owner with the sign in his mouth. Anybody else would have inflicted harm or killed him especially Angel Eyes. Speaking of him, to get the big rewards, Angel Eyes kills his contractor after delivering information and he kills his former employer because he is getting a raise. He is consumed by darkness and scum that all he cares about is the reward and nothing else.
As Tuco and Blondie are leaving the mission in their Confederate uniforms, they are captured by Union soldiers and are taken to a POW camp. When a soldier was giving out roll call, Tuco answers as "Bill Carson" and Angel Eyes tortures him for information regarding the reward. Again, he is motivated by greed but during that scene when Tuco is getting tortured, we see close-ups of soldiers playing instruments feeling emotional because every time they play music, a soldier will get punished or close to dead without reason. They are already consumed of sadness because they are remanded and are about to fight one day during the Civil War. They have a chance to die unfortunately. Also, all three characters are entangled in the battles but they are not fighting against their opponents. They only care about the money again.
Sergio Leone had the task to create more tension by elevating Ennio Morricone's music with close-ups or great landscape shots to know if a character is meeting their end or to present a scene. It is a marriage of cinematic greatness correlating a music score with drama. And, to bring all three actors into their roles, they are the right matches. They display evil, wit, comedy, strength and violent rage to get the reward. This is a nearly 3-hour Western that has not one misstep in its entire run because the movie fuels you into being entertained and being drawn into the story that is full of majestic cinematography and one of the best, if not the best, showdowns in the history of cinema.
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