The Good, the Bad and the Ugly

THE GOOD, THE BAD AND THE UGLY – 50th Anniversary

We open our sagebrush weekend with the “third and best of Sergio Leone’s ‘Dollars’ trilogy…the quintessential spaghetti Western,” according to Leonard Maltin. The trilogy became the
most popular of the hundreds of European Westerns made in the 1960s and 70s. The Good, the Bad and the Ugly, set in New Mexico during the Civil War, is actually a prequel to A Fistful of Dollars and For a Few Dollars More, all of which starred Clint Eastwood as Blondie, or the Man with No Name. Leone and his screenwriters considered the film a satire with its emphasis on violence and deconstruction of Old West romanticism. Made in 1966 and released in the U.S. at the end of 1967, the movie was propelled to big box office when composer Ennio Morricone’s main theme became a hit instrumental recording for Hugo Montenegro in 1968. The film had mixed critical reaction in its day but has been reevaluated and embraced through the decades, and is now considered one of the great Westerns. Also starring Lee Van Cleef and Eli Wallach, with cinematography by Tonino Delli Colli. Screens in a 4K digital restoration on Friday,

August 12, at 7:30 PM.