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By
WAYNE KLEIN
At one time America
resembled a surreal landscape of endless vistas,
deep blue skies, dusty streets and long lean
gunfighters willing to kill you for looking at
them the wrong way. At least that's the mythic
version that Sergio Leone created after a steady
diet of collecting art, watching American westerns
(particularly John Ford's) and Italian spectacles.
His first great movie, "The Good, the Bad and the
Ugly" has finally been restored to its original
intended running time with the exception of a
sequence that was too badly damaged to restore.
Leone's impressive glimpse into the mythology from
which America was forged suggested a country that
was as unforgiving as any of the Greek Gods and as
violent as any Homeric epic
In many respects, Leone used America as a template
to create a cinematic equivalent of Homer's "The
Iliad" and "The Odyssey." There's no right or
wrong just a fine line that separates good from
evil. Those that cross that line are punished by
the indifferent Man With No Name (aka Blondie in
this film played by Clint Eastwood). Set during
the Civil War, "The Good, the Bad and the Ugly"
has only the trace of a plot and although it's
slim, it's enough to hang Leone's great visual
style and the presence of his lead actors on.
Blondie (Eastwood) and the criminal Tuco are
partners in a bounty hunter scam; Blondie turns in
Tuco (Wallach) and when he's about to be executed
frees him so they can collect the escalating price
on Tuco's head. They discover that Confederate
gold has been buried somewhere and both intent to
collect it. Unfortunately, they also have to deal
with Sentenza (Van Cleef in his second Leone
picture). This uneasy partnership wavers
throughout the movie.
Featuring a beautiful and impressive restoration,
"The Good, the Bad and the Ugly" never looked this
good on video before. Taken from the painstakingly
reconstructed theatrical version that premiered
last year with footage previously not seen in the
US, the bleak landscapes of "the American West"
(really, it was shot in Spain) features an amazing
amount of detail previously only hinted at on the
poor prints that circulated before. The new 15
minutes of footage featuring Wallach and Eastwood
was dubbed for the first time into English
specifically for this restored version. While the
ravages of time have effected both performers
voices, the sequence works amazingly well and
gives added depth to the characters and story.
This special two disc set features the film on the
first disc and the extras on disc two.. Although
they're advertised as documentaries, the bulk of
the extras really are featurettes as they run well
under 30 minutes. The most fascinating of the
bunch is "The Man Who Lost the Civil War" which
discusses the Sibley campaign featured as part of
the plot of the film. Surprisingly, most Americans
know nothing about the Sibley campaign (if history
were taught better perhaps they would) so the
featurettes is a welcome discussion of what
occurred during this brutal battle. The two
featurettes on Leone are welcome additions to the
marvelous featurettes that came with "Once Upon a
Time in the West." Ennio Morricone finally gets
recognition with a great short featurette hosted
by film music expert John Burlingame.
We also get a marvelous poster gallery as well as
miniature versions of the international theatrical
posters used to promote the film around the world.
These are printed on business card stock paper and
come packaged in a plastic bag to protect them. We
also get a booklet with information about the
making of the film and commentary by Roger Ebert.
The deleted scenes amount to the sequences that
couldn't be properly restored for the film. They
were damaged pretty badly and, as a result, didn't
quite fit in with the finished product. We also
get the theatrical trailer .
Film historian Richard Schickel's interesting
commentary track provides background on the making
of the film but also about what influenced Leone's
style particularly his trademark sequences
consisting of long shots and extreme close ups.
Schickel's commentary isn't the usual dry comments
one would expect and he provides a historical
context for what actually occurred during the time
the film is set. Although Schickel's comments are
interesting it would have been much more
fascinating to have Eastwood comment on Leone's
film. Since Leone along with director Don Siegel
both had a major impact on Eastwood's directing
style, his insights would have been much more
provocative and challenging.
Returned to its former glory, "The Good, the Bad
and the Ugly" has received an extreme make-over
that will knock out fans of this terrific film.
MGM has spared no expense to recreate the original
epic the way Leone intended it to be shown in
America before the film was shorn of footage.
Sadly, Leone isn't around to enjoy the return of
his epic film but art creates a sense of
immortality and luckily Leone's classic is still
around for fans to enjoy. |
