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movie review - The Good The Bad and The Ugly

the journal of Michael Werneburg

twenty-eight years and a million words

This is an antique* anti-war western with a stellar cast, sharp writing, and about forty minutes more run-time than it needs. It's the last in a loose trilogy in which one actor plays a similar character in three different settings. This time, he's a bounty-hunter on the trail of a wanted criminal. He encounters a famously ruthless competitor early in the story and realizes that he's going to have trouble not only with a wily quarry but this rival.

The story unfolds across a dusty western frontier during the American Civil War, and we find our hero in an ever-increasing state of doubt with his role and actions. His state is well off-set with the cartoonish 'villainy' of the wanted man and the unnecessary cold-bloodedness of the rival. It's too long and too loud, and yet that's why we're watching a western. It is tonally consistent and the characters feel as real as the story allows.

Recommended. Though I would recommend Fistful of Dollars, the first in the 'series', above this.

*It's older even than me!