Though as American as apple pie, the Western is an iconic genre of US cinema that saw a great many Italian directors and productions. The resulting subgenre, the spaghetti Western, has no more famous and revered example than The Good, The Bad and The Ugly.
Many consider Sergio Leone’s epic to be the greatest Western of all time, not just the best spaghetti Western. The film is revered for its cinematography, instantly recognisable theme song, and career-highlight performance from Clint Eastwood. Nearly 60 years on, new and old fans can catch the movie streaming on Amazon Prime, but the clock is ticking.
Amazon Video is removing The Good, The Bad and The Ugly from its streaming platform on July 31. So, at the time of writing, Amazon Prime subscribers have three weekends to catch the iconic Western film before it’s gone.
The movie follows three gunslingers as they race to find a shipment of $200,000 worth of stolen Confederate gold against the backdrop of the American Civil War. As per the film’s tagline: “For three men the Civil War wasn’t hell. It was practice.”
The three titular roles are a quiet loner named Blondie, aka the Man with No Name (Clint Eastwood as ‘the good’), a ruthless hitman named Angel Eyes (Lee Van Cleef as ‘the bad’), and Mexican bandit Tuco Ramirez (Eli Wallach as ‘the ugly’).
Why critics and fans say it’s one of the best Western movies
The 1966 movie has near-universal acclaim. On Rotten Tomatoes, it has an identical 97% rating from over 100,000 fans and 77 film critics.
Rotten Tomatoes’ critics’ consensus summarised its appeal: “Arguably the greatest of the spaghetti westerns, this epic features a compelling story, memorable performances, breathtaking landscapes, and a haunting score.”
Chicago Tribune critic Michael Wilmington dubbed it an “improbable masterpiece”, praising its “bizarre mixture of grandly operatic visuals, grim brutality and sordid violence that keeps wrenching you from one extreme to the other.”
A list of 25 ‘must-see Western movie classics’ by Forbes put the spaghetti Western in second place, explaining it’s what many consider to “definitively” be the greatest Western of all time, adding: “it’s hard to argue.”
Forbes noted the film excelled in everything that spaghetti Westerns were obsessed with — “close-ups of ambiguous anti-heroes, with slow-paced action sequences amidst bloody tales of revenge, with grim and cynical tones bleeding from the bleak and harsh landscapes”.
The publication applauded The Good, The Bad and The Ugly’s epic scope, iconic score, innovative cinematography, concluding: “Leone’s incredible directorial turn cemented this film as a cornerstone of the Western genre.”
Explaining why it’s one of the best, a list of 20 greatest westerns of all time by the Independent said: “The most famous spaghetti Western is a stylish, flamboyant, visual treat, with Ennio Morricone’s famous soundtrack at its core. Innovative and hugely influential, boasting several memorable set-pieces, including the authentic and moving civil war sequence.”
What viewers think
Enthralled movie viewers have called it a “Western’s Western” with “not a wasted scene” despite its long run time. The three-hour version is on Amazon Prime Video.
On Letterboxd, the film has an average 4.5 rating out of five. A popular review reads: “gotta be the best ending of all time” whilst another said: “I cannot believe Ennio Morricone saw the scene of Tuco running around the graveyard for four minutes and decided to make the best piece of score ever.”
A reviewer on Google gave it a perfect score, explaining: “Right from the get-go, my jaw dropped, my eyes were bulging, and my attention was grasped. As for the grand finale, It was an exquisite way to end such an epic film like this, and the overall outcome gave me an impressive sense of delight.”
On IMDB, it’s number 10 on the website’s top 250 movies as rated by regular IMDB voters. It holds a 8.8 score out of 10.
The most popular review on the platform is titled: “Brutal, brilliant, and one of the best Westerns ever made”.
The fan wrote: “The movie is long, but there’s not a wasted scene in the film. Each one slowly lets the film unfold with a certain style and grace, revealing more about each character and what’s going on. The pacing is incredible, as is the direction – Sergio Leone manages to build a lot of uncomfortable tension in the film, keeping the film from ever getting predictable
“This movie is absolutely brilliant. If you haven’t seen it yet, I strongly urge to do so. Immediately.”