I am not a fan of Sergio Leone. In fact, this movie and Once Upon a Time in the West are the only movies of his that I have seen. But I think they are both classic westerns. He seems to bring out the best in his cinematographer, both for scenery and for his characters.

In one review I read, he was criticized for staying with facial close-ups too long, and I would probably agree if he populated his movies with beautiful actors and actresses as many films do, but he relies heavily upon actors with interesting faces.

Sometimes I feel he relies on too many shootings, and on having his gunfighters be too damn good. Two, four, six opponents? Doesn’t matter, these guys kill them all and come out unscathed.  But that is part of the western movie gunfighter mystique.

On a different level, I have owned the soundtrack for this movie: The Good the Bad and the Ugly, for close to 50 years. I write novels in my spare time, and I started listening to this soundtrack (plus others like Thunderball) for background music as I wrote. I moved on to Ambient music, such as Brian Eno, but still listen to this album. As a side note, I heard a great version of this movie music on YouTube, performed by the Danish National Orchestra. Check it out.

So the movie works for me on multiple levels, and I own a copy so I can watch it any time the mood strikes me