THE GOOD, THE BAD AND THE UGLY

The Story

The basic premise of the film consists of three very different men who are brought together in trying to achieve a common goal. Set at the time of the American Civil War, all three search for a buried treasue - $200,000 of gold coins. The film was as was "Fistful" based on another work, a French black comedy called "Monsieur Verdoux" which was set in the backdrop of the first world war.

The story begins with the introduction of the three main characters, Tuco (Wallach) kills some bounty hunters who are looking for him and then escapes by jumping through a window and jumping on his horse. The character of Angel Eyes is introduced when he is paid to track down some hidden gold. He is ordered to kill a man who has information on the whereabouts of the gold. The man to be killed tells Angel Eyes of a king's ransom in gold which has apparently been stolen by a man named "Bill Carson". The man also tells Angel Eyes that he will pay twice whatever the other is paying him. Angel Eyes accepts, but insits that he "... always carries out a job" and kills the man. He then returns to his employer and informs him of what he has discovered, he also tells him of the payment the other man made and proceeds to kill his employer. 

Meanwhile, Tuco is  riding through the desert at high speed when he is ambushed by 
three men who  are going to claim the ransom on his head. Suddenly Blondie  appears and 
 kills the three men so that he can claim the ransom on Tuco. After claiming the ransom, 
Blondie saves Tuco from hanging and they form an equal "50-50" partnership. After the
 next "transaction" occurs Blondie decides that he no longer wants to  carry on with the 
partnership and takes Tuco out to the desert. He leaves him there with Tuco claiming 
revenge, seventy miles from nowhere.
 Tuco survives and finds himself a gun and some hired thugs and goes searching for Blondie.He eventually  tracks him 
down to a hotel. All of the hired guns are killed but Tuco tricks Blondie and forces him to place a noose around his neck 
and to tie the other end to the roof. Just when it seems that Blondie is about to hang a stray bomb from the war hits the 
hotel and Tuco falls through the floor. He looks up almost  immediately but Blondie has already gone.

By following a trail of his cigarillo's, Tuco again finds Blondie. He then takes him on a long walk through the heat of the desert. Tuco has a horse and adequate supplies of water, Blondie has none. After a while Tuco decides he has seen enough and is about to kill Blondie, when a war - worn horse and carrige appear. Tuco goes over and is interested when the only living soldier, a man called "Bill Carson" insists that he will trade some information on a bundle of gold in exchange for some water. Tuco agrees, and is told the name of the cemetary where the gold is hidden but not the name of the grave. Anxiously he looks for his flask, when he returns he discover's that Carson is dead but that he has told Blondie the name on the grave. Tuco must now ensure that Blondie lives and takes him to a monastery where he can recover.

By this time, Angel Eyes has tracked down the whore that Bill Carson was particularly fond of . After he beats her, she informs him that Carson has been re-enlisted to fight. Angel Eyes then leaves to find Carson. Meanwhile Tuco and Blondie are back on the trail of the treasure neither telling the other of the information they have. Eventually they see a brigade coming towards them, believing they will help them Tuco calls them. Unfortunately the soldiers are unfriendly, especially because they are riding in Carson's carrige and Tuco has stolen one of the uniform's - of the opposition.

They are then taken to a POW camp where they notice Angel Eyes who is now a Seargent. Angel Eyes also notices them when the soldier calls for Bill Carson and Tuco acknowledges(at this point it is safe to assume that Angel Eyes has known both Tuco and Blondie previously). Angel Eyes then calls Tuco to his quarters where Tuco is savagely beaten before revealing the name of the cemetary. Then Blondie is called up, but is not beaten because Angel Eyes understands that he would never talk.

Blondie : "Aren't I going to get the same treatment?"

Angel E : "Would you talk?"

Blondie : " No probably not."

Angel Eyes suggests a partnership to which Blondie agrees although he appears to have his doubts about Angel Eyes' intentions. At this time Tuco escapes from the guard assigned to him and makes for the nearest town. He finds a war ravaged and desolate place, where Angel Eyes, his thugs and Blondie are also camped. Both groups do not know the circumstances of the other. After going for a walk Blondie finds Tuco and suggests the reforming of the partnership. Tuco agrees and he suggests they should kill Angel Eyes first. After killing all of his thugs Blondie and Tuco discover that Angel Eyes has fled.

The next scene shows Tuco and Blondie arriving at a bridge which has opposing forces fighting on each side of the river. Both belive that if the bridge was destroyed the battle would move on further down the river. So they destroy it, and eventually reach the cemetary. Tuco runs around the graveyard looking for the grave, when he finds it, he starts to dig it up, and is interrupted by Blondie who throws a spade beside him. Suddenly Angel Eyes arrives and gives Blondie a spade and tells him to dig. Blondie refuses and tells them that the treasure isn't in the grave Tuco is digging up, he then proceeds to write the correct name on a stone and tells them that the one survior can claim all the gold. So they form into a triangle at the center of the cemetary and wait to see who will go for their gun first. Angel Eyes goes for his gun but Blondie shoots him before Angel Eyes is able to fire. Tuco meanwhile is astonished to discover that Blondie had emptied his pistol the night before. They then dig up the treasue, while Tuco is celebrating, Blondie throws a noose on the floor beside him and tells him to stand on the gravestone and to tie the other end to a tree. Blondie then takes his half of the gold and rides away. He then stops and shoots the noose from the distance. Tuco falls, he then gets up and shouts abuse at Blondie, who rides away. A much more mainstream film than the two prequels, with the addition of Eli Wallach a very welcome injection of humor is added to the classic Spaghetti Western recipe. Because of the popularity of the two previous films Leone was able to demand a much higher price for the rights to the film - $500,000 as an advance against box office, with Clint Eastwood taking $250,000 plus 10% of the box office. Also the film was much more lavish than the two previous films with a budget of $1,200,000, now Leone was able to reconstruct scenes from the civil war. The film took $6,000,000 in the States. Leone also suggested to the three stars of the film that they might appear in his next film "Once Upon A Time In The West", where they were to be gunned down by Bronson's character. Both Wallach and Van Cleef agreed, but for Eastwood it was thefinal straw, after many arguments with Leone throughout the filming of the three movies. Eventually Eastwood seemed to forgive Leone, by dedicating his own western "Unforgiven" to the director who had by that time passed away.