esrosedotblog

LONG

Today's Best 1176 NYTimes Movie was

Buono, il brutto, il cattivo, Il / The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly (1966).

You can add to that 'the Long'. Weighing in at 2 hours and 40 minutes, it is an endurance tester.

I would have cut it down. They did actually. This is the DVD restored version.

Ebert has two reviews. His second one is more instructive of Serge Leone's process in directing this film. You can read it all for yourself.

There are a lot of improbabilities, but I think the film is a mold breaker.

There are no good guys. Clint Eastwood, Eli Wallach, and Lee Van Cleef are all after each others' ass. They have the words wrong in the cover art. Clint is the Good, Van Cleef the bad, and Wallach the ugly.

I liked all three. Van Cleef is always a good surprise; all steely eyed and dangerous. Somehow Wallach manages to harness his usual overacting to a consistent personna. Eastwood. Well, I have enjoyed Clint since his Rowdy Yates days. Rawhide.

All the dialog except for the stars is dubbed. The other actors are all virtually extras and were clearly chosen for their looks. They are well-weathered. Almost Falliniesque.

The closeups are magnificent. The entire framing technique is unique.

I liked it. Like Ebert, I am more fond of it now that it is over and I have some distance.

This is the third of the 'dollar' spaghetti westerns. The first two didn't make it to best films. Dunno why.

But it is so fucking long. Tedious at times. Lengthy. Drawn out. Slow. Very arduous in places. I can't think of any other ways to say it. Whew. Aren't we there yet?

This film has one of the highest IMDb audience ratings incidentally at 8.8.

I will give it a 3 out of Netflix5.