These three movies weren't released in the U.S. until 1967. Rawhide was canceled in December 1965, and Clint was already well known from that series. The trilogy put him over as a major star.

You're drawing out us gun nuts. The revolvers of those days were single action. That means you have to pull the hammer back before you can squeeze the trigger to fire the gun. So when you see them using the left hand swiping over the top of the gun they are cocking the hammer so they can shoot.

Really happy to see almost at 50k Jen! Actually your numbers should 10x higher! Congrats and continued success! Always here...Eric 😊

​@@e.d.2096Great to see you here, Eric. 🙂 I can't hang around long tonight as I have to be up at 5.30, and it's almost 00.30 already.

This was an excellent reaction, I really enjoyed it, Jen. These films are classics, and as you noted made all the better by the music. Clint Eastwood was already an up-and-coming star when he made these films, he played a character called 'Rowdy Yates' on the TV series 'Rawhide'. Apart from 'The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly', you should also watch the Western 'Once Upon a Time in The West' which took some inspiration from these films.

I can't decide, so I just love them both.

That's a tough call. The third film has Eli Walloch. Such a great character.

@@t0dd000 I know! And van Cleef! And Morricone! And landscapes in Spain! And all those side characters .... Oh, and we can't forget the unofficial "fourth member" of the trilogy: "Once Upon A Time in the West" Fonda, Bronson, Robards, Cardinale, Morricone. I mean, really, Sergio Leone, he left us an embarrassment of riches. I won't choose, I'll take them all and be grateful.

Van Cleef in Good Bad Ugly is outstanding, and Wallach is phenomenal, and Eastwood is iconic as ever! The plot is picarescue and unmatced, and the Leone's philmography is magical! Final, the last cemetery scene is one of the greatest piece of art of the 20th Century, and the original score by Morricone is the most reconiziable music score of all time! And the line: "there's two kind of people my friend...", or: "when you get to shoot shoot, don't talk"... And the "Ecstasy of Gold" score, c'mon... One of the greatest movie ever created in every aspect, and the title too is in the common language and covered millions of time in the pop culture!

My favorite as well. And I love the music, especially in the final standoff!

It's better for me as well. People don't associate it with Leone because Eastwood's not in it. It has the same great music plus a love interest. Henry Fonda is a terrific villain.

yeah She''ll LOVE the score in "Once Upon a TIme in the West"

A great opening, but I put all three of these over that one.

Once upon a time in the West and The Good, the Bad and the Ugly are both outstanding and defined the Western genre new. Before that, Westerns were almost sterile like stage plays with the main characters looking as if they´d just come out of the laundry. Later the "cheaper" spaghetti westerns carried this change to extremes with movies like Django showing practically everything in a dirty mess.

really, I would just suggest watching practically all of Sergio Leone's films. They are all worth it.

Ya he had a great career of playing badasses both good and bad.

He played a ninja Master in 89's tv show called The Master, he was such a great actor despite not being Japanese and advanced in years he pulled it off very well.

@@l.piloto7964 With Timothy Van Patton. A couple of Dutch ninjas

If you met that was his final film which was released in 1981 but Van Cleef acted until 1989 and had a movie released in 1990 after his death when died in 1989 at age 64 of a heart attack.

His character in 'Face to Face' is even deeper and more fascinating. He's a sickly intellectual who goes to the west for health reasons. He ends up getting entangled with a bandit and trying to turn the bandit's criminal acts toward a more revolutionary and 'noble' cause... only, as the movie progresses, the two principals somewhat switch roles. It's a really damn good Spaghetti Western.

Have you ever seen Volonte "normally"? He looks like an entirely different person than as Ramon and Indio.

​@@Carandini It's one of the best "B" (if that's a fair label) spaghetti westerns out there. Sadly, it's kind of obscure.

GM Volonto was paced down many times on the Set from Sergio Leone, he was to intense in his acting. And yes i agree "Faccia a Faccia" is also a very good Western. But the Premisse there is political. I always use to recommend the "3 Sergios" to get a feeling and understanding of real "Italian Westernmaking" Sergio Leone, Sergio Sollima and Sergio Corbucci. Each an everyone unique but timeless... Investigate, explore, watch and enjoy 😊😊

"No , old man. Thought I was havin' trouble with my adding. It's all right now."

Yea I wanted to buy a watch and have that song play on it,that would freaking rule!

I remember the watch music being used in the trailer for "The Dark Tower", which was pretty cool to hear.

I hate to use the word underrated, but Lee Van Cleef definitely is. Anything I've ever seen him in he is awesome

I never knew Van Cleef was going to give up on acting, so glad he didn't.

“Death Rides a Horse” is also a great performance from Lee

@@NPA1001 I'd say that one and 'The Big Gundown' have his best roles.

I think with the westerns in particular we can't because of the demarkation that was made even at the time. You had the Spaghettis, the 'neo-westerns' that were being made in the US as a kind of response to the increasing violence and populatrity of Italian westerns (The Wild Bunch would be a good example here, or Heston's 'The Last Hard Men') and then you had the American westerns that were still trying to be very much in that classic vein (nearly anything from Audie Murphy with maybe the exception of 'The Texican'), so it isn't so much the term 'classic' as we apply it to other genres but rather a sub-genre all it's own. I'd say the biggest tell for a Classic western, is the morality of the protagonist isn't ever ambiguous, the good guy will end up doing the right thing because it is the right thing, not from selfish or dishonorable motives. Spaghettis and neo-westerns delighted in having more morally gray and complex characters... which is their strongest asset in my opinion. Hell, contrast Paladin with Harmonica and I think that's a good example of what I'm talking about.

Classic westerns aren't called "classic" because they are old or something like that. They're classics because they're canonical, meaning there was a way, a formula of doing them. During the 50s (with precedents though, like Stagecoach) westerns started to be done differently, defying the "formula", and then in the 60s westerns were just subversing classic westerns, so they were called anti-westerns or revisionist westerns. Spaguetti westerns were made in that 60s context although they have a slightly different feeling than the american westerns of that time. So, this is why they shouldn't be called "classic"

@@Carandini I disagree in that spaghetti's and neo-westerns portrait more complex characters. Howard Hawks, of course John Ford, Anthonny Mann and others made westerns based on even more complex characters before. In fact, I'd say that usually Spaghetti westerns have quite plain characters many times. I remind you, for example, John Wayne's character in The Searchers, best example of an ambiguous main character. Probably the most despicable I ever seen in a western, classic or not. The pretension, I think, was subverting the old westerns tropes, changing aesthetics, making them more violently graphic and so on. Notice for instance, how romance is usually out of these new westerns formula.

That sounds like your opinion of "classic". Mine is any western that stands the test of time. Any film, for that matter. But thanks for your condescending lesson.

@@CarolinaCharles777 Thanks for your neanderthal reply, I suppose. Not my opinion on 'classic' either (because I sure as hell think this stands the test of time far better than much-acclaimed dreck like 'My Darling Clementine') but trying to clue you in that AS FAR AS FILM CRITICS are concerned, the 'classic' western is a very specific style and type of story-telling, just as every mystery isn't instantly a film-noire. Anyway, enjoy your ignorance.

Better known as a mouth harp nowadays.

Agree

High Plains Drifter is a classic Clint western too.

Yes, in the US. But in Europe even the first of the trilogy was a hugh success. In the US the first two films were only shown after the good, the bad and the ugly was filmed. Therefore Clint couldn't become a star there after the first two...

I always thought it was because he was smoking a J.

To really understand Unforgiven you have to see at least a couple of the Dollars trilogy to really get the flavour of Clint's portrayal of William Munny and what he was doing with the character. I think of it like the ending to the Dollars movies. Like them, not directly connected, but it seems like Clint is playing the same guy in all of them and Unforgiven feels like the finale.

@@ronweber1402 great point of view, Ron! I totally agree!

In Europe the Italian Western were just called this: Italo-Western...

Lee van Cleef and fun fact the evil sheriff in the Jackie Chan movie Shanghai noon was named van Cleef as a tribute to him.

He would have been well known already. Apparently Clint was under TV contract for 10 years and couldn't film in the US, which is why he went overseas for movies.

He was known for TV but outside of Rawhide most of his shows were just one episode here and there. He had also done some movies, but most were small parts. The spaghetti westerns were his first starring roles and that third one cemented him as a movie star. After that he never did TV again.

I also suggested PAINT YOUR WAGON, in past comments. Jen, it's probably the ONLY time you get to see Clint Eastwood sing a love song. Excellent film Excellent recommendation, I second this suggestion 😊

''Gonna paint your wagon, gonna paint it fine. Gonna use oil based paint because the wood is pine!''🎵

Can't go wrong with a Clint Eastwood western

Definitely Josie Wales.

Lone Watie and Ten Bears of the Comanches.

No. Not famous like she's asking about here.

On KZfaq, look up The Danish National Symphony Orchestra- The Good the Bad and the Ugly. It’s perfect! Their version has well over 100 million views and is well worth your time.

@@THOMMGB Yep agree 100%

​@@THOMMGB their version For a Few Dollars More is also a killer radiation.

@@aurelian7831 I really hope you mean it's a killer rendition, which it is.🙂 I have a love/hate relation with the spell check thing.

@@THOMMGB yes

"Two Mules" is a lot of fun. I think Jen would love that one. It's got a score by Ennio Morricone as well.

2nd that recommendation, it also let's you see the instruments used to make some of the distinctive sounds

Even though they say his name in it lol

@@ericseitzler81 they say it in "Good, Bad, Ugly" too, lol!

@@robertkramer2271 they call him a different name in that one didn't they?

Personally I feel like My Name Is Nobody is the epilogue to the western movies Leone did (he didn't direct it, but he was one of the main writers, if not _the_ main writer) - a light-hearted comedy that's also a farewell to the genre.

That's not true. Lee Van Cleef walked the peculiar way he did because he fell off a horse early in his career that hurt him so badly, they told him he'd never ride a horse again. But he recovered and well... the rest is history. Leone chose Van Cleef because he accepted the part. Leone wanted Henry Fonda and then Charles Bronson as Col. Mortimer, but they both turned him down.

Thanks John you too 👍