The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly

The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly, a classic, action-packed Western and the epic finale in director Sergio Leone's Dollars trilogy. Throughout this fine film, there are a multitude of showdowns and gunfights. The Man with No Name (referred to as Blondie in this film)(played by Clint Eastwood) has a trigger finger seems to itch every few minutes. While many of the shootouts are important, as well as thrilling and captivating, it is the final scene of the movie, where Blondie, Tuco (Eli Wallach), and Angel Eyes (Lee Van Cleef) have a Mexican standoff that is the most intense. This scene is the much anticipated climatic showdown that the audience has been patiently waiting for. In order for this scene to carry so much power and set itself apart from the other showdowns, many different elements including camera movement, music, and lighting must work hand in hand. First of all, the setting of this scene is a large open patch of stony land surrounded by a large make-shift cemetery. The ominous grave markers allude to the fact that at least one of the three men will not make it out of there alive. The lighting of the scene is very bright. This is a result of the scene taking place in the desert where natural sunlight is abundant. Darker light would have cast a darker feel on the scene, and might have radically changed the mood, but the brightness seems to work in this scene.

The music adds to the anticipation of the showdown. Coupled with camera movements, viewers can not wait to see what happens next. The music is mostly just a few chords on a guitar being strummed at varying tempos on top of a drum beat and mixed with a trumpet, but when this is added to rapid back and forth shots of each character and their facial expression, a feeling of heavy anticipation is created.

Eventually, once the three men are in position and are sizing eachother up, the music stops and as the wind blows, crows caw, adding to the feeling of fright. Later in the scene, the camera pans out and shows the three characters in the middle ground, standing in a triangular formation. The vast field of graves is seen surrounding the men, and farther out, in the background, the tree-laden landscape is seen. Next the camera zooms back in and alternates between close ups of each man and their holster. As the anticipation grows, the music resumes. The acting in this scene is excellent. The viewer gets a sense of what each man is thinking and feeling. Facial expressions are key to this scene, and each actor does a good job of displaying untrusting, shifting eyes, fear, nervousness, and a little bit of cool confidence.

As the scene progresses, the camera shows a low shot of each man slowing reaching down to grab his gun. This is complimented with additional camera shots of each man's facial expression as the intensity and anticipation heads for a climax. The music is still slow, but grows in vigor as each man is very close to pulling his gun. The trumpet returns and hits a crescendo as the intensity reaches its highest level and the viewer can tell bullets are about to fly at any second. At this point, the camera is switching between frames of facial expressions and hands over holsters in rapid succession. Now instead of showing the whole face, the camera has zoomed in on just the eyes. Finally, Angel Eyes pulls his gun. Tuco and Blondie follow suit and in a matter of seconds, guns fire and Angel Eyes comes crashing down. Still clinging to life, he tries once more to draw his gun on Blondie, but Blondie shoots him again and he falls in an open grave. Finally Blondie fires off two more shots to push Angel Eyes' hat and gun in the grave with him. Even immediately after the shootout, the acting is still high quality. Eastwood continues to display his confident ferocity while Eli Wallach shows fear and confusion. Costume did not seem to play a huge role in this scene. Each character was dressed in similar fashion as they were for the entirety of the movie. One important costume change of note however is Eastwood's addition of the poncho. Until arriving at the cemetery, he had not been wearing his trademark poncho. This new attire sets him apart from the rest of the characters in the scene and indicates that he will play an important role in the action that follows.