The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly

On the eve of Stephanie and Vincent's escape from Ohio, I had hoped to see a revival of the Sergio Leone spaghetti Western class "The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly" in one of old downtown theaters. But we went to see Grandma instead - which was probably a good move in hindsight - and later we saw some of the movie on video. This summer the discount theater/art house theater in St. Matthews has run some revivals, and this weekend was the turn for "The Good" (1966), a three-hour marathon filmed in Spain with an elaborate Civil War battle scene in the last hour and a stupenous lead-up to a memorable cemetery gun fight pitting Clint Eastwood's Blondie versus Eli Wallach's Tuca versus Lee Van Cleef's Angel Eyes. Vincent was skeptical about seeing a movie whose three hours had eventually taken its tool on him - on video/TV - but there's nothing like seeing a movie in a theater, and we didn't got bored. Eastwood - a favorite of mine - has praised Leone as a source for some of his acting and directing style (evident not only in Westerns like "The Outlaw Josey Wales" and "Pale Rider" but also in other movies). Quentin Tarantino has described "The Good" as the best directed movie of all time, and in the style of "The Good" you can see some of the origins of the "Pulp Fiction" style. We thought about trying to see five movies Saturday, but stayed at the Village 8 for "The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe: Prince Caspian," and then left for the Stonybrook theater for "Hancock."