Abhin Kurella

10/11/15
Period 6
Cinematic Analysis: The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly
Part A:
The movie The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly is a classic western with the underlying message that every
bad deed comes back to bite you in the future. This movie chronicles the adventures of three men, the white cowboy
Blondie, who is shown to be The Good, the bounty hunter Angel Eyes, who is shown to be The Bad, and the
Mexican Cowboy Tuco, who is shown to be The Ugly, as they all race to find 200,000 dollars in confederate gold.
The movie starts with an establishing shot of a desert area and a man with a cowboy hat and a gun. This scene
establishes the setting as the southwestern United States. It is later found out that the time period is the Civil War.
The bounty hunter Angel Eyes is then introduced as he barges into a Mexican familys house looking for
information on the alias of a specific man. The man of the house tells him the name, the name being Bill Carson, and
also ends up also revealing that there is 200,000 dollars in confederate gold hiding somewhere. Angel Eyes then
shoots both the man and his son. The next scene introduces the two other lead characters, Blondie, the protagonist,
and Tuco, his on and off partner. The scene shows Blondie rescuing Tuco, a criminal, from three bounty hunters, but
shows him taking him to jail himself and collecting the bounty. Then right as he is being hanged, Blondie shoots the
noose and Tuco escapes. It turns out that the two are partners and that Blondie turns Tuco in, collects the bounty, and
shoots the noose and the two split the profits.
The action starts as Blondie leaves Tuco in the desert while he is still tied up from a hanging. Blondie takes
all of the profits and leaves Tuco to walk seventy miles in the desert to the nearest town. At the same time, the
bounty hunter Angel Eyes finds Bill Carsons wife and beats her for information about his whereabouts and she tells
him his company name as he is in the confederate army now. The action continues as Tuco tracks down Blondie in a
hotel being abandoned by confederate soldiers. He finds him and prepares to hang him just as a shell hits his room
and Blondie escapes. Tuco continues to tracks down Blondie once more until he finally captures him and forces him
on a hundred mile march through the most formidable part of the desert, just as Blondie forced Tuco to walk seventy
miles to the nearest town when he left him stranded. As they trek through the desert, they find a carriage filled with
dead confederate soldiers, except for one who is close to dying, a man named Bill Carson. Carson tells Tuco that he
will tell him the whereabouts of 200,000 dollars worth of confederate gold if he gives him water. The impatient Tuco
makes him talk first and he tells him that the gold is in a specific cemetery, but as Bill Carson obviously needs water

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he rushes to get some so he can hear the rest. Yet by the time Tuco comes back, Carson has already died and next to
him lies the severely dehydrated Blondie, whom Carson told the specific name of the grave in which the gold is
hidden. Now needing Blondie alive, Tuco rushes to take him to the Spanish frontier mission of his estranged brother,
Brother Ramirez, a place that rehabilitates the injured. Once Blondie recovers, the two are captured by Union
soldiers after sporting the uniforms of the dead confederate company they found. They are taken to a Union prison
camp and coincidentally a sergeant there is Angel Eyes, the bounty hunter. When Tuco answers during roll call as
Bill Carson, Angel Eyes takes Tuco and has his henchman, Corporal Wallace, beat him for information regarding he
whereabouts of the gold. Now knowing that Blondie has the information on the name of the grave, he forces Blondie
to ride with him, and eventually five other men, to find the gold. At the same time, Tuco is being transported on a
train with Corporal Wallace, to be hanged. He manages to escape and goes to a nearby town. Blondie finds Tuco
there and they both partner up once again to kill Angel Eyes and his posse, but end up killing everybody but Angel
Eyes, who escapes. The two then ride to find the grave, but get taken in by the Union army and realize that the river
they need to cross is right in the middle of a battle. So, to move the two armies away from the river, they blow up the
bridge the two armies are fighting for. While doing so, Tuco tells Blondie the name of the cemetery and Blondie tells
Tuco the name of the grave.
The climax comes as after crossing the river, Tuco double crosses Blondie by taking the only horse and
racing to the cemetery. He reaches the grave of Arch Stanton, the name that Blondie told him, but Blondie catches
up to him. Just as Blondie forces Tuco to dig up the grave, Angel Eyes shows up. Holding a gun to both of their
heads, he tells them both to dig or he will kill him. Right then Blondie tells him that he wouldnt want to do that as
he told Tuco the wrong name and he opens the grave to confirm that the gold is not there. Blondie then writes the
name of the grave on a rock and puts it in the middle of a big rocky area. All three of them stand equal paces from
each other in a Mexican standoff. All of them reach slowly for their guns, each one hesitant and a bit fearful, each
one calculating the others next move. Finally, Angel Eyes and Blondie point their guns at each other but Blondie
fires the first shot, killing Angel Eyes in a fashion very fitting for a man who cruelly murdered people for a living.
Tuco also attempts to shoot Angel Eyes but finds that his gun was unloaded by Blondie the night before. Blondie
then forces Tuco to dig up the grave marked Unknown next to the grave of Arch Stanton, as this was the name told
to him by Carson. Tuco finds the gold thinking that he has hit it big but as he looks up, he sees a noose. Just as Tuco

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attempted to hang Blondie, Blondie now tries to hang Tuco. Blondie puts Tucos head in the noose as Tuco stands on
a rickety gravestone and he rides off with his former partner screaming behind him. Just when it seems to Tuco that
Blondie has left, Blondie turns around and shoots him loose just like old times.
The action recedes as Tuco falls on top of the pile of gold. He curses at Blondie just as he did when Blondie
left him in the desert. The movie ends with a shot of Blondie riding off towards the desert on his black horse.

Part B:

Abhin Kurella
10/11/15
Period 6
The movie The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly, is one of the greatest movies of all time. At the time that this
movie was made, which was 1966, this movie held both great content and great significance and continues to do so
to this day. This movie did everything from bring moderns into the western era to influence soundtracks for western
movies from there on out (Snider). It also became a huge part of culture which is evident with common use of the
colloquial expression, the good, the bad, and the ugly, which was not very common before this time (Snider).
Along with sporting great significance in its time and even beyond its time, it also displays some significant
historical aspects of American society, but like any other movie, it also boasts its own biases and inaccuracies as
well. The movie, The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly, is a movie that sports great significant historical aspects of
American society, but also great amounts of bias and historical inaccuracy.
There are many historically significant aspects of American society portrayed in the film, The Good, The
Bad, and The Ugly. To first understand these aspects, we must first know the historical setting of the film. This film
is set in the old American west during the time of the civil war. This is shown by the taglines of the movie. One
tagline describes the movie as, A classic western! A classic music theme! (The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly
(1966) Taglines), which shows that the movie is meant to be set in the old west. Another tagline also helps show the
historical setting of the movie as it says, For Three Men The Civil War Wasn't Hell. It Was Practice! (The Good,
The Bad, and The Ugly (1966) Taglines). This tagline confirms that the movie is meant to be set in the civil war
since it talks about how the characters experience the civil war and for them it was not hell, but just practice. With
this historical setting, many significant aspects of American society are portrayed. One of these aspects is the view
of the West. Throughout American history, the American west was seen, especially by American easterners, as a land
of freedom, opportunity, and endless adventure. It was seen as the land of cowboys and gunslingers, outlaws and
bandits, and the land of endless farmland and gold. Shows like Buffalo Bills Wild West Show, an outdoor
entertainment show in the 1880s, displayed these ideals as they were filled with, features such as the Pony Express,
the wagon train, or the attack on the stagecoach and were complete with, Skill acts such as sharp shooting (with
pistol and rifle), wing shooting (with shotgun), roping, and riding that were linked to survival in the frontier
(Fees). In this movie, this wild west belief is exemplified by the abundance of gun duels, outlaws, bounty hunters,
and pistol skill all present in the movie, all things that seemed to describe the West. Another historically significant
aspect of American society portrayed is the animosity that confederates and northerners had towards each other. This

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is shown in the movie by the treatment of the confederate soldiers in the Union prison camp. The captured
confederates were all beaten, tortured, harassed, and stolen from, all because of the animosity that the Union soldiers
had toward the other side. One more aspect that is portrayed in the movie is the aspect about the difference in laws at
the time the movie is set. For example, the movie uses hanging from a rope as a form of execution but this would not
be present as a form of punishment in todays America. So all in all, this is the historical setting of the movie and
these are the significant aspects of American society presented.
Yet, this movie also sports its inaccuracies. One inaccuracy is with the exaggeration of the cowboy in the
movie. In The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly, the cowboys, especially the three main characters, are shown to have
great skill with the gun, even though in real life, the cowboys skill was much less (Western Frontier Life in
America). For example, Blondie is shown to be able to kill three people in less than a minute and is shown to be able
to accurately shoot down a small hanging rope with just two or three shots from long distance. Another inaccuracy is
with crime and law enforcement. In the movie, Blondie and Tuco are shown to be able to make a good living by
Tuco in jail, receiving the bounty, and Tuco then escaping with the help of Blondie shooting down the rope when
Tuco is about to be hanged. The reality though wouldve been that this scam would not have been very successful.
This is because ranching regions in the frontier many times lacked regular law enforcement (Western Frontier Life
in America), so they would not be able to pull the scam off well enough to make a living off of it. One more
inaccuracy that is present is with the violence in the West. Contrary to what is shown in the movie, cowboy deaths
often did not occur with one on one battles or Mexican standoffs, they usually occurred with ambushes (Western
Frontier Life in America). So all in all, the movie has its share of inaccuracies.
Along with inaccuracies, this movie also sports its share of biases. One of these biases is against Mexicans.
This is shown by how the Mexicans are portrayed in the film. One example is with the acting that is used to portray
the Mexican friends of Tuco who he hires to help him kill Blondie after Blondie leaves him in the desert. These
characters are portrayed with constant expressions that seemed dull, stupid, aloof, and passive. This shows bias as
they are showed to be people who are pretty much stupid and dull. Another example is how Tuco always drinks. In
this movie, the only person who is every seen drinking among the main characters is Tuco. This shows bias because
this is meant to portray that Mexicans, like Tuco, are drunkards. One more example is the target practice dummies at
the store that Tuco steals the pistol from. In this scene, the dummies are shown to be Native American. This shows

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Period 6
bias against Native Americans because it frames them as bad people and dangerous even though they may not be
since they are being used as target practice. So all in all, this movie has its share of biases as well.
All in all, the movie The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly is a movie filled with great historical significance in
regard to the display of significant aspects of American society but it also is filled with numerous accounts of both
bias and inaccuracy. Yet the truth remains that although movies may boast a true story or a historical backdrop or
setting, they are made for the purpose of entertainment. Although having its own share of inaccuracy and bias, the
movie still boasts a plethora of displays of historically significant aspects of American society and still remains as
one of the most iconic western movies of all time.

Part C:
Discuss how various cinematographic techniques are used to increase the viewers awareness of the setting,
characters or plot development.

Abhin Kurella
10/11/15
Period 6
There are various cinematographic techniques that are used in the movie The Good, The Bad, and The
Ugly, to increase the viewers awareness of the characters. One example is the extreme close up shot. Extreme close
up shots are used in abundance throughout the movie especially to develop the characters. One example is in the
scene that introduces the antagonist Angel Eyes, the bounty hunter, when he barges into the Mexican familys house
to find information on the name of a specific fugitive. In this scene, there is an extreme close up shot of the mans
eyes, eyes that have both a menacing and evil look, increasing the viewers awareness of him as a man who is both
dangerous and sinister. Another example is the use of the deep focus shot. This is used, for example, in a shot in the
scene when Blondie saves Tuco from the bounty hunters. In this shot, you see the back of Blondies gun as he shoots
the three bounty hunters trying to capture Tuco and you see the three bounty hunters in the background. This shot
develops Blondie as both a heroic and mysterious man. This is because in the shot, you only see the back of his gun,
which clouds him in mystery since you cant see who he is. Also, at the same time, you see the three people in the
background and you see him, from the back of his gun, shoot the three people with both accuracy and speed, which
helps to portray him as a hero because of his immense skill and how he saved the man. One more example of
cinematographic techniques used to increase the viewers awareness of the characters is the use of still shots. A
perfect example is the still shot taken of Angel Eyes after he double crosses and shoots his employer towards the
beginning of the movie. The still shot captures an image of Angel Eyes with an evil smile as he looks at the dead
corpse of the man he had just shot, which increases the viewers awareness of Angel Eyes as an evil person. On top
of that, a text is written on this still that calls him, The Bad, further making the viewer aware that Angel Eyes
really is a bad person and that he is the antagonist. All in all, these were ways in which cinematographic techniques
were used to increase the viewers awareness of the characters.

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Period 6
Works Cited
Snider, Eric D. "What's the Big Deal?: The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (1966)." Film.com. N.p., 13 July 2010. Web.
11 Oct. 2015. <http://www.film.com/movies/whats-the-big-deal-the-good-the-bad-and-the-ugly-1966>.
"Taglines." IMDb. IMDb.com, n.d. Web. 11 Oct. 2015. <http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0060196/taglines>.
"Western Frontier Life in America." Western Frontier Life. N.p., n.d. Web. 11 Oct. 2015. <http://
faculty.chass.ncsu.edu/slatta/cowboys/essays/front_life2.htm>.