The Good, the Bad and the Cruel

Sergio Leone's The Good, the Bad and the Cruel is the most famous example of spaghetti westerns — a genre that in the 1960s reinvented American western drama with a new aesthetic and morality. Three gunslingers — Blondie (the good one), Angel Eyes (the bad guy) and Tuco (the ugly one) — chase a hidden treasure during the American Civil War, but alliances and animosities shift all the way.

The film stands out for its magnificent visual composition, extreme closeups and huge panoramas — and not least Ennio Morricone's iconic underlay music, which almost acts as a character in its own right. Leone sets the pace up and down slowly, building tension with surgical precision.

'The Good, the Bad and the Cruel' cemented the spaghetti western's status as a serious and style-creating genre. It became the inspiration for everything from Quentin Tarantino's gory tales to modern TV series like 'Westworld'. Its dry humor, amoral heroes and epic showdowns have characterized the action genre and redefined what a western could be.

Director: Sergio Leone
Starring: Clint Eastwood, Eli Wallach, Lee Van Cleef, Aldo Giuffré
Country/year: Italy, Spain, Germany, 1966
Running time: 179 min.
Formato: DCP 4K
Language: English Dialogue
Age limit: Allowed for children over 15
Original title: Il buono, il brutto, il cattivo

Part of the series: Sergio Leone
Experience all of Segio Leone's feature films in Cinematek and enjoy the intense ultra-closeups, magnificent overall shots and Ennio Morricone's underpinning music.