Summary
1967’s Spaghetti WesternThe Good, The Bad And The Uglyis often listed as a sequel to two earlier movies, but this is a confusing misnomer.The Good, The Bad And The Uglystars Clint Eastwood as the Man With No Name, an amoral drifter searching for a cache of treasure during the American Civil War. Eastwood’s protagonist works alongside Eli Wallach’s duplicitous Tuco as he attempts to unearth the treasure, while Lee Van Cleef’s terrifying villain Angel Eyes is hot on the pair’s trail.The Good, The Bad And The Ugly’s endingsees the trio face off.
While The Good, The Bad And The Ugly’s story is self-contained, the movie is often listed as a sequel to director Sergio Leone’s earlier collaborations with Eastwood.The Good, The Bad And The Ugly 2never happened, butThe Good, The Bad And The Ugly itselfis viewed as a follow-up to both 1964’sA Fistful of Dollarsand 1965’sFor A Few Dollars More. Since all three movies share a star, director, and main character, this sounds pretty logical at first glance. However,The Good, The Bad And The Ugly’s sequel status is more complicated than it seems.
Where Was The Good, The Bad And The Ugly Filmed? Iconic Western’s Filming Locations Explained
The definitive spaghetti Western film, The Good, the Bad and the Ugly was filmed largely overseas — thousands of miles from its American West setting.
Sergio Leone’s Dollars Trilogy Consists Of Three Standalone Movies
Despite arriving after Leone and Eastwood’s two earlier Man With No Name movies,The Good, The Bad And The Uglyis not a sequel in any meaningful sense.A Fistful of DollarsandFor A Few Dollars Moremight feature Eastwood in the same role, but neither movie includes any characters who later appear inThe Good, The Bad And The Ugly. Clint Eastwood’sThe Good, The Bad And The Uglycharacter is theMan With No Name, the same opportunistic outlaw who emerged triumphant in bothA Fistful of DollarsandFor A Few Dollars More.
The loosely connected stories starring the Man With No Name are more like interlinked anthology vignettes than a traditional trilogy.
However, those movies aren’t related toThe Good, The Bad And The Uglyin terms of plot. Tuco and Angel Eyes are never mentioned in either earlier movie, and it’s not entirely clear whetherThe Good, The Bad And The Uglyeven takes place after the earlier movies in the so-calledDollarsTrilogy. The loosely connected stories starring the Man With No Name are more like interlinked anthology vignettes than a traditional trilogy, as Eastwood’s character never changes between movies.The Good, The Bad And The Uglymay precede the otherDollarsmovies, which underlines how loosely connected the trilogy is.
The Dollars Trilogy Was A Marketing Strategy For Clint Eastwood’s Westerns
Leone’s Eastwood Collaborations Have Only A Main Character In Common
TheDollarstrilogy allowed viewers who enjoyedA Fistful of Dollarsto get excited about For AFew Dollars More. Similarly, the box office success of these earlier movies understandably resulted inThe Good, The Bad And The Ugly’s marketing calling attention to its connections with them. However, this strategy didn’t extend into the movie’s plotting.The Good, The Bad And The Uglyis a standalone story, and it is stronger for this quality. Tuco’s brief reunion with his brother, the dynamic of mutual distrust between Tuco and the Man With No Name, and the ending make the movie’s world feel lived-in.
The Good, The Bad And The Ugly’s Civil War-set story is a standalone plot.
However, the earlier movies in theDollarstrilogy destroy this illusion when neither of them has anything to do withThe Good, The Bad And The Ugly’s plot.Every movie in theDollarstrilogyhas its own unique appeal, and all of them are essential viewing for Spaghetti Western enthusiasts. That said, anyone hoping for more insight intoThe Good, The Bad And The Ugly’s fictional world will emerge from its predecessors disappointed.The Good, The Bad And The Ugly’s Civil War-set story is a standalone plot that excels precisely because it isn’t linked to any earlier or later movies.
Clint Eastwood’s Best Western Is A Self-Contained Story
The Good, The Bad And The Uglyis the best ofClint Eastwood’s many Westerns, so, understandably, viewers may want more from the world of the movie’s story. However,The Good, The Bad And The Ugly’s standalone style is instrumental to its success. The lengthy epic tells a self-contained tale of friendship, treachery, villainy, and retribution that works perfectly on its own.
The Good, The Bad And The Ugly’s plot doesn’t need a predecessor or a sequel.
Rather than elaborating on an existing story, the Man With No Name’s most iconic adventure effectively forgets all about his earlier screen appearances in its focus on the dynamic between him, Tuco, and Angel Eyes.The Good, The Bad And The Ugly’s plot doesn’t need a predecessor or a sequel since the story begins and ends exactly where it needs to, offering viewers all they need to know. Thanks to its long runtime,The Good, The Bad And The Uglymanages to encapsulate the appeal of the Spaghetti Western on its own.
