Something to do with Leone

I just got back from watching the third and best of Sergio Leone’s famed “Dollars” trilogy, The Good, The Bad and The Ugly, which is playing in town at my favorite local theater, Cinema 21. Although it’s always been one of my favorite Leone films, seeing it in the theater made all the difference. I’ll have to watch Once Upon a Time in the West again to properly judge which one is my favorite, but for the moment, this one wins out. Unless you have a nice big television set (which I don’t), it’s imperative to see this film on the big screen to fully appreciate Tonino Delli Colli’s incredible cinematography. The larger-than-life compositions really add to the drama unfolding on screen, as well as bringing out some of the actors’ subtle nuances, e.g. ironic facial expressions. And, of course, when you talk about The Good, The Bad and The Ugly, you have to mention the unforgettable music of Ennio Morricone, a man who added so much to Leone’s films, be it irony, slapstick, beauty, or an epic grandeur (sometimes all at once) that is hard to match even to this day. Morricone’s complete score for The Good, The Bad and The Ugly is available as an import compact disc from GDM Music. Also, if you’re interested in knowing more about Sergio Leone, I highly recommend Sir Christopher Frayling’s 2000 biography entitled, Sergio Leone: Something To Do With Death. A great read. Frayling is also the author of another fantastic book, dealing with the oddball Spaghetti Western genre in general. Definitely worth checking out as well.