Surprisingly enough, I had never seen this film until last night. To make up for this horrible mistake, a friend and I got the extended version and settled down for night of relaxation, empty deserts and a theme tune more catchy than Francisco Cervelli.
I will tell you now that I thought the film was utterly brilliant in every way possible so I wouldn't waste your time with animal related metaphors discussing the butchness of Clint Eastwood or how absurd the camera angle in the first scene was.
What I liked most about this film though, was the extended version bit. Now, I haven't seen the normal version, but I can't see what bits of the plot could be taken out and still tell the same story. Which brings me to the conclusion that to extend the playtime they decided to add random scenes of the desert and the band playing while Tuco took a beating. As absurd as this may be, the slow pace made the film for me. There was a sense of irrelevancy. As if the characters just happened to be there, without any purpose, just minding their own business.
And I like this. I like old films because they are not stupid in their insistence upon being epic. The final battle between the hero and anti hero in Dirty Harry consisted of a single punch in the face. What is wrong with that? Do you really have to go all Jean Claude Van Damme on my rear end and get shot, electrocuted, stabbed and strangled to make a good action film?
However, The Good, The Bad & The Ugly was epic in every way regardless of its subtleness and I'm going to regret going back into the world of cramming life-changing events into 120 minutes of screen time. I liked the old days - life was slow, people were random and there was a great abundance of horses.
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