The Good, The Bad and The Ugly The Good, The Bad and The Ugly, set

in the middle of nowhere during the Civil War, follows three gunslingers in their chase for money, who in some ways defined the iconic image of the Wild West. The theme of the movie is people will do anything for money. At the time, the Wild West offered a safe place for outlaws like Tuco Ramirez (The Ugly). The film opens as Tuco narrowly escaped three bounty hunters because he was wanted for two thousand dollars, and fleeing out into the desert. Far away, Angel Eyes (The Bad), interrogated a man about a man named Jackson, disguised as Bill Carson because of his stolen Confederate gold. Angel Eyes is forced to shoot the man whom he had just interrogated and his oldest son because the man drew his gun on Angel Eyes. Meanwhile, Tuco ran into some more bounty hunters, but Blondie (The Good) killed them in a draw and snatched up Tuco. Blondie took Tuco into the local authorities and claimed the two thousand dollars. Later, as Tuco was about to be hung, Blondie who was in hiding, shot the rope around Tucos neck. When the two later came together, a brilliant scam was revealed when Blondie split the money with Tuco. After doing it again to another town, Blondie abandoned Tuco in the desert seventy miles away from any water, and took all the money. Tuco astonishingly made it to the town and survived. Later, Tuco and three comrades of his tried to murder Blondie, but Blondie managed to kill the three men and escape Tuco after the building got hit by a cannonball from a Confederate troop. Tuco went on a boundless search after Blondie, and Tuco captured him. Tuco forced Blondie to walk the unforgiving desert, almost to the point of death without any water. A runaway stagecoach charged down the desert, Tuco stopped it and robbed all the dead Confederate soldiers in the. One man in the stagecoach however, hadnt died yet. His name was Bill Carson, he promised to tell Tuco where a grave with two hundred thousand dollars in it was, if Tuco gave Carson water because, he was on the brink of death. Tuco ran to his horse to get the water, but Blondie, somehow, got over to Carson, and got Carson to tell him the name of the grave. Tuco knew the name of the cemetery, and Blondie knew the name of the grave, but neither person knew both facts. This forced Tuco to make sure Blondie stayed alive. They dressed as Confederate Soldiers and raced to a Catholic Mission hospital, where Blondie was able to recover to full strength. Still dressed as Confederate soldiers, they accidentally ran into a Union troop. They were captured and put in a Union prisoner camp. At camp, role was taken, and when Tuco responded to Bill Carson, it caught the attention of Union sergeant Angel Eyes. Tuco got calle d into Angel

Eyess office, where he was fed lunch but then beaten up by Corporal Wallace. Blondie was called into the office after Tuco, but instead was told that Angel Eyes and his five other men, would come with him. Tuco managed to escape the camp after an adventurous escape from Corporal Wallace. Blondie and Tuco met up in a ghost town recently destroyed by the war. They worked together to shoot all five of Angel Eyess men, but Angel Eyes escaped. Tuco and Blondie are walking upon a trail towards the cemetery, but they get blocked by the Union and Confederate armies. The armies fought each other on a bridge that Tuco and Blondie needed to cross to get to the cemetery. Tuco and Blondie blow up the bridge with dynamite, as a result, the armies left because they were fighting for the bridge. Tuco and Blondie stumble upon the cemetery, where they are met by Angel Eyes. Blondie wrote the name of the grave on a stone and placed in the middle of all three of them. They had a draw and Blondie shot and killed Angel Eyes, and Tucos gun was empty but he didnt know that. Blondie decided to keep Tuco alive, and they went to the grave marked unknown and found the treasure. Blondie and Tuco split the money and went separate ways.

The three men in The Good, The Bad and The Ugly portrayed the American icon of the outlaws of the Wild West. During the 1860s and beyond, America was moving west, farmers, former slaves, and other workers all moved west. The West however, was still mostly undiscovered and unknown. Many outlaws and criminals on the run moved west because the open spaces sheltered them. During the 1860s also, the Civil War was going on. The Southwest was not a place where people typically thought battles were fought during the Civil War. The South was interested in the land acquired from Mexico, like Texas, New Mexico and Arizona. There was not much fighting in the Southwest, but, Independent "Spy" Companies were the eyes & ears of both Union & Confederate armies in the Southwest, for the Confederates Captain John Phillips "Brigands" known to the Texans as the "Santa Fe Gamblers" were a group of mountain men, gun & Indian fighters, ne'er do wells, and general trouble making rowdies (originally from Santa Fe, hence their other name) but were recruited in the Mesilla Valley to act as scouts. For the Union Army, Captain James "Paddy" Graydon an Irish immigrant and ex-army officer/saloon keeper from the abandoned Ft. Buchanan "Arizona" vicinity started an Independent Spy Company working for Colonel Canby. The Battle of Valverde took place in Valverde Creek, in present day New Mexico. Confederate General Sibley thought he could invade New Mexico, defeat Union forces to capture the capital of Santa Fe, and march on to

claim California. This didnt quite work out though because, Although many consider the battle to have been a Confederate victory, Union forces succeeded in holding the fort and half of the Confederates supply wagons were destroyed. The loss of the remaining supplies at the Battle of Glorieta, east of Santa Fe, on March 28, 1862, forced the Confederates to retreat to Texas and ended Southern aspirations for military conquest in the West. 1. The Good, The Bad and The Uglys director, Sergio Leone, used many fun, close-up, exciting, and mysterious shots and music to capture the viewers opinion of the plot and characters. In the introduction of the movie, Leone froze the image of The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly when they appeared and labeled it too. This made it easier for viewers to learn who was who in the movie. Leone used many very close up shots of Blondie, Angel Eyes, and Tuco to show the dirt, grime, sweat, and sun burns on their face. It gave the effect that these men were true outlaws who didnt clean themselves, were dirty, nasty and it added on to their ruthlessness. When Tuco and Blondie arrived at the battle, the camera panned over the whole field to show the battle. It gave an effect that the setting was very important, and that it was a major battle of the Southwest. Also, during the final draw scene with Blondie, Angel Eyes, and Tuco, Leone used fantastic shots and music of hands slowly trembling towards their gun, and eyes darting back and forth to the other men, it made all three look calm but the music and close-ups gave the tension rising during the scene.

Works Cited Cayton, Andrew. America Pathways to the Present. Needham, Massachusetts: Prentice Hall, 2005. Print. FAQ for The Good, The Bad and The Ugly. Internet Movie Database. N.p., n.d. Web. 7 Oct. 2012. <http://www.imdb.com>. Fort Craig National Historic Site. U.S. Department of The Interior Bureau of Land Management. U.S Department of the Interior, n.d. Web. 7 Oct. 2012. <http://www.blm.gov>.