While the Civil War rages between the Union and the Confederacy, three men – a quiet loner, a ruthless hit man and a Mexican bandit – comb the American Southwest in search of a strongbox containing $200,000 in stolen gold.
Of all the great films of the 1960s, The Good, the Bad and the Ugly is one of a fistful that can be truly appreciated only on the big screen.
– John Monaghan,
Detroit Free Press,
11 Sep 2003
fresh:
Sergio Leone's epic looks good, almost great, restored to its original running time.
– Glenn Abel,
Hollywood Reporter,
8 Jun 2004
fresh:
Sergio Leone's grandiose 1966 western epic is nothing less than a masterclass in movie storytelling, a dynamic testament to the sheer, invigorating uniqueness of cinema.
– Tom Huddlestone,
Time Out,
24 Jun 2006
fresh:
Though ordained from the beginning, the three-way showdown that climaxes the film is tense and thoroughly astonishing.
– Dave Kehr,
Chicago Reader,
28 Mar 2007
rotten:
The third in the Clint Eastwood series of Italo westerns, The Good, the Bad and the Ugly is exactly that -- a curious amalgam of the visually striking, the dramatically feeble and the offensively sadistic.