Tonight on TV: Clint Eastwood at Sergio Leone, that’s already two good reasons to rewatch one of the best westerns of all time

If you were asked to name what, for you, was the greatest western of all time, many would probably answer The Good, the Bad and the Ugly. Good news: this great classic of the genre by Sergio Leone is broadcast this Monday evening on France 3!

Released in theaters in 1968, The Good, the Bad and the Uglya brilliant spaghetti western, is chronologically the third part of the “Dollar Trilogy” by Sergio Leone after A Fistful of Dollars and For a Few Dollars More. But since the film is set in the Civil War, it is a prequel.

The Man with No Name, aka the Good One, played by Clint Eastwood, also gets his poncho back at the end, a traditional coat that he never took off in the two previous feature films.

The Good, the Bad and the Ugly tells the story of three men who, during the American Civil War, prefer to focus on their personal gain and set out to find a chest containing $200,000 in gold coins stolen from the Confederate army.

Tuco (The Ugly, played by Eli Wallach) knows that the treasure is in a cemetery, while Blondie (The Good, played by Clint Eastwood) knows the name on the tombstone that serves as a hiding place. Each needs the other.

But a third man enters the race: Setenza (the Brute, played by Lee Van Cleef), who does not hesitate to massacre women and children to achieve his ends.

Praised by AlloCiné viewers with an excellent average rating of 4.5 out of 5, The Good, the Bad and the Ugly is a timeless masterpiece. Rhythmic, funny, violent, baroque, this virtuoso western, carried by the unforgettable music of Ennio Morricone, has not aged a day. And what about the incredible performances of Clint Eastwood (is this his best film in your opinion?), Lee Van Cleef And Eli Wallach ?

“I started The Good, the Bad and the Ugly like the first two films of the trilogy but this time with three men looking for a treasure”declares Sergio Leone. “What interested me in the film was, on the one hand, to demystify the three adjectives and, on the other hand, to show the absurdity of war.”

“We all have something good, something bad and something ugly in us“

“What do ‘good’, ‘bad’ and ‘ugly’ mean?”asks the Italian filmmaker. “We all have something good, something bad and something ugly in us. Some people seem really horrible but when you get to know them, you realize they’re better than that.”

A huge public success with 6.3 million spectators in French cinemas, The Good, the Bad and the Ugly is a must-see for westerns and cinema in general. Don’t miss its broadcast this Monday evening!

Tonight on France 3 at 9:05 p.m.

False Connection: The Blunders and Mistakes of the Western “The Good, the Bad and the Ugly”