ANOTHER MIXED BAG: (AND A TIMELESS CLASSIC) THE GOOD, THE BAD THE UGLY

I’m not exactly sure how I never got round to watching a western in my life. I mean, how does one actually skip a whole genre? I really don’t get that (unless Lucky Luke counts – I was crazy about him but I never actually saw the movie just the cartoon, so I’m assuming it doesn’t count…). This occurred to me as I was searching for the answer of that eternal question “What should I watch today?” Almost overwhelmed by the panic brought on by the idea of thousands of films gone unwatched, I scrambled madly for the closest western to hand. It happened to be just about the only one; I think I have one more somewhere but that will be for later. This also happened to be a classic in its own right so I decided my quest of the day had ended… I have to admit that I was intimidated by the length of the film (have a heart it was the first time I faced the genre, what if it was something I didn’t like? It’s nearly three hours long for Heaven’s sake…) but I bit the bullet (so to speak). Now, although I can well imagine that the bad ones can get pretty damn repetitive and boring but very few can beat a good one in my humble opinion. Luckily for me, this was one of the good ones…
Well, meet Blondie (Clint Eastwood) and Duco. Two dastardly characters wanted all over the United States of America for pretty much every single thing you can think of. They’re not so much bosom buddies but business partners. Blondie’s a crack shot, so Duco turns himself in every once in a while, is condemned to hang and Blondie rescues him. Each rescue means the price on Duco’s head goes up, so they just rinse and repeat the act as they go along. Now, the couple are on the verge of getting bored of each other and are in the process of getting what we might jokingly called “a rather messy divorce” when they become aware of ?? million dollars worth of gold bullion stashed away. Now, the problem is that each one is left with half the location but they must work together if they want the money. Now quite apart from the fact that they don’t trust each other further than they can throw each other, not to mention the American Civil War going on full blast around them, they are not the only ones after the money. Notorious bad guy “Angel Eye” is also after the gold and they will stop but neither man will stop at NOTHING to get his hands on the money…
Now you’ll remember a few weeks back when I wrote about “Spirited Away”, how I told you about the benefits of escapism. Now to be fair, period films very rarely fulfill this purpose (they are usually either adapted from a very serious book and/or speak of very serious historical events… Not so with Westerns. Adventure, a different world, a lawless place where a man can pretty much make what he can of himself if he uses his head… The Wild West… I think it’s partly our desire to escape from the day to day routine and have adventures and partly the thought of riding off into the “land of opportunities” with everything to play for yet that attracts us to Westerns… I mean, escaping from the day to day run of the mill is one thing, having a clean slate to rewrite on as you please is a completely different kettle of fish… Well, let’s face it, America was never so wild nor full of opportunities as in its “Wild West” days… I therefore think it’s fair enough to go back and dream of those times every once in a while.. Don’t you agree?