louiss

I don't want to hear about how deep or profound this boring overblown mess is. The fights are tiresome and the philosophy even more tiresome. What was fresh exciting and dazzling the first time around is dark drab and exhausting to sit through. There is one very impressive action piece near the end but its not enough for me.

The absolute best western ever made. My admiration and pure love for this film grows as the years pass. I've seen this at least 50 perhaps more times and never tire of it. I love Red River, The Searchers and the Wild Bunch but as great as they all are they're a distant second. To start with the score is mesmerizing haunting and beautiful. This film is funny, sentimental and very unique in its style and mood. Clint Eastwood and Lee Van Cleef are the coolest antagonists ever matched in cinema however it is Eli Walach who steels the film in a very much underrated unforgettable performance.

Like all of Sergio Leone films there is a very thin line that occasionally is crossed on both sides of good and evil.

Tuco ` Walach ` is the center of three of the most greedy ruthless characters you will ever see yet you care about him and feel his pain when he is scorned by his brother for the path he has taken in his life. Only in the extended Italian version does Angel Eyes ` Cleef ` show any humanity as he enters a confederate hideout and displays compassion for badly wounded soldiers otherwise he is a bloodthirsty killer. If Blondie ` Eastwod ` is truly good were all going to heaven.

It's not only a great western but it is my favorite Civil War film as well. Aside from the Spanish terrain the costumes, uniforms, buildings and weapons are the most historically accurate I've ever seen on film. Leone does a great job of creating the look and mood of the time even better than any American production. Its beyond my comprehension how this film was produced for only a million dollars of which 250k went to Clint.

If there is anyone left out there in the world that has not had the pleasure of seeing it I envy you the thrill of seeing it for the first time. Below are SPOILDERS of my favorite scenes in the film. The order does not represent preference.

Angel Eyes riding at the opening of the film & Morricone's background score.

The announcing of crimes as Tuco is about to be hung ( hysterical ) done twice

Tuco robs a gun shop (hysterical)

If you're going to shoot, shoot don't talk! (hysterical)

Tuco and three men come to kill Blondie in his hotel room. There are those with spurs who come by the door, Tuco does the sign of the cross, and those who come by the window!

Tuco meets his brother after years of separation

Blondie helps comfort a dying soldier

Tuco searching for Arch Stanton's grave, Moricone's score

The final showdown between the GB&U.

Disappointing but adequate spy adventure epic when compared to other Sturges action adventure films of the 60's. Poor casting and stiff performances along with too many obvious exterior shots done with paintings behind the actors in a studio keep ISZ from being the big epic it suggests to be. Patrick Mcgoohan overacts, Rock Hudson is stiff, Jim Brown is plain awful and Ernest Borgnine one of my favorite character actors is pathetically miscast as a Russian. Please someone explain to me why in EVERY and I mean EVERY cold war thriller the characters never smile or have any personality other than portraying stoic zombies. It also appears as though very little if any location work was done. I didn't expect a film crew to go to the arctic but even at 10 when I originally saw it the sets and above water/ice outdoor shots were very unconvincing. The underwater sequences were far more enjoyable and visually satisfying. My favorite scene is that of a man falling between an ice cavern.