The Good, the Bad and the Ugly

Quite simply one of the greatest marriages of sound and image in screen history. Morricone’s work on the earlier films in old class-mate Sergio Leone’s ‘Dollars’ Trilogy (A Fistful of Dollars; For a Few Dollars More) are astonishing enough, but here all the elements come together like never before. From the main title (based on the howling of a coyote), through the mournful The Story of a Soldier to the finale of the Ecstasy of Gold and The Trio, it’s a stunning work from start to finish, and one which sat on the music charts for more than a year on release and remains hugely influential even to this day. If you aren’t moved by the sheer cinematic ‘spectacle’ of the last half hour of this film – which includes the longest, most iconic shootout in cinema history – then perhaps that’s you in the ‘unknown’ grave, next to Arch Stanton.