The Ugly

Rating: 2/10 (4 October 2007)

Leone's "Once Upon a Time in the West" is a masterpiece. His other Westerns range from good ("The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly") to bad (the two "Dollars" films) to ugly (this one). The opening shot has Steiger, doing an Eli Wallach impersonation by way of Strother Martin, relieving himself on a tree and goes downhill from there. It moves very slowly and lacks any drama, humor, or plot elements to sustain interest. Some scenes go on forever and the last hour of the movie becomes so dull and repetitious that it is almost unwatchable. Leone used extreme closeups to good effect in his earlier films but here he just goes overboard with it. Ugh!