Genre Essay - Western

The Good, The Bad & The Ugly is a film about three men who are looking for treasure at the time of the American Civil War, 1860s. The American civil war time period was known for unique traits such as dusty, barren land, binary oppositions like Cowboys vs. Indians, treasure hunts and cattle ranches. In the 1966 movie, they try to capture these unique traits regardless of being 100 years past the American frontier time period. Western films commonly feature stock characters such as cowboys, gunslingers and bounty hunters. ‘The Good’ is a professional gunslinger in this film and portrayed as a smooth character. The Trailer conveys camera techniques such as close-ups, wide shots and high angled shots.

At the start of the trailer we see a cut-in shot of the western styled cigar in Blondie’s (The Good’s) mouth. Still as a cut-in, we follow the cigar as it moves down to the cannon string. Cannon’s represent the 1880s as it was the only form of high caliber weaponry at the time. The cut-in gives us one focus point so we are restricted to knowing what is going to happen. Close-ups are used moments later when introducing the characters by voice-over. As each name is given, a close-up of their face is previewed. A close up of someone’s face is quite personal. The names of each character are adjectives therefore you can choose by name and facial expression which one you want to warm up to. By giving three faces it gives a twist to the self explanatory binary opposition of Good vs. Bad. We see scenes of brutality and imprisonment of events meant to replica the end of the civil war.

We see the setting of the film in the typical dry, dusty, barren waste land in which a civil war is taking place. Straight away we know this is going to be a western from the clothes of the characters. We see a brilliant high angle shot as Blondie enters the scene where The Bad is trying to dig his way to the treasure using his hands. Blondie throws The Bad a shovel and the Camera tilts up from viewing his feet to see who threw the shovel. We find out it was Blondie, the smooth gunslinger, who now looks to be dominant.

Now to the final scene and the extreme wide shot is used. We feel to be quite far away from the characters in the final showdown scene. The extreme wide shot is used to capture all three men getting into position. This gives importance to every feature. We see disoriented backgrounds with the main focus of the gun which tells us this is a shoot-out. A medium close up of the three men separately is previewed first, the infamous theme tune of whistling is being played at this time. In the same order it escalates to a close up of each man. The music becomes louder and a series of quick Close-ups and Extreme Close-ups of faces, eyes and guns which is used to build tension and build up anticipation of a gun shot. The trailer ends on a Mid Shot of Blondie firing his gun. We don’t know who he has shot so we are left with an enigma code.