My two favorite television shows of all time are Avatar: The Last Airbender and Gunsmoke. My sister and I have been fans of country westerns since, I’d say, 2006. We used to watch on TV Land Gunsmoke and Bonanza every week day, we never missed it. We eventually started collecting DVDs of Gunsmoke‘s earliest seasons, accumulating over two hundred episodes’ worth (and that was only six seasons in!)

We especially loved Gunsmoke because of its grittiness. There was nothing exceptionally attractive about Dodge City or its inhabitants. James Arness was the stern sheriff, Matt Dillon who didn’t allow criminals to mill about his city. Amanda Blake, was for a while, my Princess Leia in terms of inspiring heroines to cheer for, as she played the ever-classy yet unwavering tough broad, Kitty, who just so happened to own the city’s most popular saloon. And then there are all of the other characters to love; Doc, Festus, Chester, Newly, I love them all throughout the seasons.

The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly is that type of gritty Western that I have loved since I was a child. Its terrain is unforgivable through the lens of the camera, its characters are covered in the dust of the rolling plains, and there is never anything glorified about this story. It’s a tale about three individuals, one good, one bad, and one ugly, and how their stories tie together in a brilliant way.

I’ve always heard about this movie and I knew it was iconic but my sister and I were not expecting it to be this good.

It was only the third movie we’d watched with Clint Eastwood (the first two being Unforgiven and Million Dollar Baby, both of which won Best Picture.) I found Unforgiven to be rather underwhelming. Maybe I’ll have to give it another look but overall, I thought it was kind of boring. Million Dollar Baby was exceptional and truly depressing. 😭😭😭😭 But The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly?! That’s movie making!

This whopping 2 hour and 58 minute film is just spectacular. From beginning to end, the movie has you guessing. You think you know how things are going to turn out but the story keeps surprising you until, by the end, you are staring at the screen wide-eyed and breathless. It’s an absolute masterpiece!

And yeah, Clint Eastwood’s Blondie was one of the coolest characters I’ve ever seen in a film. If Star Wars ever figures out to basically make a Blondie of the Star Wars universe I would be very, very pleased because he’s one cool dude, I’m telling ya.

I’m giving this movie 1000 out 1000 and 500 out of 500 stars. That’s how much I loved this film. It’s so good!

I thank you for reading and I hope you have a tremendous day.