The year 1966 was a groundbreaking year in cinema with movies like “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf,” “Persona” and “Blow-Up.” But the movie that has made the biggest impression on film history from this year is Sergio Leone’s “The Good, the Bad and the Ugly.”

“The Good, the Bad and the Ugly” is classified as a “spaghetti western” which is a subgenre of Western films in which the film is made in an international country by a non-American director, but follows all the same themes as a Western movie would. Leone is an Italian director who made the spaghetti western genre famous with films such as “Once Upon a Time in the Old West” (1968), “For a Few Dollars More” (1965) and “The Good, the Bad and the Ugly.”

“The Good, the Bad and the Ugly” revolves around three men ‘the good’ (Clint Eastwood), ‘the bad’ (Lee Van Cleef) and ‘the ugly’ (Eli Wallach), set in the Wild West during the heart of the Civil War. The film tells the story of these three men and their pursuit for a buried treasure. The first character met is Tuco (the ugly) who is wanted by the law. The next character met is Angel Eyes (the bad) who is a hitman and always finishes his assignment as long as he has been paid properly. The main character of the movie is Blondie (the good) who makes his living as a gunslinger just trying to earn some money. Each man holds on to information the other ones need in order to get to the buried treasure and along the way lives are lost and blood is shed.

This film is known for the revolutionary feats it accomplished technically, but what makes this movie the most fascinating is the music. The classic Italian composer Ennio Morricone did some of his all-time best work in this movie, just about anyone would recognize the films score. The music is also significant to LHS this year, because the score of this film served as the opening number for the LHS marching bands show “Goldrush.” The film’s climax, a three-way Mexican standoff, starts with the melodic notes of “The Ecstasy of God” and then followed by Morricone’s classic two note melody “The Trio.” The theme is considered one of the greatest film scores in cinematic history.

“The Good, the Bad and the Ugly” has served as an inspiration to many people since it came out 50 years ago, but it has influenced writer/director Quentin Tarantino the most. Without this film we would not have the movie “Django Unchained” or “The Hateful Eight.” “The spaghetti Western is one of the greatest genres, as far as I know, in the history of the world cinema and definitely in the history of the Italian cinema. I think a case can even be made with Leone and Morricone that they are the best director-composer team in the history of film,” said Tarantino in a 2011 interview with the Independent.

This movie is very good, but it is not great, with a runtime of almost 3 hours it is hard to even find the time to sit down and enjoy it in one sitting. Many people love this movie and I would recommend it to any Tarantino fan, but I do not think this movie is made for everyone.