The Movie: Ahh, the classic "spaghetti western" directed by Sergio Leone, starring Clint Eastwood. I'm not really sure how to describe this movie. It's got three guys (the good, the bad, and the ugly), and they are all after $200,000 that is buried somewhere in the desert. This movie has more twists, turns and strange settings than anything I can think of, especially when about two thirds of the way into the movie, these guys get mixed up in the American civil war. It's full of drama, comedy, and displays of super hero-like skill, and is thoroughly entertaining to watch.

This movie was very artfully made, with beautiful settings and some really damned cool camera shots. It also had a huge budget (for the day) and it really shows... as Cami noted... they sure blow a lot of stuff up! The civil war battle scene is nothing short of spectacular (and pretty damned huge). One kind of weird thing though... the movie was shot in the deserts of Spain, and if you didn't know that, then there might not be anything strange to you, but if you go into it knowing that... you start to notice some very spanish and italian looking guys that seem to be popping up in random places in the American west... particularly in the battle scene where almost all of the extras used were actually Spanish and not Americans.

But anyway. It's a great movie, and certainly worth seeing in a widescreen format if you never have before... because there are some really great shots in this movie that would not be as effective in a pan-and-scan format, or even, completely ruined. And if you've never seen this movie and you're not convinced, maybe you should see it just to see where that little whistling music sound thingy that has become such a cliche of "Western" stuff came from.

The DVD: The movie was presented in a 2.35:1 anamorphic widescreen format, and boy does it look great (for its age)! The audio is in fabulous Dolby Digital mono, and sounds... well, probably about as good as it could get considering the original source material. Special features about 10 minutes of deleted footage. This footage was in the original Italian release of the film, but was cut out of the international release for time reasons. Since it was never used in any English versions, this deleted footage only has audio in Italian, but there is the option to view it with English subtitles.

There is also a "behind the scenes" section that is just plain text (about two pages), as well as a screen with some text about the origins of the "Spaghetti Western". Finally, there is the requisite theatrical trailer, which for some reason, has the faces of "the bad" and "the ugly" switched. All in all, it's not a DVD I'd want to get for the special features (but really, how many DVD's are?), but this is a truly classic movie, that I won't say everyone should own, but I have seen it heavily discounted in many stores, and I will say that it is worth owning to anyone who enjoys this movie already.