Not that I think itāll be any comfort, but youāre not alone, amigo
Anyway, welcome to the show, John!
He sure is not alone.
Oh, but GBU is the āgreatestā or most āquintessentialā SW of all time, whether you like it or not 
Everything is there; the cool gunfighter (Clint) the noisy mexican (Wallach) the ruthless villian (Van Cleef) as well as hordes of extras
Deserted ghost towns, deserts, and the turbulent background of either revolution or in this case civil war
Itās not a political western, but at least an anti-war movie
Thereās both violence and sardonic humour, or just funny comical scenes
Lots of stylistic duels or rituals
Itās the most epic, famous spaghetti western of all time, with an absolutely classic Morricone score
Some say OUATITW is the greatest, but that film simply doesnāt have all the ingredients that the above film has
Others might not like these big slow Leone movies at all
No, he surely isnāt because in that case Iām also a āpoor soulā.
And thatās what I miss in it (EDIT: Not that SWs HAVE to be political, I just think it gives more of a depth).
Iāve just read the chapter about āThe Good, the Bad and the Uglyā in Alex Coxās ā10,000 Ways to Dieā, and I must say, I disagree on a number of aspects. Firstly, he says Clint Eastwood is a poor director. Has he never seen āUnforgivenā of āGran Torinoā! Cox also says that (to quote about āGBUā) āItās too picaresque by far, let down by squences in which caracters ask for directions, or assemble their disposable gangsā¦ other scenes are repetitive, slow and flat.ā 1) Isnāt the scenery in āGBUā beautiful, and anyhow the characters pass through the scenery. 2) I donāt remember people asking for directions, or assembling gangs. 3) ārepetitive, slow and flatā? I mean come on, these are the last words on earth Iāld use with āGBUā. āslowā? What happened to all the gunfights (and they are definatly not ārepetitiveā) and āflatā it most certainly isnāt. Other than this, a very good and informative read.
Maybe he just wants to go against the SW āmainstreamā and have some controversial opinions re GBU ?
Itās certainly picaresque, thatās true
But itās a fantastic film, you canāt deny it, itās perhaps just a little overlong
Probably only is own opinions, he prefers the grittier, less epic SWs?
But then he could just say so instead
I havenāt read his book btw
That is somewhat of an unusual view of GBU by Cox.
i am also reading 10,000 ways to die at the moment and have just finished coxās comments on the good, the bad and the ugly and certainly do not agree with his comments. alex cox doesnāt seem to like clint eastwood much, and has more good things to say about lee van cleef which is fine. there are a number of things he has said that i donāt agree with in the book but each to his own. i havenāt seen it myself but he mentions that he is a fan of rita of the west which i know a lot of you hate.
Itās unusual, and I do not agree, but Iām looking forward to reading the entire chapter on the movie (Iāll receive the book as a birthday present, within a few weeks)
Alex is a man who knows what heās talking about, and itās always instructive to hear what such a man has to say, especially when you have a different opinion.
I do agree with him that Eastwood is not a great director; itās probably a bit too harsh to say that he is āpoorā, but heās in no way as inventive as Leone or Siegel, to mention only two directors he has been working with and are therefore likely to have influenced him. His direction is often quite pedestrian, and most of his film are overlong (he probably has too much controll over them); theyāre often quite preachy (Unforgiven) or sentimental (Million Dollar Baby)
I have always thought this.
I like many of CLintās flicks, especially Gran Torino is quite impressive.
They might be long and somehow slow, but they are not boring or uninteresting to me.
Nevertheless I donāt like all of them (Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil is awfulā¦).
Of course I like his flicks starring himself. But maybe this is due to the fact that Iām happy to see Clint in a well done movieā¦
I disagree about that he thinks Clint is a bad director. Iām not a big fan of him as an actor but I still think heās a brilliant director.
Maybe, but he gives very good reviews to all the other Sergio Leone Spaghetti Westerns except āDuck You Suckerā.
As far as I know, Alex loves movies like The Great Silence, Django and Django Kill!
The Good, the Bad and the Ugly is different from the other Leones in the sense that itās a movie with a more upbeat atmosphere. Deep down itās a cruel and pessimistic movie, but at the surface itās not as bleak and grim as the other ones. Women usually prefer it to the other Leones exactly for this reason (at least my wife and daughter did).
Thereās no doubt that Cox is a provocateur - just look at his idiosyncratic filmography - but that doesnāt mean his points arenāt valid. Nothing should be sacrosanct, not even GBU.
One doesnāt have to agree with him, of courseā¦
Why doesnāt he like DYS ?
That movie often has a sombre and bittersweet mood, enhanced by Morriconeās beautiful score
Iām confused by all this. Alex Cox has GBU in his top 10 for Hugheās book. And he even lists it as his 3rd favorite Spaghetti Western.
Alex Cox seems to be an interesting character. No matter how he finally rates whatever movie, he causes a little discussion and thatās what we want round here.
Maybe heās not so much different from us. In different books and articles you all foud apparently diverse information that partly seems to be contradictory. OK. So what. Cox, like us, seems to have not ONE strict look at things. He corrects his point of view from time to time.
I guess he just changed his mind.
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