Location Question

I was watching the “trilogy” this weekend, and noticed something I had not noticed before. I realize that both films, For A Few Dollars More and The Good, The Bad and The Ugly were both shot in Almeria, but there are two scenes that look like they were shot at exactly the same spot and from nearly the same camera angle.

In The Good, The Bad and The Ugly, it’s the scene where Blondie and Tuco are making it across the desert after they’ve pulled their ruse for the second time. In For A Few Dollars More, it’s the opening scene. This looks like the same location to me, just different coloring (from the time of day) and again, a slightly different camera position.

Am I correct?

I’m sure there are probably others, as well, that I’ll be more careful to notice in the future.

Isn’t the desert in GBU only a lot of sand? Prehaps I’m wrong, it was long time since I saw the movie.

It’s a real desert where it was filmed. The only one in Europe. But it’s a lot of sand too. There happens to be sand in deserts.

Yes, I didn’t think about that. Deserts are only made of sand.

Almeria is the home of Europe’s only true desert. But I believe the shot you are talking about (along with a lot of others where such shifting sands were required) was shot in the dunes at Cabo de Gata. This is still in Almeria of course but is right by the sea just around the coast from Almeria city itself.

In fact when we were in Almeria last year there were a number of locations we visited which surprised me by their proximity to the sea. In the films they look like they are miles from anywhere. But just out of shot you would have seen the beach.