There are two specific scenes in ‘GBU’ that are ingrained in my memory…
The first is the ‘behind the shoulder’ appearance of Clint Eastwood, as ‘Blondie’, when he confronts the three bandits who have captured ‘Tuco’ at the beginning of ‘The Good, The Bad and the Ugly’.
An iconic and immortal memory etched in the mind of a 12 year-old sampling his first can of ‘Skol’ lager in 1976.
“A couple steps back…”
My first experience of ‘The Man with No Name’. A match, a wisp of cigar smoke, a glimpse of duster and a wide-brimmed hat: and - for me - a guaranteed life-long love of Spaghetti Westerns.
The second stand-out scene features Tuco and his brother, Pablo.
For many years, I felt estranged from my brothers - no longer, thank goodness, and all is good, if not better.
This scene touched me for such a long time.
The film also introduced me to the meanest baddie, the incomparable Lee Van Cleef; and the most likeable ‘Ugly’ scoundrel ever seen in cinema…the late, great Eli Wallach, as ‘The Ugly’ - Tuco Benedicto Pacifico Juan Maria Ramirez’.
The further delights of ‘Fistful’ and ‘For a Few’ were pleasures that I had to wait a further three years to savour, in 1979, on TV.
And, as for the end scene…talk about leaving an audience hanging…!
Western movie history in the making…