I’ve never really been a big fan of Westerns. I watched a couple of them early on in my life, but only for like 10-15 minutes. They got boring to me very quickly, didn’t find them interesting. But then I watched this movie on Wednesday night when my dad who is crazy about Westerns was surfing through the channels and stumbled upon this movie and immediately called me over to watch it. At first I was hesitant, but, as soon as I saw the opening 20-30 minutes, I knew this was going to be my next 10/10* review. Everything about this movie is great. The iconic music, the duels, the stare-downs, Clint Eastwood’s presence, Lee Van Cleef’s menacing performance and Eli Wallach as the charming comic relief of this movie. At first I found him annoying, but, eventually he grew on me. This is also a very long movie, but, ultimately, you don’t care because this is such a great and entertaining movie that you just don’t want it to end. Even the final 6-minute stare-down never gets boring. It’s just 6 minutes of the three actors standing in a circle, showing close-ups of their faces and keeping their hands close to their guns as you patiently wait for them to start shooting at each other. Perfection. This movie really ignited my appreciation for Westerns and I’m going to watch and review more of them in the future.
10/10*
