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The Behind the Scenes Pic of the Day is the son of a thousand fathers, all bastards like you!
Ahoy, squirts! Quint here with today’s Behind the Scenes Pic!
Keeping the spaghetti western theme alive, today we look behind the scenes of Sergio Leone’s The Good, The Bad and The Ugly. Tarantino once called this film the best directed film of all time. While I think that’s impossible to quantify I think any self-respecting film lover would agree it’s definitely in contention for that honor.
Leone’s visual style has never been as on display as in this film. The final stand-ff alone is one of the best cut suspense sequences of all time, thanks to Leone’s eye for composition, editing rhythm and Ennio Morricone’s fantastic score.
Today’s photo features Tuco ducking for cover, ass in the air, during the big Civil War battle sequence. Leone, in white, observes. Notice the lack of sound equipment. The reason why these movies were dubbed wasn’t because they were shot in a foreign language, but because they never shot sound. I’m sure there’s been books written as to why that was, but looking back on it now that dubbing is part of the identity of these films and I wouldn’t trade it for a million perfectly captured on-set performances.
Enjoy the pic!
Tomorrow’s the Behind the Scenes Pic features an ex-governor goofing around!
-Quint
quint@aintitcool.com
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It never occurred to me that they never recorded sound when they shot these. There's my educational moment for today.
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March 26, 2011, 11:15 p.m. CST
Saves money, but the dubbing's a 'stylistic' choice that I don't always like
by George Newman
I love the films, but it does frustrate me at times. Technically they have great Sound Editing/mixing, but that's cuz the sound men had absolutely no other option to make the film functional. So "Bravo!" to the sound technicians.
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March 26, 2011, 11:20 p.m. CST
1st take the bridge blew up when the cameras weren't rolling
by Tacom
I love that story! Leone was mad as fuck!
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Almost all of the supporting cast were local Italians who couldn't speak English, so they just had them say anything that got their faces close to what Leone thought fit the scene, and they could just dub in the corresponding words...
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THE GOOD THE BAD THE UGLY or ONCE UPON A TIME IN THE WEST one or the other my favorite thou is WEST and SPAGETTI is THE GREAT SILENCE...
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March 27, 2011, 12:36 a.m. CST
I thought this was going to be featuring Freddy Krueger from A Nightmare on Elm Street
by Tim
But I guess with Rango in theaters, this is what we get.
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He didn't say that they weren't shot in a foreign language. He said that was not the reason they were dubbed.
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I thought the same!
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March 27, 2011, 3:12 a.m. CST
Great movie, although Tarantino's opinion means fuck all.
by The_Dark_Shite
I don't get it. He says something's good & people rush out to see it, or quote it as if "If Tarantino says it's great, it must be". <p> He hasn't made a good film in years. Just parodies of the stuff he likes. B-Movies, essentially. I honestly don't even understand how he gets away with it & still gets respect, when he belongs in the list of fuck ups like Shyamalan. 2 great movies (3 if you count True Romance, which he didn't direct) followed by almost 2 decades of total shit.
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My favorite. It is not the best movie ever made, although it's up there. I discovered this movie through its DVD release (and a remembered recommendation from my father).
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Eastwood, Wallach, etc. did not loop ALL of their dialogue. Nonsense. Some scenes, especially on location, but absurd to say the entire movie was filmed mute. And this is a film site?
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Wow...there has to be some traumatic story behind your anger for Tarantino....he fuck your wife or something?
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I don't have any anger for him lol. It just gets on my nerves when people say "Tarantino said this", like it's the watermark of quality & must be true because he thinks so.
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"The Good, The Bad and The Ugly" is just a masterpiece, plain and simple. It really doesn't come much better, and was SO ahead of it's time.
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JJ Abrams should be sat down and forced to watch it.
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Actually, yeah, the whole thing was filmed without sound. It was some kinda trend in Italian movies back then (check out some Fellini stuff from around then). Proof: in the extended version Eastwood and Wallah had to dub their lines when that DVD was released (2003?) since there wasn't an existing English audio of those scenes ever. "And this is a film site?" Come on guy, seriously...
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Best film ever made IMHO.... <p><p>Gratefully enjoying the Leone pics - Cheers :)
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Awesome pic by the way
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People respect Tarantino's opinion because they respect his filmmaking. Obviously not everyone thinks he's only made two good movies (personally I like Inglourious Basterds, Death Proof and Jackie Brown more than PF or RD), so when he "says something's good" there's a strong chance that it shares some of his sensibilities, some of the same elements we like about his films. I probably wouldn't have read The Getaway if it wasn't for something Tarantino said about it, or watched Grand Duel or Death Rides a Horse. Just like I may not have read James Cain or Charles Portis if not for the Coen Brothers. People find out about art through other artists. Get over it.
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Quint, I have to disagree with you one this being Leone's best. I think that "Once upon a time in the West" takes that honor, for both Leone and Morricone's best, though honestly, as you pointed out, at this level it is indeed hard to quantify. The myth making that he created in "the Good,the bad and the Ugly", and it in the whole series, seemed to be distilled, and perfected, in " Once upon a time in the West", perhaps I say this because I own the wonderful Criterion Collection DVD of "Once..." and not a similar one for "The Good...".I have heard Leone wanted to use Eastwood as the lead for this...have no idea if it is true or not. Might that have made it even better...don't know...but I would not want to trade Bronson's (arguably) best performance for what could have been a better Eastwood performance. And as great as Van Cleef's performance's were in the "No name" series. There is something so terrifyingly bitter and menacing about Fonda, something copied in animation and vocal performance of Nighy's character in "Rango",btw. On top of that you have Robards, and all he brings to that movie, then you Claudia Cardinal ( and what else can you say about her by "Oh my God!". I love the music and the photography of this movie. Again, at this level, it is impossible to say which is better and I truly love both of these movies. regardless, I love this series, and as others have pointed out, is becoming the main reason I come back to this site, for the interesting pics and for the discussions ( not flame wars) that get kicked off by them. Good work sir, continue on.
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Still holds up, If you've never seen it....Try it.
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best line.
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Do some research.
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From wiki: "Given the technical limitations of the time, it would have been difficult to record the sound cleanly in most of the extremely wide shots Leone frequently used. Also, it was standard practice in Italian films at this time to shoot silently and post-dub. Whatever the actual reason, all dialogue in the film was recorded in post-production." You can find that in the production section...
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I believe 'A Fist Full of Dynamite' (or 'Duck You Suckers' depending on where you're from) was the only one of these films with the sound recorded on location.
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March 27, 2011, 12:39 p.m. CST
Blondie: After a meal there’s nothing like a good cigar.
by Dark Doom
Classic, my Dad used to watch these and he got me hooked.. Clint was a bad mutherfucker...
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... But I gotta say Leone's best, and possibly the best film of all time, is "Once Upon a Time in America." One of the best disjointed narratives ever. Nolan probably cribbed the ending for Inception off of "Once Upon a Time in America"
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Tuco digging a grave with a wooden gravemarker. Camera captures a shovel spade as it flips to the ground. Cut to Eastwood... "There's two kinds of people in this world. Those with loaded guns, and those who dig. Now dig." and then a SECOND shovel captures the scene as it is tossed to the ground. Cut to Angel Eyes who says smugly... "Two can dig faster than one." LOVE THAT SCENE.
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Despite wikipedia's dubious statements, almost 10 years ago I had the pleasure of hearing a lecture given by Mike Knox, who served as the English version supervisor/translator on The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly. He stated that due to the dramatically increased budget for the film (when compared to Fistful of Dollars and For a Few Dollars More) they were able to record sync audio for some of the smaller (i.e interior) scenes with the leads. I believe he discusses this on the DVD as well.
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March 27, 2011, 9:25 p.m. CST
I still prefer FOR A FEW DOLLARS MORE over TGTBTU, but the entire trilogy is soooooo good.
by Tigger Tales
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March 27, 2011, 9:25 p.m. CST
"If you're going to shoot somebody, shoot, don't talk"
by Nasty In The Pasty
I think that line from Tucco is deliberately referenced in the first Die Hard: "No more taaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaable! Where you going, paaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaal? The next time you have a chance to keel someone, don't hesitate...!" BLAMBLAMBLAMBLAMBLAMBLAMBLAM "Thanks for the advice."
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Though I love all three. Watching them all again in Spain outdoors on a big screen at the locations where they were filmed was amazing. Long live the Rolling Roadshow!
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I thought that was because the dialogue track had been lost, as with Spartacus and others previously?
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Uh... I remember watching the feature you're talking about... I thought he said what I was saying? I'll check that sometime...
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because they need some reference to what was said during the takes in order to match it while looping (ADR, dub) the audio. Even if it's a mic recording very dirty audio 10 feet away.
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A lot of Italian directors could and did shoot their films without any sound. If you watch the Special Features on the TGBU DVD then you'll hear them talk about it. Apparently Clint was warned before the first film to make notes about what his lines were and any changes he made to them since they were often forgotten afterward which made dubbing difficult. Nobody else was there to do it. The proper syncing simply wasn't that important to them.
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March 28, 2011, 7:33 p.m. CST
They expected Clint Eastwood to take notes while acting?
by ufoclub1977
If this meant "on set"...it's kind of crazy. He was supposed to pull out a notebook between takes and remember exactly what he just said and transcribe it? That's a lot of pressure for an actor in costume on a western filmed outdoors in the dirt! No wonder he's frowning the whole way through. Of course it was probably meant in his initial reading of the script before filming to take notes of changes he wanted to make. But that doesn't make sense, because actors normally change their lines on set to make a scene work and flow. I'll have to check this movie out again, because I have looped a lot of audio with actors for little projects, and it's difficult to get lines right even with a guide track, because lines spoken while acting are often twisted into a more organic rhythm or cadence that's hard to duplicate. Does the dubbing fit the mouths really really badly? I guess it is hyper fake looking, now that I think back. I guess that's why some people assumed it was shot in Italian. lol. "No sound recording" certainly would speed up filming, but then inversely slow down the post process during looping of the entire movie. But I guess time is a lot cheaper in a sound studio.
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My life wouldn't be complete without your condescension. <p> You started off well, just giving an opinion (which afterall is al I was doing), but you had to go & ruin it by adding "deal with it" at the end, thus rendering your opinion a load of pretentious bollocks. Big man behind a screen. Sheesh.
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Is the same reason you like this one. 'Basterds for example is basically a Leone pastiche. Take Leone, throw in a dash of Fellini & a pinch of the dirty dozen. <p> There's nothing original in it. Which is why I prefer Tarantino's earlier stuff. It's just my preference, but I genuinely am tired of him essentially copying the people he likes. I could do that if I had the gear, simply by being a fan of certain directors & knowing their styles.<p> People on youtube remake the likes of Inception with fucking toys & stuff & they capture the look & feel quite well. But whatever floats your boat.
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No no, he meant on set. He didn't have to, cause a lot of the other actors didn't bother, but if he didn't note all his changes to the dialogue then he'd have to try to remember what he'd said when it was time for dubbing. Most people didn't care because the actors came from all over (Italy, Germany, Spain, etc.) and they all said their lines in their native language so no matter what language they dubbed it in the lips were never gonna sync completely. I think the English audiences tend to be more finicky though.
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