WHEN YOU SHOOT, SHOOT, DON’T TALK !!

I always take great pleasure in watching the inimitable Sergio LEONE's westerns over and over again. All my relatives laugh at me, because they find that loving “spaghetti” westerns borders on the ridiculous, it is no longer relevant, it has no interest, or what do I know… but have they REALLY watched the works of Sergio Leone, and this movie in particular?

The Good, the Bad and the Ugly, directed by Sergio LEONE in 1966, whose soundtrack was composed by Ennio MORRICONE, and played respectively by Clint Eastwood (Blondin - the Good), Lee Van Cleef (Sentenza - the Bad), and Eli Wallach (Tuco - the Ugly), is part of the trilogy including "For a Fistful of Dollars" (1964), "And For A Few Dollars More" (1965).

Sergio Leone, the Master Director

His films are masterpieces in more ways than one. From the very first frame of the film, to the end credits, second by second, everything is filmed down to the millimeter, everything is arranged in a skilfully orchestrated harmony, nothing is left to chance: the music, the shots, the angles and the shots, the scenes, the places, the transitions, the characters themselves (and the close-ups on their faces), the place of the characters on the screen according to the different actions, everything is thought of and redesigned so that the result is PERFECT. I am blown away every time I watch these films for the umpteenth time, and I wonder how Sergio Leone manages to make the viewer guess what is going on just by showing what he wants to show, by the image AND by the sound (music, sound effects, short and tapered dialogues), if not for his immeasurable talent, helped by his accomplice and childhood friend, I named the great Ennio Morricone.

Everything is chosen carefully, including the locations, the set, the light, which transpires through the screen so that when the characters find themselves in the desert, suddenly it is hot! The way Sergio Leone conveys to the viewer what he wants to tell is simply unmistakable. Only nowadays Quentin Tarentino has perhaps been able to recreate this way of filming by associating chosen places, music and characters to give a similar rendering. And before him, Clint Eastwood of course, can do it too, may be in a more subtle way. Clint is my spiritual father.

No need for special effects!

You will notice that currently, we very often privilege the "special effects" which are certainly beautiful to see and which also require a lot of work I agree, but which do not in any way or in the same way restore the story as the 'we want to tell those who watch the film. The special effects kind of leave us "passive", we see them, nothing more, and we move on, and above all we forget all these effects as quickly as we have looked at them. While the old-fashioned filming without special effects necessarily makes us "active", we imagine more readily, we live the scene, we discover the characters, their character, we love them and we anticipate their way of reacting, and above all we do not forget them, they remain in our hearts.

The actors are chosen for their faces!

You will also notice that these days, we privilege (and I still do not understand why) the distant shots, rather than the close-ups of the faces of the actors. Sergio Leone and his team knew how to choose their actors exactly according to the role to be played, with characteristic faces! I always wondered where he was going to get them. Mouths, what. With the right makeup, the final result is exceptional. The bastards have dirty faces, full of dust, slicked back or shaggy hair, and their very blue, very green or very gray eyes stand out incomparably, in addition to the scars, the beard of 3 days, teeth either white or black, cowboy hats or Mexican sombreros, in short everything is perfect when he films a face so close, nothing is wrong, everything is perfect. He's really too strong.

Ennio Morricone, the Great Composer

MUSIC in Sergio Leone's films is arguably the essential ingredient that makes the film good. And of course to do this, he had the chance to rub shoulders on the school benches with one of the greatest film music composers of all time, Ennio Morricone: they will form a master duo together afterwards. to have formed a duo of classmates when they were 9 or 10 years old.

"Sergio Leone spoke of the irreducibility of their duo, blaming it on a fifty-year-old camaraderie: 'We were in school together in 4th elementary, I was 9 and he was 10'."

It looks like the music sticks to the movie, unless it's the other way around: isn't it the movie that follows the music? This is exactly it! Sergio talks about his way of working with Ennio:

“We have known each other for a long time. I don't like to repeat myself and explain things multiple times at all, and with Ennio it's very easy, at a glance we understand each other right away. There's the success we've had together, the esteem that we have each other… He's able to rewrite a piece of music four or five times if I don't like him at all. [...] He's more than a composer to me. I don't like words in movies at all, I still hope to make a silent movie, and music takes the place of words, so you could say Morricone is one of my best writers. "

“I have the music composed before making the film. I work with music. It is a complicity, not of the story, but of the idea. "

The immense talent of Ennio mixed with that of Sergio gave birth to an incredible result: besides the fact that the music of Ennio is magnificent, Sergio had the gift of combining a type of music with a scene according to a process. to say the least surprising. A telling example: during the final scene of the film "The Good, the Bad and the Ugly", where the three protagonists are about to kill each other, a sublime music of violins and trumpet resonates and takes you to the guts. .

What an antagonism in what we see on screen and the music we hear!

Quentin Tarantino has echoed this process in many of his films, where violent and bloody scenes of characters killing each other mixed with heavenly or perky music create a hiatus and grab the audience. You will remember this remark when you see these scenes again. We can see that the film follows the music and its rhythm, just as the changes of scene are linked to the transitions of the musical themes. It’s such a difficult exercise! But it seems obvious when you look at it. This is the real talent. What a relentless duo!

The character of TUCO, the Ugly

Still a die-hard Clint fan, I have to admit that my favorite character in this movie is TUCO, played by Eli Wallach. I love him ! In my opinion, he is the central character and this involuntarily, because he is endearing and he monopolizes the viewer's attention on his own, a bit like Louis de Funès in Fantomas, however not initially dedicated to being the role central. Tuco is alternately ruthless to others, and pitiful to himself. How many times have you taken pity on him? He is able to flip his jacket over in a flash, to save himself first and collect gold or silver in the process.

Eli Wallach's great acting talent has a lot to do with it, and I have seen him in other films in quite different roles, and even in the supporting roles he bursts the screen and you only watch him. He has a fascinating presence, just by his presence. This presence reaches its peak in the scene where the bounty hunter thinks he is taking advantage of his advantage and appears in the room where Tuco is bathing in a bathtub and believes him thus vulnerable, then begins to utter unnecessary words with gun in hand, certain that at the end of his palaver, he will shoot Tuco and kill him coldly.

But that's without counting on the cunning of Tuco who never takes his bath without his revolver, and who, after having listened to him with a distracted ear, shoots the bounty hunter first, killing him with several bullets. in the body. Then he gets up from his bath, and covered in foam sticks a last bullet in the skin of the guy who falls dead dead, and says:

"WHEN YOU SHOOT, SHOOT, DON’T TALK !!"

Not only do we not expect this answer at all, which makes it funny, but it is also loaded with meaning, because after all, what does that mean?

When you shoot, you don't tell your life story, in other words: if you have to act in life, stop talking unnecessarily for hours.

I like it! How many heated discussions have you seen in your life? How many pointless talks have you had to endure, where you said to yourself, "Well, when is he going to finish?" "," When do we take action? ". If this happens to you again, imagine being in Tuco's shoes and pulling a gun out of the foam !! Unless you're one of the people who likes to talk ... and that's your right.

Palaver = Long and idle discussion that does not lead to anything positive ...

In my opinion, that fits well with the character of Sergio Leone, who did not like unnecessary words. He liked to get straight to the point, and the message gets through here!

All of this is up to me, of course, and I really want to pay tribute to these three essential figures in the world of cinema: Sergio Leone, Ennio Morricone, and Eli Wallach. They are already in Heaven, so they got my message and hope they are honored.