History Headscratchers / TheGoodTheBadandTheUgly

** You are exaggerating, a freight train going at 60mph (which would be the max speed of a civil war engine) would take about a mile and mile-and-half to stop, not several miles. If anything, this is another example of Leone going "if it isn't in the frame, it doesn't exist", of which are several moments in the movie.

** Blondie doesn't really seem to do anything that would put a bounty on his head, other than helping Tuco escape (and, as noted, that's from a distance, where few can make him out). There's perhaps a reason he's identified as the "Good", after all; he's not exactly a decent man, but he doesn't go out of his way to commit crimes against other people.

** Italowesterns in general and the dollars trilogy in detail deconstruct the idea of a unreasonably good and fast gunslinger, which is almost impossible to kill or bring down. A guy that invincible has no one to answer to and can't be made responsible for anything. Therefore he can do whatever he likes, totally ignoring all limitations put on him by law enforcement. That's the reason why Blondie is "The Good" only through worse antagonists, and why he is short of a full blown sociopath (he shot some men in the beginning of A Handful of Dollars for insulting his mule).

** Wrong again, have you seen the film? First of all, the four men he killed were the Baxters, who are gunrunning criminals. The only reason we sympathize with them when the Rojos wipe them out is the brutality of the Rojos, and the fact that they are not shown to be as much of a complete monster as the Rojos. Second of all, it was not unprovoked as other tropers claim. In case you forgot, the men did more than just make fun of the mule. They also insulted the guy, threatened him, and shot at his mule. In the end, Blondie is a deconstruction of the Good is nice trope and the cliche that greed is evil, but also a deconstruction of the cliche that pragmatism means not being moral or good. Blondie is a pragmatist, willing to do dirty and down right evil things who only cares about money. He is willing to kill the Baxters to get the attention of the Rojos. He is willing to fuck over his partner Tuco. He does not care about the law, and would rather to tell Colonel Douglas Mortimer to fuck off and stay away from his bounty than work together with him and see justice done. Yet he is also not completely without mercy or morals. He gives away his money to the family that the Rojos' destroyed, helping the wife escape. He could have let El Indio kill Mortimer to keep the bounty for himself, yet he lets Mortimer have his revenge and duel with El Indio. He could have left Tuco with nothing like before, yet he leaves the guy a horse and half the treasure. Blondie deconstructs the idea that a good person has to be moral and fair.

* Someone made a good if upsetting point. Why did Blondie just ditch Tuco in the desert instead of just letting him hang once he decided that their scam had run its course? Is it his moral code of being The Good, where he doesn't try to kill anyone unless they try to kill him first? Was the heat and Tuco's chatter making him impatient? Or was leaving Tuco out in the desert just a chance he was willing to take?

* Someone made a good if upsetting point. Why did Blondie just ditch Tuco in the desert instead of just letting him hang once he decided that their scam had run its course? Is it his moral code of being The Good? Was the heat and Tuco's chatter making him impatient? Or was leaving Tuco out in the desert just a chance he was willing to take?

* Someone made a good if upsetting point. Why did Blondie just ditch Tuco in the desert instead of just letting him hang once he decided that their scam had run its course? Is it his moral code of being The Good? Was the heat and Tuco's chatter making him impatient? Or was leaving Tuco out in the desert a chance he was willing to take?

** Well, there's a morally ambiguous "hero", an extremely unambiguous villain and a third character who isn't much better than the villain but more likeable than either of the others (and who is arguably the main protagonist). So at least it's more complex than BlackAndWhiteMorality.

* What would the Union soldiers do when they find Corporal Wallace and his prisoner missing? Would they go after Bill Carson and not find him? If they knew they were transporting Tuco Ramirez would they acknowledge that he didn't care about the war and wouldn't be a threat to the Union? Or would they get caught up in another battle with the Confederates and forget about the whole thing?

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** Or he could be one of those types of guys who can't live the quiet, easy life; tried it, got restless, ended up riding into the wild again.

** At the last hanging, the announcer says the condemned spontaneously confessed, and he's pretty clearly embellishing by this point:

* "Every gun makes its own tune." Blondie heard Tuco's gun in the desert (when he shot his hat and canteen), but before Blondie utters this line, they've been captured and disarmed. Tuco escapes the train with no gun at hand except Wallace's sidearm (which doesn't work when he tries to shoot off his handcuffs). So...leaving aside whether it's realistic for Blondie to recognize an individual gun...how did Tuco end up with his old gun?

**** Also, after Blondie shoots Angel Eyes the first time, Tuco is desperately fanning his empty gun...and pointing it up at belly or chest height, not down on the ground where Angel Eyes has fallen. So I think he is trying to kill Blondie at that point.