Documentary
about the location of The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (GBU)
.
Lee: Opens at a
massive rock concert, close-up of lead singer.
.
Eli: What did
that have to do with a spaghetti western film set?
.
Lee: You’ll see.
Stay with me. The original location was in Spain, though it was about the
American Civil War. An artificial graveyard was being restored by a group of
enthusiasts who went on social media, attracted volunteers to scrape and dig to
unearth the original site, crowd-funded it too.
.
Eli: The power of
the group.
.
Lee: And they
also interviewed the composer, Ennio Moricone, had to use archive footage of
the director, Sergio Leone, because he’d died years ago. There were interviews
with Clint Eastwood, and biographer Christopher Frayling, and with film critic
Stephen Leigh.
.
Eli: So they
mixed the authentic original people with those who captured the historical
cinematographic aspects?
.
Lee: Stunning 4K
clarity in 16:9 mixed with archive footage in 4:3 cinéma vérité. Droneswoops
over the site and circling back to an interview with Metallica’s lead singer,
James Hetfield.
.
Eli: And the
relevance of that?
.
Lee: Metallica
have used the theme of GBU in gigs for 30 years. That Moricone
score, basically only four notes, guitars then Mariachi trumpets. One of the
most haunting movie melodies.
____________
Voice-over
A documentary
that is a celebration of a memorable movie (Il Buono, il Brutto, il Cattivo), a
tribute to how it was made, and a record of the location restoration. A double
reflexive-mode (see Bill Nichols) documentary; the recording of the making of
the movie itself within a recording of the making of the documentary. A nested
narrative.
...
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