From what I know of Sergio Leone, The Good the Bad and the Ugly is pretty typical of his directing style, which by no means is a bad thing. I think Leone's style is very artistic and really works with his stories to compell the audience. his style, in this film at least seems to have a lot of close ups, extreme close ups, long shots, and the duration of the shots are usually pretty long, making every shot more dramatic. For example in the scene where Blondie and Tuco are walking down the street of an old deserted town to get to Angel-Eyes as the camara is following them from a distance there is some tension because you know that Angel-Eyes' minions are all crowding around to kill them, when you see a close up of the shooter, then he shoots then you see a close up of Blondie shooting him then the bandit falling. This is a perfect example of Leone's direction style.
The characters are also typical of a Leone film, all three of the main characters are very typical. For one, Blondie is a great character. For someone who has probably the least lines of the main characters in the film, he has a lot of character. He is a very mysterious character yet you can understand him though his favial expressions and just plane silence. Leone seems to love this character, since he is in all three films of the trilogy.
One thing that I think is amazing about Leone's direction is the music. I think the music in this film is one of the best parts of the film and he has the same person, Enio Morricone, do the music for all of his films. I think the choice of music is brillient, from the repeated, well known trills and whistles to the really cool sounding steel guitar parts, repeated throughout the film it just gives the audience a taste of the time period and fits perfectly with the story and the characters. there really is no better way of describing the music then just really cool and amazing.
If i were to relate Leone's directing style to another director it would be Stanley Kubrick. Both Leone and Kubrick seem to focus a lot on very artistic and cool photography with shots that just amaze the audience. They both do a lot of close up shots and really long lasting shots, which both are known for, but primarily Kubrick. Although Kubrick is more famous for his artistic photography, Leone has a lot more emphasis on story telling in his films. I love Stanley Kubrick, he is probably my favorite director, but one thing he lacks in is the ability to tell a story thuroughly, but Leone seems to put a lot more emphasis on creating a great story, and The Good the Bad and the Ugly, certainly is an amazing story that is well told and is full of artistic direction, amazing music and complex characters.
