the good, the bad and the ugly (1966): cowboys twirling them guns

What makes a western, a western:

• Deserts, never-ending stretch of deserts, and the one or two random saloon towns or adobe hut
• Bullets of sweat, grit, dust, and dirt, which can never be washed off even with an hour of scrubbing
• Guns, cannons, explosives
• Horses and horsebackriding
• Attire of tattered wide-rim hats, ponchos, cowboy boots with spurs, holsters, and the most important of all: a water pouch
• Buckets of money buried somewhere
• Twangy, dramatic soundtrack (an extra star if Ennio Morricone happens to be your soundtrack composer!)
• Fantastic intertitles
• Great character names
• Super close ups to insinuate first-person perspectives
• A pink sun umbrella (an extra star for frills)
• Bandit cowboys, sheriffs, and a very obvious villain
• Cigars and alcohol (you don't need food when you have these!)
• Clint Eastwood, squinting into the sun with his mouth in a perpetual grimace

That pretty much wraps up Sergio Leone's The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly, which as the title implies, follows three men: a good-esque fellow named Blondie (Clint Eastwood), a very bad man named Angel Eyes (Lee Van Cleef), and a particularly ugly one named Tuco (Eli Wallach). I especially loved seeing Tuco, twirling his pink sun umbrella with frills, and the way he enunciated, 'I'll killll youuuu!!" Also, it is always fantastic to see Eastwood do what he does best: squint, grimace, and chew on a cigar while shooting away in the endless desert.

Semi-related trivia: DJ erb made a great mashup of Ennio Morricone (Ecstasy of Gold) versus Naz (One Mic). It was the first mashup I was introduced to and it is still one of the greatest mashups I've ever heard.