Sergio Leone's "Dollars trilogy" is in its own right a superb collective of parables, consisting of A Fistful of Dollars (1964), For a Few Dollars More (1965), and concluding with the best and most iconic of all, The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (1966). The series not only perfected the spaghetti western genre, but also made a star out of Clint Eastwood, in his steely portayal of The Man with No Name.

The plot revolves around three gunslingers competing to find a fortune in buried Confederate gold amid the toil and trouble of the civil war. The three men are iconic characters with very distinct personalities - bandit Tuco ("The Ugly," Eli Wallach), Angel Eyes ("The Bad," Lee Van Cleef, in one of the most entertaining performances of villainy in film history), and a man known only as Blondie ("The Good," Clint Eastwood).

The film is a very long one, running in at 178 minutes, but it's one of the few lengthy films that entirely justifies this length. Although the pace is leisurely, Leone does this in order to accentuate its aesthetic of the West. Director of photography Tonino Delli Colli's sweeping widescreen cinematography captures the wide vistas and canyons of a dilapidated, sparse West superbly, and these moments of respite between the gunslinging also allow the superb and extremely memorable soundtrack composed by Ennio Morricone to shine through.

The film is also highly praised for its tense, painstaking climax, as all three men converge on the location of money, and a tense three-way game of draw ensues. Leone's editing here is key - the use of montage, combined with Morricone's score, makes this incredibly intense and exciting, and thus it's no surprise that Quentin Tarantino called it the best directed film of all time.

A savagely entertaining spaghetti Western, and surely the best ever made. Sergio Leone's superb direction is complimented by Ennio Morricone's unforgettable soundtrack, and outstanding performances by Clint Eastwood and Lee Van Cleef. Arguably the best work that any of its cast and crew have ever done.