The Good, The Bad and The Ugly quotes help cement the iconic Spaghetti Western in cinema history. It is not only one of the best Westerns ever made, but it also ranks highly in many “Greatest Movies Of All Time” lists — and for good reason. Director Sergio Leone created an everlasting masterpiece in this final installment of the Dollars Trilogy. The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly‘s script is terse, but it also includes quite a few great lines of dialogue, ranging from the humorous to the profound.
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Credit has to be given to the screenplay team of Luciano Vincenzoni, Sergio Donati, and Furio Scapelli. The starring duo of Clint Eastwood (Blondie aka The Good) and Eli Wallach (Tuco aka The Ugly) also outdid themselves with their deliveries as the juiciest quotes are from conversations between these two. The dialogue and chemistry between the central characters are part of what made the film one of the best Spaghetti Westerns ever, and is evident in the many great The Good, The Bad and the Ugly quotes.
25 “Who The Hell Is That? One B*stard Goes In And Another Comes Out!”
Tuco (Eli Wallach)
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Blondie is out to collect bounties in The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly, and one of those is from Tuco, his on-again-off-again ally/enemy. When Blondie finds Tuco, he captures him by surprise and decides he will accept the $2,000 bounty on Tuco’s head. The two have a great back-and-forth all the way to the town, where Blondie drops him on the porch in front of the sheriff’s office. Blondie goes in to collect his reward, and the sheriff comes out alone.
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That leads to this line that Tuco delivers as he is tied up and lying on the porch looking at the sheriff. The comment is perfect for Tuco. He doesn’t respect anyone, and he also doesn’t mind letting his mouth get him into trouble. Calling Blondie a “ba*tard” and then doing the same to the sheriff shows that he isn’t afraid to insult anyone who he finds getting into his business. He will let his mouth get him into even more trouble in the movie, but this shows how little he cares about it.
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24 “Idiots. It’s For You.”
Blondie (Clint Eastwood)
Even when they are working together, Blondie and Tuco can’t help but insult each other. The two meet up with Bill Carson, who is at death’s door, and he has the news about gold buried in a grave, but he dies before they can work with him to get it. However, he offers up information to both Blondie and Tuco, which means they can’t get the gold without working together. When they find him dead, there is a note with him, written to them about the gold.
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It is Tuco who tries to read the letter at the start, which is amusing as he starts to read and immediately struggles. He reads the letter that says, “See you soon, id…” and then he struggles to get the word out. Blondie then takes the note, reads, “Idiots,” and then hands it back to Tuco, saying, “It’s for you.” It is a nice little dig that not only mocks the fact Tuco can’t read, but also lets Blondie remind his forced companion what he really thinks of him.
23 “Such Ingratitude, After All The Times I’ve Saved Your Life.”
Blondie (Clint Eastwood)
Blondie has done a lot to keep Tuco alive, which is likely not something that he enjoys too much. More than once, Blondie saved Tuco from death, and he even refused to kill him when he had the chance. The two ended up using this to their financial advantage. Blondie would take Tuco in and turn him in to collect the bounty on him. He would then help Tuco escape, and they would split the bounty money before moving on to the next town and doing the same thing all over again.
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Blondie did what he does best and simply made an offhand quip.
However, Blondie finally got tired of listening to Tuco complain about everything and decided it was time to cut ties. He dumped him in the desert with a rope around his neck and then decided he was going to leave him there. Tuco felt betrayed and yelled out all the insults he could pull out of his mind. Instead of insulting Tuca back, Blondie did what he does best and simply made an offhand quip, in good humor, at his rival as he rode off alone.
22 “Hurrah For The Confederacy! HURRAH! Down With General Grant! Hurrah For General… What’s His Name?”
Tuco (Eli Wallach)
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There was one point in The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly when Tuca and Blondie came across a group of Confederate soldiers. Tuca was trying to convince them that they were on their side and started to just ramble while Blondie looked on in silence. Tuca then started claiming they were on the side of the Confederacy and loved them so much that they also hated General Grant. However, when it came time to talk about who they supported, he couldn’t remember the Confederate General’s name.
It was a funny moment, with Blondie saying the name Lee to cover for Tuca. What was best was that this wasn’t a troop of Confederate soldiers, but was instead Union soldiers, who then took them captive. However, it also brought up a lot of questions. How Tuca survived all this time without any knowledge or tact when he speaks is shocking. When Blondie had once told him he saved his life more than once, it wasn’t just with his gun. As with this case, Blondie was always there to help cover for Tuca’s lies and bumbling mouth.
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21 There Are Two Kinds Of Spurs, My Friend. Those That Come In By The Door; Those That Come In By The Window.
Tuco (Eli Wallach)
There is a moment when Blondie is cleaning and loading his gun and hears people sneaking down the hall toward his room. They stop when the Confederate troops outside stop marching so he won’t hear them, but it is too late. The scene then has the intercutting between Blondie and the three men until they open the door, and he shoots all three of them. The third man stands shot, and then Blondie explains he heard their spurs and kills him. What he didn’t hear was Tuca coming in the window.
He holds his gun on the man and delivers this perfect line while playing with his own spurs, which make no sounds since he isn’t walking down the hall.
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This line is perfect because it’s one of the rare times that Tuca gets one over on Blondie. He holds his gun on the man and delivers this perfect line while playing with his own spurs, which make no sounds since he isn’t walking down the hall. The moments where Blondie makes Tuca look unintelligent are numerous in The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly, so it is always nice to see moments where Tuca shows that he is more formidable than he seems.
20 “Hey, Blond! You Know What You Are? Just A Dirty Son-Of-A-B-!”
Tuco (Eli Wallach)
Tuco may not be an honorable character, but Eli Wallach’s hilarious performance makes him strangely likable. Unlike the genuinely evil Angel Eyes, the audience doesn’t really want to see Tuco die in the end, but that doesn’t mean they want to see him win either. That is part of what makes The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly‘s ending so satisfying, as Blondie shoots down Angel Eyes, but leaves Tuco alive.
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As he heads out with the entire fortune they found, Tuco yells after him with this memorable curse, showing that he is still the despicable character in the end and will continue living as a scoundrel looking for his own good fortune. The performance of the cast adds a great deal to make the dialogue so impactful, like many The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly quotes. This line is sold by the performance of Eli Wallach as Tuco, and it’s no surprise that playing Tuco led to Wallach starring in more spaghetti westerns like Ace High.
19 “Two Hundred Thousand Dollars Is A Lot of Money. We’re Gonna Have To Earn It.”
Blondie (Clint Eastwood)
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It’s no surprise that, of all the Good, The Bad, and The Ugly cast members, many of the best quotes can be attributed to genre legend Clint Eastwood as Blondie. Eastwood is in his element in any Spaghetti Western, although this particular quote isn’t memorable because it pertains to staples of the genre. Along with being a masterpiece of the Western genre, The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly is a thrilling treasure hunt movie. The premise of three characters going after the same hidden fortune is a brilliantly simple setup for the adventure.
It helps to cement that Blondie was the right man out of the three to get the treasure, as he is the only one who doesn’t think he is owed any of the riches by simply knowing about them.
This quote from Blondie also shows the audience that it is not going to be an easy journey. It helps to cement that Blondie was the right man out of the three to get the treasure, as he is the only one who doesn’t think he is owed any of the riches by simply knowing about them. He will risk his life yet not be dishonorable in order to come away a rich man.
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18 “I Never Hurt Anybody.”
Tuco (Eli Wallach)
Apart from spoof movies like Blazing Saddles, the Western genre is not typically known for providing big laughs. With stoic heroes, dastardly villains, and dangerous scenarios, there are few moments of levity. While The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly is certainly not a comedy, there are some very funny moments, most involving Tuco.
One of the biggest laughs in the movie comes as Tuco stands on the gallows with a noose around his neck. He proclaims that he is not a bad person and never hurt anyone, only for the officer to proceed in giving a hilariously long list of Tuco’s crimes. These moments help cast member Eli Wallach stand out even when sharing scenes with legends of the silver screen like Clint Eastwood, and also helped ensure that Tuco would be one of the movie’s most memorable characters.
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17 “I’ll Keep The Money And You Can Have The Rope.”
Blondie (Clint Eastwood)
While Blondie is “the Good” out of the three main characters — and is far less ruthless than some of Clint Eastwood’s other characters, like Dirty Harry — in The Good, The Bad and The Ugly, he is more of an anti-hero than a real hero. When the audience meets him, he is pulling off a scheme with Tuco in which he turns Tuco over to authorities, collects the bounty, then frees Tuco at the last minute to do it again in a new town.
A merciless moment for the hero of the story, but makes him more likable.
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While that alone is pretty dishonest, Blondie also decides to unceremoniously end his partnership with Tuco — and, as is to be expected with a Clint Eastwood in a Spaghetti Western, he does so with inimitable verbal flare. Blondie tells him he’s keeping the money while Tuco can keep the ropes that his hands are tied with. It is a merciless moment for the hero of the story, but makes him more likable.
16 “I’ve Never Seen So Many Men Wasted So Badly.”
Blondie (Clint Eastwood)
The Good, The Bad and The Ugly is also a Civil War movie as the adventure takes place during the conflict between the Union in the north and the Confederacy in the south. While this context has little bearing on the plot beyond the fact that the treasure the trio are searching for is Confederate gold and there being both Confederate and Union soldiers at various points, in one scene Blondie and Tuco come across a bloody battle.
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For the most part, The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly is mostly content simply being an entertaining genre movie, but at this point the Spaghetti Western decides to throw in some social and historical commentary. Even the man of few words, Blondie, comments on the senselessness of the war. This is a man who has killed and lived a life surrounded by violence but is appalled at the death he sees in battle.
15 “One, Two, Three, Four, Five, Six. Six. Perfect Number.”
Blondie (Clint Eastwood)
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Like many Clint Eastwood characters, Blondie wasn’t afraid to intimidate his opponents with a little arrogant, chest-puffing bravado, but he also did it with style — a key hallmark of the actor that contributed greatly to his success. When facing down Angel Eyes and his men, Blondie begins counting them out in this cool-headed way. When Angel Eyes asks him why he doesn’t think three is the perfect number, Blondie replies “Mmmm, yeah, but I’ve got six more bullets in my gun.“
One of several
The Good, The Bad and The Ugly
quotes that are a testament to the script-writing abilities of Agenore Incrocci, Furio Scarpelli, Luciano Vincenzoni, and, of course, director Sergio Leone.
Clint Eastwood’s ice-cold delivery helps to paint the picture of a truly memorable Western movie hero. It’s also a notably slick line of dialogue, one of several The Good, The Bad and The Ugly quotes that are a testament to the script-writing abilities of Agenore Incrocci, Furio Scarpelli, Luciano Vincenzoni, and, of course, director Sergio Leone.
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14 “You Never Had A Rope Around Your Neck. Well, I’m Going To Tell You Something. When That Rope Starts To Pull Tight, You Can Feel The Devil Bite Your Ass!”
Tuco (Eli Wallach)
Though Eli Wallach’s The Good, The Bad and The Ugly character is clearly not a deep thinker, there’s some truth to this observation from Tuco, which has a similar meaning to the common phrase “There are no atheists in foxholes.” Tuco mutters this quote to describe what it feels like right before a hanging.
In many respects, the psychological impact of knowing one is moments away from dying such an unpleasant death would be enough to make anybody sit up and take notice. It’s one of several introspective moments throughout the movie, and one that adds a bit of depth to the characters — arguably a reason that The Good, The Bad and The Ugly managed so stand out in the Western genre despite being released in the 1960’s when theaters were awash with them.
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13 “Whoever Has The Most Liquor To Get The Soldiers Drunk And Send Them To Be Slaughtered – He’s The Winner.”
Union General (Aldo Giuffré)
While the majority of the best The Good, The Bad and The Ugly quotes come from the cast leads, especially Clint Eastwood and Eli Wallach, there are multiple memorable lines in the movie that can be attributed to minor characters. When coming across the Civil War battle, Blondie and Tuco meet a Union General who seems to be as disillusioned with the war as they are.
With a feeling of hopelessness, he offers this brutally honest take on the soldiers and their “liquid courage.”
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With a feeling of hopelessness, he offers this brutally honest take on the soldiers and their “liquid courage.” The conversation goes on to say that both sides are partaking of the spirits in order to muster up a bit of combat bravado. This quote sums up The Good, the Bad and the Ugly‘s cynical portrayal of the Civil War and the generally dark nature of Sergio Leone’s “Dollars” trilogy.
12 “I’ll Tell You One Thing, Blondie. If I Knew That My Last Hour Had Come, I Swear, In My Place… In Your Place I Would Do The Same Thing. I Would Tell About The Gold. Yes, Yes, I Would.”
Tuco (Eli Wallach)
While he wasn’t the mastermind behind his and Blondie’s many schemes and plans, Tuco was far from stupid, and he could prove himself to be quite wily when he wanted to be. Tuco wasn’t above using any tactic to get what he wanted, including faking sympathy and compassion. In an attempt to get a dehydrated Blondie to reveal the location of the grave containing a cache of Confederate gold, Tuco tried using a mixture of mercy and logic in order to sway him.
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This duplicitousness is reflected in several The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly quotes from Tuco, and — as is often the case with his character — there’s a hint of unintentional humor to them. Hilariously, despite leading Blondie to his death, Tuco insists to his former colleague that he would tell him where the treasure was if their circumstances were reversed. It is a hilarious look and the depths Tuco will sink to as well as his lack of self-awareness with how he is perceived.
11 “Every Gun Makes Its Own Tune.”
Blondie (Clint Eastwood)
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Clint Eastwood helped to establish himself as a true Western icon over his incredibly lengthy career, and it is memorable lines like this The Good, The Bad and The Ugly quote from Blondie that helped build that legacy. Blondie utters these words, making it well known that this is a man who knows his gun intimately. This is one line that’s so memorable simply because it’s incredibly cool, almost echoing how swordsmen in fantasy movies speak of their weapons and transplanting it onto cowboys in a Spaghetti Western.
As well as being yet another line of incredibly slick and stylish genre dialogue, it’s also a moment of historical accuracy.
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As well as being yet another line of incredibly slick and stylish genre dialogue, it’s also a moment of historical accuracy. This quote is in direct reference to the fact that no two guns are identical, or alike, despite their model. Each has its own history and story to tell. There is a sense that Blondie has heard many guns fire in his life and, despite the violence they bring, he can see the music in them.
10 “Hey, Amigo! You Know You Have A Face Beautiful Enough To Be Worth Two Thousand Dollars?”
Bounty Hunter (Román Ariznavarreta)
When a pair of bounty hunters locate Tuco at the beginning of The Good, The Bad and The Ugly, one of them (played by Román Ariznavarreta) taunts him by mocking his appearance and goading him about the incredibly high bounty on his head. Blondie then appears and casually lets Tuco’s would-be captors know that he won’t let them collect the bounty.
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The next minute, he guns them down, causing Tuco to make reference to Blondie’s own bounty with a hint of jealousy. It’s also a moment early in the movie that establishes Blondie being far more competent and suided to the world of the Old West than Tuco. Though they find themselves at odds for most of the movie, there is an undeniable connection between Blondie and Tuco, making them an odd-ball pair who would have been fun to follow on adventures outside of this one.
9 “When You Have To Shoot, Shoot. Don’t Talk.”
Tuco (Eli Wallach)
Tuco is not as slick as Blondie or Angel Eyes as his temper can often cause him to act impulsively, but this moment shows that there is a reason he has managed to stay alive this long in the Wild West. A man looking for revenge tracks Tuco and finds him relaxing in a bathtub. He mistakenly thinks Tuco is helpless, and expounds at length about his plan for revenge.
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While Clint Eastwood’s Blondie is shown to be a competent killer and marksman, Tuco is far from being simple comic relief, and it’s moments like that show he’s incredibly dangerous in his own right.
However, he isn’t aware that Tuco is holding a gun under the water. While Clint Eastwood’s Blondie is shown to be a competent killer and marksman, Tuco is far from being simple comic relief, and it’s moments like that show he’s incredibly dangerous in his own right. After killing the man, Tuco offers him some posthumous advice about seizing the moment and not talking too much.
8 “I Almost Forgot… He Gave Me 1000 Dollars. I Think His Idea Was That I Kill You.”
Angel Eyes (Lee Van Cleef)
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While Lee Van Cleef as Angel Eyes doesn’t have as many memorable quotes in The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly as Clint Eastwood’s Blondie or Eli Wallach’s Tuco, the sadistic mercenary isn’t without his moments. In one of the most interesting scenes in The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly, Angel Eyes reports to Baker, an old man who paid him $500 to murder another man.
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Unfortunately for Baker, Angel Eyes was given $1000 by the man he killed. He goes on to state that when he is paid, he always gets the job done, killing Baker as well. Though Blondie and Tuco get most of the screen time, this is a brilliant introduction for Angel Eyes that makes him a true Western villain to be feared while also carrying a twisted code he abides by.
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7 “God’s Not On Our Side Because He Hates Idiots, Also.”
Blondie (Clint Eastwood)
While searching for the hidden Confederate gold in The Good, The Bad and The Ugly, Tuco tells Blondie that they will be successful in their endeavor because God is on their side. However, Blondie shuts him down by stating that God doesn’t like idiots. It is another example of what makes Tuco such a fun character, and also a moment that perfectly showcases the complex dynamic between him and Blondie.
Not only does Tuco think that he is the type of person who deserves God’s help in finding buried treasure, but he is also confident enough to suggest he is not an idiot.
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Not only does Tuco think that he is the type of person who deserves God’s help in finding buried treasure, but he is also confident enough to suggest he is not an idiot. Of course, Blondie likes to take any opportunity he can to prove him wrong on that account. Blondie may work with Tuco and have some kind of respect for him, but he clearly doesn’t think much of Tuco’s intelligence.
6 “People With Ropes Around Their Necks Don’t Always Hang.”
Angel Eyes (Lee Van Cleef)
Lee Van Cleef wasn’t known for playing villainous roles in Westerns before The Good, The Bad and The Ugly, and had previously worked alongside Sergie Leone when playing Colonel Douglas Mortimer in For a Few Dollars More. However, his turn as the fearsome Angel Eyes proved Van Cleef had what it took to play the heel, and it’s quotes like this one that proved it.
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Angel Eyes utters this chilling line in reference to the fact that bandits that have been sentenced to hang don’t usually end up hanging. They are always saved by bounty hunters so that the reward money can be increased. Angel Eyes is aware of this very merry-go-round money-making scheme that Blondie and Tuco are engaged in. Angel Eyes has been on his own for most of the movie at this point, but the suggestive quote shows that he is a man who is well-informed, knowing all about Blondie and Tuco’s scheme.