https://blog.ryanmoore.au/tags/future-tour-hopes/This blog is dedicated to my adventures in the great outdoors, fishing trips, hiking routes, camping, etc. as well as a collection of thoughts and interests. It's not all outdoorsy: there's plenty of politics, work/coding, football and other random ~~rants~~ thoughts I have.en-auWed, 21 Apr 2021 11:00:00 +1000https://blog.ryanmoore.au/posts/2021/the-good-the-bad-and-the-ugly/Wed, 21 Apr 2021 11:00:00 +1000https://blog.ryanmoore.au/posts/2021/the-good-the-bad-and-the-ugly/<p><img src="https://blog.ryanmoore.au/posts/2021/the-good-the-bad-and-the-ugly/eli-wallach-tuco_hud07a65167bc4f2b543457e509df3c92f_263197_1200x0_resize_q75_h2_box.webp" width="1200" height="674" alt="The Good the Bad and the Ugly"></p><p>So I’m a huge fan of <cite>The Good, The Bad and The Ugly</cite> (<cite lang="it">Il bruno, il brutto, il cattivo</cite> in Italian). I love most spaghetti westerns but this one masterpiece, this perfect movie, I’ve seen it now 1,300 times. That’s right, tonight I watched my 1,300th replay. I swear on my life, I’ve counted all these years since my father showed me the movie as a kid. I’ve even watched it in both Italian and French. It plays when I work, it plays when I’m down and need a morale boost. It plays simply when it’s been a few weeks and I want to watch it again. A little weird and sad maybe, but it’s one of my life’s great loves.</p> <p class="pullquote quoted">If you have to shoot, shoot; don’t talk!</p> <p>I remember seeing the movie a few years ago at <b class="brand">The Astor Theatre</b> in St. Kilda one night when they had a showing. By that time I’d seen it just shy of 1,000 times but never on the big screen, as I was only born in ’82. So I walk into the <b class="brand">Astor</b>, and I’m excited. <strong>Like, birth-of-my-kids, Bulldogs-winning-the-flag, EXCITED!</strong> I hear Ennio Morricone’s <cite lang="it">L’estasi dell’oro</cite>, <cite>The Ecstasy Of Gold</cite>, playing in the lobby and the emotion of finally seeing this movie in the theatre just overwhelmed me and I quietly, but still quite publicly, wept. So yeah. Big fan.</p> <p>My wife and kids groan, and ask when I’ll stop watching it. My answer is always: <q>When I get sick of it.</q></p> <p>I’m hoping to one day travel (maybe a bike tour post-COVID) on a pilgrimage to Burgos in northern Spain, where the climax in the graveyard was filmed.</p>