Sergio Leone’s most famous spaghetti western culminates in what’s possibly the greatest standoff in film history. The movie’s three titular characters converge on the rumored site of buried treasure — a graveyard in the desert — and, in a scene of spine-tingling tension, face an ultimate reckoning. It’s a dramatic masterpiece. Building in an airy stillness with each twitch of the jaw, each grimace, each cold, calculating look, the set piece has an almost cosmic majesty. Underlying the whole thing is the score of legendary Italian film composer Ennio Morricone. For this climax, he was reportedly instructed by Leone to make it sound as if the “corpses were laughing from inside their tombs.”
Top 10 Movie Duels
From a three-way gunfight to a limbless sword duel, TIME takes a look at some of the greatest movie battles ever.
Blondie vs. Angel Eyes vs. Tuco, The Good, the Bad and the Ugly
Full List
Mano a Mano
- Blondie vs. Angel Eyes vs. Tuco, The Good, the Bad and the Ugly
- King Arthur vs. the Black Knight, Monty Python and the Holy Grail
- Nada vs. Frank, They Live
- Macbeth vs. Macduff, Macbeth
- Obi-Wan Kenobi vs. Darth Vader, Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope
- Neo vs. Agent Smith, The Matrix
- Inigo Montoya vs. Man in Black, The Princess Bride
- Tang Lung vs. Colt, Way of the Dragon
- The Bride vs. O-Ren Ishii, Kill Bill Vol. 1
- Man vs. Truck, Duel