Quentin Tarantino has seen just about every film ever made, so when he calls a trilogy flawless, people pay attention.
His Pick
Speaking on Bill Maher’s podcast Club Random, Tarantino said there’s “only one trilogy that completely and utterly works to the Nth degree.” His choice is Sergio Leone’s Dollars trilogy, starring Clint Eastwood as the quiet, poncho-wearing gunslinger who became the face of the spaghetti western.
Three Films in Three Years
The trilogy began with A Fistful of Dollars in 1964, continued with For a Few Dollars More in 1965 and ended with the epic The Good, the Bad and the Ugly in 1966. All three were made back to back in just three years, and each one feels bigger and bolder than the last.
Ennio Morricone’s legendary scores tie them together. His theme for The Good, the Bad and the Ugly remains one of the most recognizable pieces of film music ever written.
The films also turned Eastwood into an international star. Before Leone, he was best known for the TV western Rawhide. After the trilogy, he was a movie icon.
Leone’s Influence on Tarantino
It’s no surprise Tarantino holds these films so close. Leone’s influence runs all through his own work, from long, tense standoffs to scenes built entirely around music, to extreme close-ups of eyes and hands before a burst of violence.
He has paid tribute to the genre directly too, with Django Unchained and The Hateful Eight, for which Morricone won his only competitive Oscar. In Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, Leonardo DiCaprio’s Rick Dalton even heads to Italy to star in spaghetti westerns.
High Praise
Plenty of trilogies have strong first and second chapters before stumbling. For Tarantino, Leone’s run is the rare case where every entry lands.
Coming from a director this obsessed with film history, it’s about as high as praise gets.