The Good, the Bad and the Ugly

1966 is when it all starts happening. It's the Mountain Dew year of history, because it just seems as if everything is becoming "to the extreme!" That doesn't necessarily mean a Clint Eastwood jaunt is going to make you want to dye your hair green and ride a mountain bike along a cliff side, but you can really tell times are changing with how violent this movie is. Tomorrow Never Knows man!, ah but cinema is changing too. Somewhere Ray Manzarek is convincing Jim Morrison that meaningless poetry could be the voice of a generation.

I'm going to talk about Clint Eastwood hyah and not this movie. Mainly because I've only seen The Good, the Bad and the Ugly, a few times, and each time, a nap has been involved. This is not a insult though, as this is an awesome man's movie. This is the kind of movie you let dad watch on Father's day with a beer in his hand and a bag of Fritos in his lap. It has improved each time I've watched it, and despite the limited script, I could see this movie cracking my all-time Top 10 someday, but today is not that day even though I could throw it on right now and probably enjoy it (which I may when I'm done writing).

So it's 1966 and I'm watching an actor I recently watched in Gran Turino which means this man has acted Oscar worthy well over 40 years (ok, Oscar worthy in Turino may be a stretch, but still, Million Dollar Baby wasn't too long ago). Sure he may have dipped in the 80s, but aside from the Beastie Boys, can you tell me what survived the 80s? Even cocaine wasn't as big! That's five freaking decades of acting! I'm thinking when he dies, he may be the best actor ever.

Let me break this down with some I think are the best.

Bogart and Jimmy Stewart get 2 or 3 decades tops each.

Brando gets the 50s, 60s, and 70s, but I don't think The Freshman or The Score (as underrated as that movie is) qualifies him for the 2000s. I guess you could say he acted for 6 decades ... but never put out quality flicks in his later years. That's a tough one, I'm going to go with Brando though.

DeNiro gets the 70s, 80s, 90s and 2000s (I'm giving it to him for Meet the Parents. He's AWESOME in that!)

Nicholson could tack on the 60s to what DeNiro's got, and I'm sure Pacino's in the mix, but ok, I know this is what it's all leading up to.

THE BEST ACTORS OF ALL-TIME

8. Dustin Hoffman

7. Al Pacino

6. Jack Nicholson

5. Jimmy Stewart

4. Humphrey Bogart

3. Clint Eastwood

2. Robert DeNiro

1. Marlon Brando

This list is subject to change.