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| “ | But you know, the pity is when I'm paid, I always follow my job through. | „ |
| ~ Angel Eyes' most famous quote. |
Angel Eyes (Sentenza in the original Italian version), also known as "The Bad", is the titular main antagonist of Sergio Leone's 1966 legendary spaghetti western film The Good, the Bad and the Ugly.
He is a traitorous and cruel assassin who crosses path with the other two titular characters, all looking for a stash of stolen Confederate Gold, worth $200,000 and he himself has become one of the most iconic villains in film history. He is the archenemy of Tuco and Blondie.
He was portrayed by the late Lee Van Cleef, who previously played Douglas Mortimer in For a Few Dollars More. He also played Jack Colby in High Noon, Ryan in Death Rides a Horse, Clanton in A Man Alone, and Frank Talby in Day of Anger
Biography
Angel Eyes was a ruthless and cunning killer, who has been hired to get clues on the whereabouts of a man called Jackson, finding out he has changed his name to Bill Carson and has gone missing. Upon being told that a fortune in cash is in the middle of this thing, he kills Carson's former associate and his own employer and goes on a search by himself. After learning that Carson is with the Confederacy, he gets a job as a Sergeant at a Union prison camp in case the man is captured.
When Blondie (The Good) and Tuco (The Ugly) fall in this camp, he deduces that Carson is dead and that Tuco was one of the last people to see him alive. He gets one of his henchmen to brutally beat Tuco in order to find out about the money, which works, as he reveals the name of the cemetery it was buried at.
However, Angel Eyes then recruits Blondie as a member of his gang, since he knows the specific grave where the treasure is, and offers him a 50/50 deal. In the meantime, Tuco has been put on a train which is headed to a far town where he is to be hanged, but he manages to escape and kill his guard (thus getting revenge for the beating, too). Blondie eventually breaks free from Angel Eyes' custody and reunites with Tuco, reaching the cemetery after spending a day and a night at a Union fort.
While they are looking for the money, Angel Eyes suddenly shows up for the final duel. In the ensuing duel, Blondie kills Angel Eyes, whilst Tuco fails to shoot either as Blondie had unloaded his gun the previous night. Ironically, of the three main characters, Angel Eyes is the one who (at least explicitly) murdered fewer people throughout the film; yet he clearly is the most vicious, as he takes a certain joy in killing and has the cold blood to joke with Tuco during the latter's torture and interrogation. After his death, Blondie took his share of the gold and loaded it onto Angel Eye's black horse, although not before hanging Tuco and at a safe distance Blondie shot Tuco's noose from using a rifle that was stored in a scabbard on the black horse.
Personality
A much darker counterpart of Blondie, Angel Eyes is a charismatic, relentless, dangerous, and greedy bounty hunting outlaw. Unlike Blondie, who despite being a bounty hunter does have a sense of honor and sometimes does the right thing, Angel Eyes is callous, traitorous, and cold. This is shown by how he killed his own employer despite being paid by him to kill Stevens and laughs at his death, or how he enjoyed torturing Tuco and beat up Bill Carson's widow.
He has no problem killing children, such as Steven's eldest son, who he immediately guns down upon hearing him after killing Stevens. Even after forming a partnership with Blondie to find the gold after sending Tuco away to be executed, Angel Eyes is very quick to betray others on a whim, which is seen when he sends his men to kill Blondie once he reunites with Tuco.
Once he became a Union Sergeant, Angel Eyes is also shown to an incredibly abusive authority figure who has no regard for any of the prisoners, and systematically puts them through cruel torture sessions to try and find information about the buried cache of gold while sadistically forcing several prisoners of war to play music to cover up his torture sessions. Angel Eyes is, ultimately, willing to do anything to make a profit at the expense of other people's lives.
But with all of that being said, he does show genuine sadness while watching a group of wounded soldiers, and he even has the decency to let their captain keep a bottle of whiskey out of sympathy too. This is the only time in the movie where he ever shows any humanizing qualities (though this scene was cut in the US international version).
Skills and abilities
Angel Eyes is shown to be a skilled mercenary and assassin. He manage to kill both Jackson and his teenage son. His gunslinging skills surpasses Tuco but rivals Blondie, which the novel mentions he outmatched Blondie in a duel. He also is pretty good at stealth as he not only manages to get to Sad Hill first but he also got the drop on both Blondie and Tuco, one of the few times Blondie is caught off guard.
- Colt 1851 Navy Pistol: In the beginning of the film, Angel Eyes uses a cartridge-converted Navy to murder Baker, firing it through his pillow. He keeps this pistol as a backup weapon even when serving in the Union, but primary uses a Remington 1858. Despite using a Remington being percussion revolver, Angel Eyes wears a cartridge belt for his navy pistol.
- Remington 1858 New Army: Throughout the film, Angel Eyes carries a Remington 1858 which he used to murder Stevens and Stevens' oldest son. He carried this gun until his duel with Tuco and Blondie.
Gallery
Images
Videos
Quotes
| “ | Stevens: You're... from Baker... Tell Baker that I told him all that I know already. Tell him I want to live in peace, understand? That it's no use to go on tormenting me! I know nothing at all about that case of coins. Now that gold has disappeared, but if he'd listened, we could have avoided this altogether. I went to the Army court; there were no witnesses. They couldn't uncover any more. I can't tell Baker what happened to the money; go back and tell him that! Angel Eyes: Word's around you had a visitor...and Baker knows it. Name of Jackson. Well Jackson was here...or Baker's got it all wrong. |
„ |
| ~ Angel Eyes killing his employer Baker. |
| “ | Oh, I almost forgot, he paid me a thousand. I think his idea was that I kill you. But you know, the pity is when I'm paid, I always follow my job through. You know that. | „ |
| ~ Angel Eyes killing his employer Baker. |
| “ | People with ropes around their necks don't always hang. Even a filthy beggar like that has a protecting angel. A golden-haired angel watches over him. | „ |
| ~ Angel Eyes to a women. |
| “ | You're smart enough to know that talking won't save you. | „ |
| ~ Angel Eye's to Blondie. |
| “ | See you soon, idiots. | „ |
| ~ Angel Eyes' note to Blondie and Tuco. |
| “ | Two can dig a lot quicker than one. Dig. | „ |
| ~ Angel Eyes to Steven. |
Trivia
- Clint Eastwood himself came up with the name of Angel Eyes for the English release, in a reference to the character's suave look and expert marksmanship.
- A common critic in the movie is how the trio knew each other in the movie as they only had once scene together (where Angel Eyes talks with a half solider) but didn't interact in it. Angel Eyes knows who they are but it isn't established that they knew who Angel Eyes was. It is suggested that they had encounter each other in the past but Joe Millard's novelization of the film has an extra dialogue between Tuco and Blondie explaining that Tuco has met Angel Eyes (Setenza in the novelization) before.
- The Man with No Name, Volume 2: Holiday in the Sun serves as a prequel to the third film where Angel Eyes meet Blondie for the first time before running into him again 8 years later in film.
- Park Chang-yi of The Good, The Bad and The Weird, Cad Bane of Star Wars: The Clone Wars, Frank from Once Upon a Time in the West, Rattlesnake Jake of Rango, and Striker of Helluva Boss were all inspired by him.
- Unlike Angel Eyes (or at least his theatrical version), however, all of them (bar Frank and Striker) posses redeeming qualities to varying degrees.
- Angel Eyes and Colonel Douglas Mortimer (another character from Clint Eastwood's Dollars trilogy) were both portrayed by Lee Van Cleef, though story-wise they are not related. Van Cleef acted in several Western films and television programs, often portraying villainous characters, though most were minor roles until his breakthrough as Mortimer in For a Few Dollars More.
- Angel Eyes and Mortimer are both missing the last joint of their right middle fingers, because Lee Van Cleef accidentally cut it off while building a playhouse for his daughter.
External Links
- Angel Eyes on the Pure Evil Wiki
- Angel Eyes on the Dollars Trilogy Wiki
- Angel Eyes on the Historica Wiki
| Dollars Trilogy Villains | ||
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Movies | ||
