A Misconception of the Civil War The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly is a film based in the west during the time of the Civil War between the Union and the Confederacy. Blondie (The Good) and Tuco (The Bad) are shown as a duo that kills, lies, and cheats to get to their goal, which is to find a hidden treasure of gold. Throughout the movie a man named Angel Eye’s (The Ugly) represents the Union and puts Tuco and Blondie on a few set backs that makes their journey for the treasure take longer. Many of the obstacles that they come upon deal with the ongoing war between the north and the south over the New Mexico Territory, specifically the modern day area of New Mexico, Arizona, and a small portion of Nevada. The movie portrays the New Mexico Territory
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Victoria E. Bynum, the author of “Afterward” concludes that the Union did not take lawlessness away after the Civil War. She says, “Bandits raided the areas that the Union has consumed control over […] [and] prisoners escaped from prison” (Bynum 235). Also, John Franklin says in “Reconstruction: After the Civil War” that, “After the Civil War, the banks, trains, and even stage coaches were being robbed […] [by] outlaw gangs. [These gangs] were actively involved in cattle rustling and armed robbery remained very affective in New Mexico” (Franklin 386). Therefore, the entire film inaccurately makes the Union look like they were only fighting to enforce laws, because even though they got control over what they have been fighting to save for years they still failed to take the lawlessness out of the west. The Union and the Confederacy began the Civil War because of their uncompromising differences between the free and slave states to prohibit slavery in the territories that had not yet become states. Both sides made lawless actions and held territory over these lawless areas shown in The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly. Although, the director makes the viewers see the Union as perfect or more mature. It portrays the Union doing everything to try to fix and take away all the unlawful actions, where in reality the film disregards the entire purpose of the war, slavery. The movie provides so much effort in making the west look completely lawless and full of crimes that it incorrectly portrays what the overall war was about. The Union and the Confederacy both shared acts of unlawfulness and both experienced poor environments and although the film makes the Union look like the savior they still failed to remove the
Victoria E. Bynum, the author of “Afterward” concludes that the Union did not take lawlessness away after the Civil War. She says, “Bandits raided the areas that the Union has consumed control over […] [and] prisoners escaped from prison” (Bynum 235). Also, John Franklin says in “Reconstruction: After the Civil War” that, “After the Civil War, the banks, trains, and even stage coaches were being robbed […] [by] outlaw gangs. [These gangs] were actively involved in cattle rustling and armed robbery remained very affective in New Mexico” (Franklin 386). Therefore, the entire film inaccurately makes the Union look like they were only fighting to enforce laws, because even though they got control over what they have been fighting to save for years they still failed to take the lawlessness out of the west. The Union and the Confederacy began the Civil War because of their uncompromising differences between the free and slave states to prohibit slavery in the territories that had not yet become states. Both sides made lawless actions and held territory over these lawless areas shown in The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly. Although, the director makes the viewers see the Union as perfect or more mature. It portrays the Union doing everything to try to fix and take away all the unlawful actions, where in reality the film disregards the entire purpose of the war, slavery. The movie provides so much effort in making the west look completely lawless and full of crimes that it incorrectly portrays what the overall war was about. The Union and the Confederacy both shared acts of unlawfulness and both experienced poor environments and although the film makes the Union look like the savior they still failed to remove the