It was a childhood dream to visit the place where one of my favourite films, The Good, the Bad and the Ugly, comes to an end. I rode 1,114 km in less than 24 hours, by motorbike, from Porto to Sad Hill Valley, near Contreras in Spain. It was a deeply moving experience that I will never forget. I recommend visiting if you are a fan of the film, you won’t regret it.
The Good, the Bad and the Ugly
Il buono, il brutto, il cattivo
1966 · Movie · Directed by Sergio Leone · 10 locations
While the Civil War rages on between the Union and the Confederacy, three men – a quiet loner, a ruthless hitman, and a Mexican bandit – comb the American Southwest in search of a strongbox containing $200,000 in stolen gold.
Cast
Angel Eyes at Stevens' farm
The opening contract: Angel Eyes eats a meal at the family table, shoots Stevens, then the son, and leaves with the name of the man who knows where the gold is buried.
Cortijada del Campillo de Doña Francisca
as Stevens' farm
Arrival at the mission
Tuco drives a stolen Confederate ambulance into the courtyard with Blondie dying of thirst in the back. The mission interiors were filmed at San Pedro de Arlanza in Burgos.
Cortijo del Fraile
as Mission of San Antonio
Battle of Langstone Bridge
Union and Confederate lines shell each other across the river for a wooden bridge neither side can hold. Blondie and Tuco wire the span with dynamite so they can cross in the confusion — the first take went off early and Leone rebuilt it. More than two thousand extras filled the valley.
Langstone Bridge
as Langstone Bridge
Blondie can't go on
Tuco drives Blondie across open sand until he collapses from sun and thirst, then loads him into a stolen ambulance and heads for the mission.
Las Amoladeras Dunes
as New Mexico desert
Blondie recovers at the mission
Tuco carries Blondie into a wartime hospital packed with wounded and finds his brother Pablo among the monks. The interiors were shot in these ruins; the mission courtyard is Cortijo del Fraile in Almería.
Monastery of San Pedro de Arlanza
as Mission of San Antonio
The three-way duel
Tuco runs the concentric rings of graves looking for Arch Stanton, then Blondie, Tuco, and Angel Eyes face off in the stone circle. The grave with the gold is one of the marked rings.
Sad Hill Cemetery
as Sad Hill
Tuco ambushed by bounty hunters
Tuco rides into a ring of granite boulders and is shot off his horse. Blondie appears, kills the hunters, and proposes they partner up — the first time the two share the frame.
El Rodaje, La Pedriza
as New Mexico
Tuco on Blondie's trail
Tuco finds Blondie's discarded cigars in three campfire rings along the same ridge. The gap between the two mounds is also the hill from For a Few Dollars More.
Sierra Alhamilla track above Mini Hollywood
as New Mexico desert
Tuco talks
Blondie and Tuco are marched into the Union prison. Angel Eyes, posing as a camp sergeant, has Tuco beaten for the grave name, then sends Blondie out with his gang. Tuco's line to the torturer — 'When you have to shoot, shoot. Don't talk.' — is here.
Betterville Prison Camp
as Betterville
Tuco's hanging at Valverde
Blondie turns Tuco in for the bounty, then splits the noose with a rifle shot as the cart rolls. The same clapboard street later stands in for Santa Fe — Tuco covering Blondie from the saloon-hotel window — and for the rope-bridge arrival after the desert. A saloon sign still reads Valverde; the original span is gone.
Oasys MiniHollywood
as Valverde