The GOAT of Westerns Is Now Available to Stream for Free

1 week ago 8

Published Apr 6, 2026, 5:02 PM EDT

A cinematic obsessive with the filmic palate of a starving raccoon, Rob London will watch pretty much anything once. With a mind like a steel trap, he's an endless fount of movie and TV trivia, borne from a misspent youth of watching monster movies on TV, perusing the sun-faded goods at the local video rental shop, and staining his fingers with ink from the Video Movie Guide. Areas of interest include science fiction, film noir, horror flicks, '70s disaster pictures, Bond movies, '90s action, giant robots, dinosaurs, super heroes, and the exuberantly schlocky output of Cannon Films. He also enjoys both Star Trek and Star Wars when they're good, and maybe even more when they're bad. As a Canadian, he also has a vested interest in Canadian movies and TV shows, especially the cheesier ones dubbed "Canuxploitation."

An expert on Marvel Comics, he has also written for the Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe, and is a member of the Marvel Research Team. He can frequently be found pontificating on comic-book continuity or bemoaning the misfortunes of the Toronto Maple Leafs on his Twitter account.

There's some debate over the greatest Western movie of all time. Titles like High Noon, The Searchers, Unforgiven, and Stagecoach are all solid contenders for the title. Many Western fans, however, would contend that the greatest Western ever wasn't even a Hollywood production, but was made by an Italian crew and a handful of American actors on the desolate plains of Spain. That movie is The Good, The Bad and The Ugly, and right now it won't cost you a fistful of dollars to watch it.

Clint Eastwood, star of TV's Rawhide, had limited success in American movies, and was lured to Europe by director Sergio Leone. He cast him in a Western remake of the Akira Kurosawa samurai epic Yojimbo; the resulting film, A Fistful of Dollars, was unlike anything American audiences had seen before. A loose sequel, For a Few Dollars More, with Eastwood reprising his role as the mysterious Man With No Name, followed three years later; it paired Eastwood with veteran Hollywood heavy Lee Van Cleef. It, too, was a success, and soon, a third film was in the works, with Eastwood and Van Cleef returning along with Leone, screenwriter Luciano Vincenzoni, and composer Ennio Morricone.

What Is 'The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly' About?

As the US Civil War rages, three men are on the hunt for a stash of Confederate gold hidden in the Southwest. They are "The Good," the Man With No Name (Eastwood), an enigmatic drifter; "The Bad," a heartless mercenary known as Angel Eyes (Van Cleef); and "The Ugly," Tuco (Eli Wallach), a luckless Mexican bandit. Over the course of the film, the three will be allies and enemies before they find the gold buried in a lonely grave, leading to one of the most famous standoffs in cinema history. You can catch the whole thing streaming for free on Pluto TV for a limited time only.

A huge financial success upon its release, The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly is regarded as the finest of the so-called "spaghetti Westerns," and proved to be enormously influential. Hollywood's own Westerns soon began to emulate the film's grey morality that blended the line between hero and villain; one director who was strongly influenced by it was Eastwood himself, who would direct his first Western, High Plains Drifter, in 1973.

The Good, The Bad and the Ugly is now streaming for free on Pluto TV. Stay tuned to Collider for future updates.