MBTI: Tuco (The Ugly) -ESTP
Classic ESTP, the original “Persuader.” The three title characters in The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly memorable but there’s one addition that particularly stands out to audiences and a younger version of yours truly, and that’s Tuco Benedicto Pacífico Juan María Ramírez, also known as “The Ugly” as far as the title is concerned.
Quick with a gun and with his mouth, Tuco inspired many a filmmaker for years to come and being that this is the only film that features the character and that Quentin Tarantino has repeatedly cited it a his favorite film of all time, you can bet that many of the clever, violent, and overall fun characters appearing in Tarantino films wouldn’t have existed if not for “The Rat.”
The first character in film to make think it was to cool to never shut up (much to the dismay of everyone that knows me) clearly displays a preference for Extraverted Sensing first. His come-what-may attitude and love of all things “now now now” show the Se user’s penchant for taking pleasure of the finer things in life as often as possible and seizing the moment like Si users often can’t grasp.
“Gotcha! Tee hee!”
Tuco wants his quick money- so he lets himself nearly die on multiple occasions on the premise of being “captured” for his reward money, only to be freed by his captor at the last moment so they can do it again. Surely, making an “honest living” would be more money in the long run as well as less dangerous but Se is more about the freedom, much like all Artisans are.
Tuco’s Ti though is what gives his schemes and seemingly ludicrous persona something to take seriously. While he comes across as just any other bandit, we also get the feeling there’s something else to him; otherwise, why would we care? Take this scene below as an example of Tuco’s brain behind the brawn.
As talkative as Tuco is (speaking easily at least twice as much as the other titular characters), he’s still thoughtful enough to bring a gun with him even in the bathtub, knowing that when you live the way he does, there’s never really time to let your guard down.
Except for the squirts.
“When you have to shoot, shoot. Don’t talk.”
This line seems more like one that someone else would tell him but as we see, there’s more to him than meets the eye. In fact, that seems to be a staple of Artisan types; leaving the talking to a minimum when there’s action afoot! As the top comment of the above video said-
“James Bond vilians can learn from Tuco. Instead of explaining how to they are going to take ove the world to 007, just shoot his ass and be done with it! lol.”
Well put, spelling errors and all. Many Bond villains themselves tend to be Rationals, specifically INTJ with an occasional variant. But while Bond villains love to explain their ingenious plot to the one man who could’ve stopped it were he not chained to a table with a laser slowly inching his way; Artisans are more likely to act before thinking, acting more on instinct.
“My instinct? Run!”
In certain films, certain types are more suited for them, thus we have more Guardians and Artisans as action types while Idealists and (mostly) Rationals play the villains.
So the Rational bad guy creates a devious plan to destroy all the *fill in the blank,* the Artisan hero isn’t nearly as smart but must find a way to defeat him. He’s a man of action. So in Westerns, we have a simple story of men, not being genius in mind but are infinitely clever, trying to outsmart each other to get $200,000 worth of gold. Here in lies the brilliance of the film and the greatness of the character Tuco.
Angel Eyes and Blondie would make the movie almost a silent film, while Tuco does enough talking for all three. The fun of his character is balanced by his sharpness of tongue with his ability to act, especially in a world of stoics.
It’s almost easy for a character to not say much and then do something that let’s you know he’s capable of great feats; but to ramble on and on, saying nothing and everything at the same time then being able to pull off similar achievements is much more difficult to write.
Some critics actually interpret the finale of the film to be symbolic of God and Satan’s final battle; with Tuco and his empty gun representing humanity.
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