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For A Few Dollars More

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by Slyder

"Cementing the roots"

Italian director Sergio Leone and actor Clint Eastwood sensed that they were up to something with A Fistful Of Dollars’ surprising success in Europe due to it’s raw realism, violence and cynical point of view, but it was obvious that the film still lacked a bit of originality due to the fact that Leone essentially ripped off the plot from Akira Kurosawa’s famed classic Yojimbo, so Leone and fellow screenwriter Luciano Vicenzoni started to work on a sequel and voila, For a Few Dollars More appeared. Vastly superior to its predecessor, For a Few Dollars More was of greater scope and depth and Leone’s style was rapidly evolving into a new level which would rewrite the whole formula for Westerns to come.

Two bounty-hunters, a man with no name which goes by the nickname “Manco” (Clint Eastwood) and former Union officer Col. Mortimer (Lee Van Cleef) are going after a notorious psychotic Mexican Bandit called “El Indio” (Gian Maria Volonte). The only problem is that they suddenly realize that they’re in each other’s way, so they team up in order to take Indio down; that is if they don’t kill each other first, or Indio kills them instead.

In this movie, Leone’s style pretty much comes full circle, and with a little bit more budget the film’s production values are a lot better cemented, and once again making the settings of Spain look just like if you were down there near the borders of the US and Mexico, the vision is completely believable. The violence in the movie is as rampant as it was in A Fistful of Dollars although certain scenes are still a bit cartoonish but the goods outweigh the bads this time, with Leone using his trademark close-ups, subjective POV shots and long takes, only that this time it has acquired a certain operatic tone as the dramatic buildup of every shootout is backed by the pulse-pounding music of Ennio Morricone.

Eastwood’s character remains just as cynical as he was in Fistful, and he greatly plays around with his low-key minimalist style approaching a “less is more” ideal but at the same time making his character more subtle. But greatly counterbalancing him are the two supporting players in Volonte’s Indio and Van Cleef’s Mortimer, whom share a dark past and fleshes out their motivations, especially Mortimer’s as you will find out while keep on watching the movie.

A major improvement and a better sequel in almost every respect, For a Few Dollars More is grand entertainment and furthers out even more Leone’s and Eastwood’s revisionist view of the Western genre, but they would outdo themselves in their next release. 4-5

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link directly to this review at http://efilmcritic.com/review.php?movie=1389&reviewer=235
originally posted: 03/18/05 09:06:55

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User Comments

2/26/09 Ken Williams Of the 3 Leone "spaghetti westerns" this one is the real gem of the 3: tense, graphic & fun 5 stars

9/28/07 mr.mike a step up from FFOD 4 stars

3/07/07 David Pollastrini not bad for a spaghetti western 4 stars

7/26/06 Sepi53 Best spaghetti-western! 5 stars

10/11/05 John Lampke Clint & Lee Van Cleef are both awesome 5 stars

8/25/05 Eden The villian overacts and it pales compared to GBU, but very enjoyable 5 stars

3/25/05 Carolyn Rathburn This movie was a little more up to speed for Clint Eastwood and a more injoyable movie 4 stars

3/20/05 Chris Stephens Clint rocks 5 stars

2/22/04 john bale Well directed precursor to G/B/U, Van Cleef steals the show. Kinski tries hard too. 4 stars

12/04/03 Agent Sands (previously Mr. Hat) The Eastwood & Van Cleef bonding subplot is the best part of the sequel. 4 stars

11/29/03 john builds to a fantastic climax - funny, exiting with a great and inventive score 5 stars

9/12/03 R.W. Welch Violence as an art form. Stylish but otherwise routine. 3 stars

11/17/02 Soggy Bottom Boy The watch music bugged the hell out of me. Rest of the movie was well done, but no GB&U. 4 stars

10/24/02 Charles Tatum The best was the third 4 stars

7/19/02 Shams Huque A cool film...2nd film of the trilogy, the 2nd best as well... 5 stars

8/22/01 bdf20 not as good as the 1st one and 3rd but still great 5 stars

11/28/00 Cristopher Revilla good flick 4 stars

5/19/00 tank The best of the trilogy. Excellent stuff. 4 stars

6/15/99 Dylan Vgood. 4 stars

4/15/99 Jon Jackson The watch music is cool, the hat shootout is cool, the whole damn thing is COOL! 5 stars

IF YOU'VE SEEN THIS FILM, RATE IT!
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USA 02-Jan-1970 (PG-13) UK N/A Australia 15-Feb-2004

Directed by Sergio Leone Written by Sergio Leone Luciano Vincenzoni Cast Clint Eastwood Lee Van Cleef Gian Maria Volonté Mara Krup Luigi Pistilli Klaus Kinski

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