For A Few Dollars More

For a Few Dollars More (Per Qualche Dollaro In Piu) (1965)

Runtime: 132 minutes

Directed by: Sergio Leone

Starring: Eastwood, Van Cleef, Gian Maria Volonte, Mario Brega, Luigi Pistilli

From: Several Italian/Spanish/West German companies

I probably don't need to elaborate on why the movie is great, but I'll do it anyhow: 

A discussion I saw online yesterday about the Spaghetti Western genre was another reminder how I should see more of those movies. Incredible English titles like God Does Not Pay on Saturday, Have a Good Funeral, My Friend... Sartana Will Pay and Hey Amigo! A Toast to Your Death sound like must-watches for their names alone. As I rewatched the first movie in the Man With No Name trilogy, this was the perfect opportunity for another flick I hadn't watched in many years. Much to my delight it is still great.

On the surface the story may sound basic: two bounty hunters on their own decide to try and collect the huge bounty on the head of El Indio, a bandit that was just broken out of prison. The movie is a lot more than that. The bounty hunters are shown to be awesome... not just because they were Clint Eastwood and Lee Van Cleef, but in their own ways they each collect a separate bounty on a lesser-ranked foe. Indio (Gian Maria Volonte) is shown to be a formidable foe, and also someone who is willing to do vile things as you see him get revenge on someone. All three characters are tremendous, as are the performances by the men who played them.

The most interesting aspect is that Indio carries around a pocketwatch containing a picture of a young lady and it plays a pleasant tune when open. He uses that several times for purposes of gaining an advantage, but you later discover this locket haunts him due to an event from the past, and it was a fascinating twist to show this evil person also be damaged and tormented by his past.

The movie weaves its way around the story of a plan to rob a heavily fortified bank in El Paso for a great sum of money and its aftermath; again, it's not as simple as it sounds and there are quite a few twists to the story. The sun-baked Spanish desert was a beautiful location to show scenes that were lensed quite well and there is no shortage of memorable moments involving the usage of guns (the finale and the hat-shooting scene are the two best to me), but the Morricone score is legendary, and an important cog in this machine, an important asset of making this film so beloved. As an aside, the theme to the movie was used in The Mexican, a quality tune by the 70's British band Babe Ruth. That has been covered a few times, and two red-hot versions of that are by 80's dance legend Jellybean Benitez and in the late 70's, an astounding funky disco version lasting 12 ½ (!) minutes by the group Bombers.

No matter which part of the trilogy you think is the best, all should be watched and in a vacuum, this has to be one of the tastiest dishes in the Spaghetti Western genre.