Made in 1965 this is the second instalment of Sergio Leone's classic spaghetti western'Dollars' trilogy sarted in 1964 with 'A Fistful of Dollars' and featuring Clint Eastwood as the 'man with no name'.

***BACKGROUND***

After the success of 'Fistful of Dollars' (previously reviewed 29.11.01) Leone embarked on a follow-up, not exactly a sequel, with a bigger budget of $600,000 and greater ambition. Eastwood was re-hired to again play the role of 'the stranger' the man with no name, for a fee of $50,000, a Ferrari and a share of the film's takings. Gian Maria Volonte who had almost stolen the show in 'Fistful' playing the evil gunslinger Ramon Rojo was back to play a pot smoking villain, Indio.
The original working title for the film was 'Two Magnificent Strangers' and Leone initially wanted Lee Marvin to play Col Mortimer, the second 'stranger' but Marvin was unavailable due to his commitment to filming 'Cat Ballou'. Leone then turned to a B movie actor Lee van Cleef, that he remembered playing various baddies in low budget westerns. Van Cleef had been ill for many years and had just come out of hospital; he had been out of work for some time. Leone met him and was immediately impressed by van Cleef's looks, 'a man who could give you a profile while staring directly at you'. Leone knew he had the actor perfect for the role.

Even after the success of 'Fistful' the studio was still worried about the idea of an Italian western. Just as they had done in the first film they changed the names of the Italian actors and the director to American aliases to lead the audience to think that this was really an 'American western'. Leone was credited as Bob Robertson and Volonte as John Wels. The outdoor sequences were filmed in the sesert regions of Spain and the interior at the Cinecitta studios in Rome.

***CAST***

Clint Eastwood?The Man with No Name (Manco)
Lee Van Cleef?Colonel Douglas Mortimer
Gian Maria Volonté... El Indio
Mario Brega?Nino
Klaus Kinski? Juan, the Hunchback
Joseph Egger?Old Prophet
Luigi Pistilli... Groce

***THE PLOT ***(some spoilers)

At the beginning of the film we are introduced to the two main characters in turn. The 'Man With No Name' paradoxically known as 'Manco' and Col Mortimer. Both are bounty hunters and from the first few scenes in the film we know that they are both adept at their job as we see them gunning down villains and bagging their rewards. We next meet Indio a ruthless 'bandido' who is sprung out of jail by his gang. Again there is no room for doubt that this man is evil when we see him kill his cellmate just before escaping. The reward for Indio's capture now increased to $10,000 and both bounty hunters want to catch him.

At this point we are made aware of some connection between Mortimer and Indio. The both seem to own the same kind of chiming watches and these hold a very special meaning to both men. We see Indio in a drug-crazed state remembering some event in his past involving a woman as he listened to the sound of the watch chimes.

While in prison Indio has learnt from his cell mate, a cabinet maker, that the safe holding all the money at the notorious El Paso Bank is hidden in a wooden cabinet and that the main safe in the bank is merely a decoy. Since the bank is said to hold over a million dollars it becomes an irresistible target for Indio and his gang. Col Mortimer and Manco independently guess that this will be Indio's next target and both head for El Paso.

In El Paso Mortimer and Manco become aware of each other and at first try to scare each other off. Eventually they decide that working together they might stand a better chance of cashing in the reward. Their plan is for Manco to infiltrate the gang to find out when they plan the robbery. Manco springs another of Indio's men from prison to get in with them. Partially accepted as part of the gang but not totally trusted Manco is sent with three other men to a nearby town to rob a bank and create a diversion. There he kills the gang members with him and then returns to El Paso to meet up with Mortimer. They hope to catch Indio as he robs the bank, however Indio outwits them and steal the safe. Mortimer now introduces himself to the gang, as an explosives expert needed to open the safe without destroying the money inside. He opens the safe for them and then Indio hides the money away until the heat over the robbery has died down.

Trying to retrieve the money Manco and Mortimer are caught by Indio he has them beaten up but doesn't kill them. He then releases them telling the rest of the gang that they have stolen the money. He hopes that his men and the bounty hunters will kill themselves off and he can keep all the loot. Things don't go quite to plan and in the final scenes Indio comes up against Mortimer while Manco fights the rest of the gang.

***THEMES***

In Leone's view of the 'Old West' the main motivation for men's actions was money, not as money to spend on goods but money as a prize in itself. In more traditional views of the west money had to be earned or stolen to buy property, cattle, the well worn cliché is of the gunfighter who longs to make one last big deal so he can settle down buy a ranch and raise a family. In Leone's films money is there to be worshipped it is an end in itself. The character of the 'Man with no name' returns in this film still wandering from town to town, now a bounty hunter still killing for a living. Leone is making a point about the value of money in this kind of society and how that equates to the value of life-

'Where life had no value death, sometimes, had a price'

This could be seen as criticism of the lack of morality present in a totally capitalist society, an extreme version of the US in general.

In this film compared to 'A Fistful of Dollars' we are presented with a more complex plot structure. The Eastwood character is still the mysterious stranger that we met in the first film, his motivation again seems clear, money and catching Indio and his gang is they way he can achieve his goal. However this time he has a rival the older Col Mortimer.
Right from the beginning Mortimer as a character has more depth than Manco. We know that he is ex-military and from his manner a well to do gentleman. We also get a clue to his past from the picture of the woman in his pocket watch. We don't know what the relationship is between them but we soon realise that she was very close to him and that she is dead. We guess that Mortimer's hunt for Indio is more personal than professional, vengeance becomes a powerful motive for killing just as the acquisition of money is.

Leone had a keen knowledge of traditional Sicilian puppet theatre 'the Puparri' and he used the stories and themes seen in these shows as inspiration for his westerns including 'For a Few Dollars More'. He saw many similarities between these marionette shows and the traditional western stories. The details and locations obviously differed but the adventure described were in essence the same. Just as in the puppet shows the elements are linear the action taking place in the main street rather like a stage and the story is encapsulated in short episodes that eventually build up to a climax set piece. The character of 'the man with no name' is pivotal to the dollars trilogy and can be seen as being equivalent to the 'trickster' character in the marionette shows or a Harlequin figure of the traditional theatre. He is devoid of history and has no relationships; he never makes any moral political or social choices. The act of vengeance that Col Mortimer is seeking also perfectly ties in with Sicilian tradition.

Leone set up a strong contrast between Manco and Mortimer, Manco is young, scruffilly dressed with less of a moral outlook on life, Mortimer is older wiser and immaculately turned out. These will make unlikely allies and this fact adds to the dynamic of the story. There is a memorable sequence were the two men meet for the first time and decide to out do each other by showing off their shooting prowess in the street. Manco shoots Mortimer's hat off his head and each time Mortimer tries to pick it up he shoots it further down the street. Eventually the hat is out of range and Mortimer calmly picks it up and places it on his head, he then proceeds to get his more powerful hand gun out and shoots Manco's hat off and keeps it in the air by repeated shots. This scenes sets up the men's credentials as gunfighters and gives them mutual respect for each other although trust still doesn't exist between them. Taking in to account that this film was made in the late 60's a time when youth culture was going head to head against the older establishment this relationship between the two men resonates very well with audiences at the time. The uneasy alliance can be seen as a sort of father son relationship, Manco constantly referring to Mortimer as 'Old Man'.

Indio is also an interesting creation, on the surface he is a psychotic villain but again there is considerable depth to the character, more so than we are used to seeing in traditional westerns. He smokes pot and seems to be haunted by an event in his past. In a neat touch he also blesses hi gun with holy water before he kills people.

One final point to note is the lack of relationships between any of the characters. Everyone is alone in this film even within the gang the camaraderie is only on the surface Indio betrays without any regrets his men including Nino who he seems very close to. Even the friendship between Manco and Mortimer is borne out of necessity and convenience nothing more. Leone to some extent symbolises this isolation of the characters by using the scenes of the desert at the beginning and end of the film. The films itself can be seen to be an instant in time, a story which is isolated in both time and space and has no connection to the wider world. The result is a portrayal of the west as a very brutal, immoral place a time without honour in stark contrast with the Hollywood westerns of the 50's.

***WHY IS IT SO GOOD?***

With 'For a Few Dollars More' Leone expanded his vision of the old west. It is noticeable in the film how Leone draws a much sharper contrast between the big outdoor spaces and the almost claustrophobic indoor scenes. The trademark close ups, and odd slanted camera angles are still in evidence, at times the characters seem to communicate with just menacing looks and grunts. The scenes are often, melodramatic and the use of Morricone idiosyncratic soundtrack transforms the film in to an operatic vision of the colonial west.

Leone is technically more experimental in this film. There is rapid cross cutting at certain points most notably when we move to and from Indio's wanted poster and a close up of Col Mortimer's eyes, gunshots firing in the background in time with the movement. In the sequences showing Indio's pot-induced memories or illusions (we don't know for sure until the end) the scenes are shot through a red filter. This serves to some extent to disguise the violence of the rape and murder of the young woman but also adds an ethereal feel to the images that obviously are meant to complement Indio's drugged state.

The film is full of brilliantly structured and realised set piece scenes, the shooting contest between Manco and Mortimer, the confrontation inn the cantina as Mortimer lights his pipe on the Hunchback's (Klaus Kinsky) back and the tense final shoot out.
Ennio Morricone's musical score is as usual right in the forefront of the film. It powerfully interacts directly with the action rather then being purely in the background. This is best illustrated in the use of the simple but haunting melody that the pocket watch plays in the final showdown between Mortimer and Indio. This is a trick that Leone later adapted in 'Once Upon a Time In The West' using the sound of a mouth harmonica.

The film is a tribute to Leone's ability to bring together the essential elements of the western genre and to adapt them to reflect the pervading influences and attitudes of the time. By incorporating into the story a feel of the general atmosphere of anti establishment and rebellion within youth culture present in the mid to late 60's he was able to create a new form of the western one which was more brutal, cynical and visually realistic than it's predecessors. This new form of western was to be copied not only by other makers of spaghetti westerns but eventually by the American directors. The western as a film genre was in decline in the early sixties and thanks to Leone's re-invention it once again surfaced in the late sixties and beyond as a popular film form.

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© Mauri 2002