I was in my local Blockbusters looking for a film to past an evening, when I came across For a Few Dollars More DVD in their sale at the grand price of £3.50. A bargain I thought, and I mossied up to the till paid my cash and returned to the homestead.
This film is part of the Dollars trilogy, the first was A Fistful of Dollars, the second was For a Few Dollars More and the final one was The Good, The Bad and The Ugly, each one directed by Sergio Leone. Before these films, Sergio Leone was an unknown director, but these films made him into a household name, linking him to this type of western in many people’s minds. These kinds of Western became know as Spaghetti Westerns, because most of them were financed by Italian companies, and shot in either Italy or Spain.
The films also made a star of a little known actor at the time, but he was not the first choice for the role.
Sergio Leone wanted Henry Fonda to play the lead role, but at the time his film company thought playing this role would damage his image as the clean cut upright American, so they refused to release him. Therefore, the part went to Clint Eastwood to play the part of the man with no name, and an icon was born.
Anyway, to the film, For a Few Dollars More, the DVD is the uncut full-length widescreen feature version. The film was released in 1965, and is 2 hours and 6 minutes long, colour but with mono sound. Screenplay by Luciano Vincezoni, directed by Sergio Leone, music by Ennio Morricone and produce by Alberto Grimaldi. The extras are the usual interactive menu and chapter search, English or French soundtrack, subtitles, and the original theatrical trailer, not a great deal to be honest.
While at first it seems to be the classic western, cowboys and big guns, it was actually base on Akira Kurosawa's samurai epic Yojimbo. This is not that unusual, as the Magnificent Seven is a western remake of the classic Seven Samurai, and it as been claimed that the idea of the Seven Samurai is based on old western movies, thus completing the circle.
The films main stars are Clint Eastwood who plays the bounty hunter Mango, otherwise known as the man with no name. Lee Van Cleef who plays Colonel Mortimer, a bounty hunter with a face like a weasel but with the bite of a rattlesnake. Gian Maria Volonte who plays the notorious bandit El Indio, who enjoys killing people to the sound of a pocket watch that plays a simple tune.
The basic plot of the film is that Clint Eastwood and Lee Van Cleef track down Gian Maria Volonte, for the reward money. While this is the basic plot, there is a sub plot involving Lee Van Cleef and Gian Maria Volonte, which develops during the film, and only at the end do you get to understand the important of the pocket watch throughout the film. The use of the pocket watch during the gun battles between the opponents is brilliant , waiting for the musical pocket watch to finish playing to start shooting at each other. This is very powerful because there is such an emotional wind-up to the draw, and it seems to take a long time to happen. The final gun battle at the end of the film is still one of the great endings to any western. Tarantino was to use these ideas in later films, which borrowed very heavily from Sergio Leone, and the Japanese samurai epics.
For me what makes this film is the interaction between Clint Eastwood and Lee Van Cleef, both playing killers, not much better then the people they are hunting. For me Lee Van Cleef plays the part of a cowboy just as well as Clint Eastwood, but seems to have been over-shadowed by the Eastwood part.
Another thing, which makes this film brilliant from the start, is Ennio Morricone musical score. His hoof beat rhythms, whistling themes, and the use of the human voice as an instrument became the standard for the scores to follow, and adds to the tension of the film.
While the film is brilliant and worth watching, it let down in some places by the poor dubbing of the voices, which means that sometimes it is a little out of synch, but the picture quality is good.
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Production Year: 1971 - Westerns - Director: Pasquale Squitieri - Original Language: English - Classification: Parental Guidance - Starring: Leonard Mann, Ivan Rassimov, Stefan Zacharias, Klaus Kinski
Client Eastwood had proven so successful in his first foray into European Westerns with A ... more
Fistful Of Dollars that a follow up sequel was inevitable. Superbly scripted by Luciano Vincenzoni, Featuring an unforgettable alliance between ruthless gun-sling...
Clint Eastwood had proven so successful in his first foray into European Westerns with A ... more
Fistful Of Dollars that a follow up sequel was inevitable. Superbly scripted by Luciano Vincenzoni featuring an unforgettable alliance between ruthless gun-slinge...
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![For A Few Dollars More [DVD] [1965]](http://picnicb.ciao.com/uk/78530991.jpg "For A Few Dollars More [DVD] [1965]")
Jul 30th, 2004
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