For a Few Dollars More - Review

It's the second installment of the ¨Dollars trilogy¨ along with ¨ For a handful of dollars¨ and ¨The good ,the bad and the ugly¨ with Eastwood as ¨Man with no name¨. The epitome of the SW is violent, beautifully crafted and exaggerated , it pits crafty ¨Man with no name¨ though named Manco (Clint Eastwood) and shifty Colonel Mortimer (Lee Van Cleef as old man , however in reality Clint was already 35 and Lee only 40 when was filmed ) forming an uneasy alliance against badder guy named Indio (Gian Maria Volonte ) but their reasons to pursuit him are totally different . The bounty hunter gunslingers reluctantly join forces pitting the psychotic outlaw who uses twisted means to chase them and terminates in a deadly feud. ¨Man with no name¨ is helped by the old prophet (Joseph Egger who also appeared as gravedigger in For a handful of dollars).

This classic original Western contains slow and deliberating filming , taciturn acting on cynical characters, sense of style , elaborate shoot-outs , and portentous close-ups of grime-encrustred faces with bloodbaths including high body-count as total kill count: 30, though two of the murders were heard, but not shown . Unforgettable scenes as when Lee Van Cleef fires a match on the back of the hunchback Klaus Kinski , the spectacular final duel , and many others . The impact of this Spaghetti opened the gate for the huge numbers of Italian-Spaniard Western which made fortune for their producers and directors in the sixties and early seventies . The trilogy made Eastwood an international star previously better-known for his running character in TV series ¨Rawhide¨. Leone did revive his career almost instantly on the strength of these films . All of Eastwood's later Western and his ¨Dirty Harry¨ movies owe a considerable debt to Leone. Furthermore appear Leone's habitual secondaries acting as ominous hoodlums such as Mario Brega , Benito Stefanelli , Aldo Sambrell , Antonio Molino Rojo, Lorenzo Robledo, Jose Canalejas , Frank Braña , among them.

Ennio Morricone's musical score is terrific with sensational compositions blending human voice, guitar and buzzing harmonica, the atonal soundtrack has been imitated and copied thousand times . Excellent production design by Carlo Simi , Leone's usual and cinematography by Massimo Dallamano is fascinating . ¨For a few dollars more ¨was filmed in acceptable budget during several weeks in location on austere outdoors of Golden City (Sierra of Madrid), Hoyo De Manzanares , Colmenar Viejo, Madrid , and Almeria : Albaricoques and Tabernas ; besides interiors located on Cinecitta Roman studios . This quintessential 'Spaguetti' originated great influence of wide range in Western and changed the face of the genre . It was such a good picture that had a great success , it expanded in a flood of Italian/Spanish Westerns, but none hold a candle to Leone's masterpiece . The ¨trilogy of the dollars ¨ is followed by ¨ Once upon a time in West¨and ¨Duck you sucker¨. For Leone enthusiasts with his usual trademarks , it's full of which made his films so memorable, others might find it a bit long but no one can deny its sense of style what achieved a great burst of world-wide popularity .