Spaghetti, Anyone? For A Few Dollars More

This is one of the three movies that put "Rawhide’s" Clint Eastwood on the map as a major motion picture star. For that reason, it is well worth seeing. In my opinion, it is the better of the three, the other two being Director Sergio Leone’s "A Fistful of Dollars" and overlong "The Good, the Bad, & the Ugly."

The movie features three principal characters; Eastwood’s "Manco, Col. Douglas Mortimer," (Lee Van Cleef), and "Indio" (Gian Maria Volonte). The first two are bounty hunters who ally to hunt the third man, the villain "Indio."

From the opening credits, with cheesy sixties-style graphics, and a faintly Elmer Bernsteinesque accompaniment by Ennio Morricone, the movie screams "low bucks." Eastwood is the tall, laconic, chain-smoking antihero with the silver cobra inlaid into the grip on his Colt 45. According to Hollywood lore, Eastwood had packed up his "Rawhide" six-shooter and holster and set off for sunny Spain to make films with Director Leone. Billed in the trailers as "The Man With No Name," Clint was called "Manco" in this one. Basically reprising his performance from the earlier "Fistful of Dollars," he wore the same greenish-brown poncho, same hat, same stubbly beard, and smoked the same cigarillos. The characterization established Eastwood as a major box office favorite and allowed him to expand into more prestigious projects back in Hollywood. "Colonel Mortimer" (Van Cleef) is a kindly older man who is a deadly shot with his assortment of weapons he keeps rolled up in his saddle blanket. Underneath the civility he is very tough. He strikes a match on the back of bandit "Hunchback’s" neck. Later Hunchback (Klaus Kinski) confronts Mortimer, daring him to do it again. Mortimer’s response is, "I generally don’t smoke until after I’ve eaten. Why don’t you come back in five minutes?"

The third major character, villain "Indio" is totally without redeeming social qualities. He makes a spellbinding figure as he uses his pocketwatch to lead up to various killings. In a flashback it is revealed that "Indio" raped "Mortimer’s" sister long ago, thus providing a revenge motive for the colonel... but what of "Manco?" The enigmatic Eastwood is motivated by the money, pure and simple.

Sergio Leone directed his film using wide-angle shots of the desolate, sparsely populated West. The West looks a good deal more bleak and dirty through the lens of Leone’s camera. The acting is quite minimalist, actually, with Van Cleef giving the most evocative performance but Eastwood’s iconic "Man With No Name" became his bread and butter for many years. The sound effects are totally false to the sound of real gunfire. The most unique aspect of the film is the use of music to heighten the suspense and tension, notably in the pocket-watch sequences.

In all, "For a Few Dollars More" was a groundbreaking effort in the deconstruction of the classic Western movie, along with "High Noon" and "Winchester ’73," but viewed in the cold light of reason I cannot consider it to be in the same class as "The Wild Bunch, The Searchers, Red River," or "The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance."

For those who prefer their Westerns gritty and spare, I highly recommend the "Dollars Trilogy" "Once Upon a Time in the West," "The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance," and "The Gunfighter."