Recent Reviews for For a Few Dollars More
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MCT:August 7, 2008Two rival bounty hunters form a shaky alliance to capture a wanted bandit. This is yet another western times based film starring Clint Eastwood. Simillar to the other western films like The Good, The Bad and The Ugly. The cast members for this film including Clint Eastwood were amazing. Could of been made better than this though. The only problem is that their is too much talking in this film but it still had action scenes in it from time to time.
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MCT:August 6, 2008Sergio Leone's For a Few Dollars More is the "sequel" to A Fistful of Dollars and the second film in the Man With No Name Trilogy. This film, which does not have anything to do with the first film so it's not really a true sequel, tells the story of two bounty hunters. After killing a couple criminals and collecting a few small bounties, there is an enormous bounty that they both want to get. While they're enemies at first, they decide the best strategy is to team up. One of the main parts of the film centers around a bank robbery in El Paso, TX and the two bounty hunters attempt to use this to capture the criminals. Overall, the plot is pretty good but not great. For just about the last 20 minutes or so right at the end the plot is kind of confusing, but this confusion is erased with the ending. A second viewing and the film would probably make more sense, but even with this confusion it isn't too bad.
The film stars Clint Eastwood as the man with no name along with Lee Van Cleef as his partner. Other than Eastwood and Van Cleef, all of the actors are foreign mostly from Spain and Italy. As appears to be typical for a western, there isn't much in the way of dialogue and none of the roles are terribly demanding of the actors. What little acting is required isn't bad, but there really isn't much to say about the acting. Eastwood's character is kind of cool, but that's about it.
This film's score is somewhat noticeable. The music is by Ennio Morricone who also did the music for every Leone film save his first one. The music in both films I have seen is quite good and feels pretty western.
Overall, this is a pretty typical spaghetti western. It's got plenty of shooting, a fairly simple plot, and characters with little depth or backstory. People who don't like westerns likely won't find any redeeming qualities in this film, but western fans will probably enjoy it.
74/100
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UP NEXT: The last of the trilogy with The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly. -
MCT:July 29, 2008For a Few Dollars More is a definite improvement on A Fistful of Dollars. In regards to just this film, it is on the same level as Once Upon a Time in the West containing great music, an interesting storyline and some amazing gunfights.
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MCT:July 26, 2008
I bought the Leone' set for The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly (and, technically, for Duck, You Sucker!, just so I could say that I owned it.)
I have been waiting to watch The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly for some time now. That's one of those Western classics that I'm ashamed that I never sat down and caught. But being the completist that I am, I have to watch everything in the proper order. I don't know why I have to do it. All I know is that my brain tells me that the movie will be better if I watch it in due time and have a little patience. The thing is, I didn't want to sit through this movie. I enjoyed A Fistful of Dollars well enough. I mean, I'll always be a bigger Yojimbo fan, so that movie will always be somewhat hindered. But this is the first in the Man with No Name trilogy that is an original story. (As far as I know. There's quite a few movies out there.) I can't say that it is swimming in originality, but it is certainly a very cool film.
The thing that really makes this movie is that the Man with No Name isn't the be all, end all of kickassery. I mean, sure, he gets his ass handed to him at one point in the first film. It had to happen. It happened to Yojimbo as well, so I simply expected it. But this one, there's someone out there who is better than the Man with No Name. That's an interesting concept because as cool as the character is and you are ready for, he's fallible. He can be better and that's a heck of an idea. What's funny is that every time you introduce a character who is better than the protagonist, dollars to pecos says that character is going to be the antagonist. I was actually kind of expecting a montage training sequence where the Man had to learn to be a better shooter. On top of the whole difference between these two characters is that the new guy makes the Man look like a rank amateur. The Man comes off almost like a child compared to the craftiness of the new guy. That's a balsy move. I mean, new guy didn't have his own badass theme song, did he?
The reason why this one might be the least famous is because of some of the repetetive themes found throughout. There are a couple of scenes where I felt like I was watching A Fistful of Dollars. I can understand Leone's situation here. I'm sorry I keep having to bring up another film in this, but I imagine this is like writing another sequel to Yojimbo. There were plenty in the Yojimbo series, but he had to take the character in a different direction than Kurosawa's character while still maintaining the spirit of the original character. Honestly, I wouldn't say that these scenes are that much of an issue, but there's definitely a bit of padding added to this movie.
Reviewing all of these Westerns like I have been doing recently is actually pretty challenging. I find that Westerns shouldn't be really considered a genre, but perhaps a subgenre. Really, the Western is more of a setting than it is a plot because you can have any number of genres within a Western. This one is definitely an action / espionage story placed inside of a Western environment. THe entire film, you are following these characters through their plans to bring in these wanted men. It's interesting that Leone outright defines the Man as a bounty killer. I understand that he is an antihero in this movie, but the first film places him in a very noble, heroic situation. Now he is still doing something right, but he is clearly influenced by money. I think that the choice was made to make him a bounty killer is because of the West's idea of what a samurai is. A samurai was normally seen as almost the opposite of ninja. But samurais only worked for money or glory as well, so Leone had to adapt his Western character for that mentality.
A great smaller casting in this movie Klaus Kinski as the hunchbacked-henchman. I don't know why they gave him a hunch. Really, there was no need for it. But I guess they wanted to make Klaus Kinski look even more balls crazy than he does already. He's always a treat to see in movies and he doesn't disappoint. What I was really amazed by was his lack of screentime. So the Italians were directing Americans and Germans at the same time. Not too shabby.
Maybe it was because my expectations were so low, but I really enjoyed this movie. It is not ashamed of what it is and gives quite the punch. The most amazing part is that they make this impossible quest to take out fourteen members of a gang and before you know it, you realize there's only one dude left. Very fun stuff and probably actually (sadly) one of the better Spaghetti Westerns. -
MCT:July 23, 2008
The continuation of the trilogy goes a bit deeper pschologically I think with good characterizations and good gunfights and standoffs with the added level that Lee Van Cleef brings. The tick of that hand watch really was something to boot. This might have one of my favorite themes in the trilogy. The main theme for it by Ennio Morricone just great.
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MCT:July 14, 2008The man with no name has a little competition in the bounty hunting business. They eventually become partners on this Sergio Leone's classic.
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MCT:July 13, 2008Perfect combination of Leone's directing and Morricone's score. Good story with great acting performances.
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MCT:July 12, 2008
Clint Eastwood partners with Lee Van Cleef to get a ransom for a bandit who has a personal connection to Van Cleef.
Directed by Sergio Leone. -
MCT:July 5, 2008
This is my favourate out of the three Leone classics. This one seems to have tougher characters then the other two films. The bad guy is as insane as usual. Lee Van Cleef is awsome but i did enjoy him playing Angel Eyes in " The Good, The Bad & the Ugly " more.
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MCT:June 27, 2008thank goodness for Eastwood and Van Cleef's badassness, not to mention their English-speaking abilities. spaghetti westerns make me laugh with their god-awful dubbing. the splot seemed a little more laid back from Fistful, but the personal link between Mortimer and Indio was excellent compensation. overall pretty melodramatic without the usual Western get-up-and-go, but it's still a memorable and influential classic.
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MCT:June 26, 2008
A classic spaghetti western part of the launching pad for Clint's career. Not a great flick in many ways but who care.
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MCT:June 16, 2008
The spaghetti westerns set the cliches, and therefore are not at fault for them. So much is said with so few words.
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MCT:June 6, 2008
Sergio Leone's sequel to A Fistful of Dollars remains faithful to the Leone style, but in a broader spectrum than the previous film. Clint Eastwood returns as the Man with No Name (named Manko) and Gian Maria Volonte rises from the dead and plays a villain that is even more psychotic than his portrayal of Ramon in Fistful. The welcome addition to the cast is Lee Van Cleef as Col. Mortimer, a man who appears to be a competitor with Eastwood in the bounty hunter business, but has a more personal vendetta in hunting down Volonte. The supporting cast is also great including a short appearance by the devilish Klaus Kinski as the hunchback that Mortimer torments in the middle of the picture.
For A Few Dollars More was the next step in Leone's odyssey to create and operatic western epic (which would be Once Upon A Time In The West). The vastness has grown and the characters have grown from Leone's first film in the Dollars trilogy. It's the classic story of the elder taking the youth under his wing but with the Italian twist. Another classic from Sergio Leone. -
MCT:May 20, 2008
"The man with no name" returns in this sequel to A Fistful of dollars in which he forms an uneasy alliance with another bounty hunter to kill the head of an outlaw gang while they hatch a scheme to rob the most heavily guarded bank in the territory. For A Few Dollars More is not considered the best of the series by many, but I personally prefer it to the (damn good) original at least. It feels far more like a true Leone film, is better paced and boasts not one but three commanding presences in the form of Clint, Lee Van Cleef's steely eyed and clinical assassin, and Gian Maria Volonte's sinister bandit. The interplay between the three is fantastic and there are many classic Leone moments including his trademark framing of weathered, characterful faces against epic landscapes. There is more depth to the story as the heist and undercover elements involve layers of deceit and betrayal leading to an extremely atmospheric finale. Add to that Ennio Morricone's score which is once again wonderfully memorable and you have all the ingredients for an all time classic western.
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MCT:May 18, 2008
Seconde partie de son illustre trilogie avec Clint Eastwood. Plus complexe au niveau du scénario que son prédécesseur. Leone prend plus de chances, tout en conservant la formule qui a fait le succès du premier volet. De vastes déserts, des villages hostiles et poussiéreux, des fusillades violentes, des personnages sans foi ni loi. Je pense qu'il est inutile de mentionner qu'au niveau de l'ambiance dans ce type de films, Leone est un maître. C'est superbement bien tourné et les acteurs sont parfaits pour leurs rôles.
La seule chose qui a fini par me taper sur les nerfs, c'est que le personnage de Eastwood se la joue tellement que ça en devient parfois risible, voire presque lourd. On se lasse un peu de le voir allumer lentement son cigare avant de tirer et de supporter ses longues pauses entre chaque ligne de dialogue. Et bien que la trame sonore de Morricone soit très efficace, certains petits effets sonores un peu cocasses ont mal vieillis. Ces légères critiques mises à part, il s'agit tout de même d'un très bon film. -
MCT:May 15, 2008
The court room scene between Jack Nickelson and Tom Cruise was the most intense scene I have seen in years
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MCT:May 9, 2008
Clint Eastwood and Lee Van Cleef are so great in this movie, but the ending could of been a bit more complete feeling.
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MCT:May 5, 2008
En film som känns att den har en egen genre i Western. Den har allt en Westernrulle ska ha, och lite mer därtill.
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MCT:May 5, 2008
Goddammit! The man with no name is back and it's got even better than the first time around.
Clint Eastwood and Lee Van Cleef form probably one of the greatest partnership in the entire history of film making. Fucking loved it. These guys are so fucking badass. It's like they could kill a guy just with those mysterious looks alone.
Loved the great soundtrack by Ennio Morricone, and Sergio Leone just got promoted to my favourite directors list.
Bow down to one of the greatest Westerns of all time. Never thought I'd see a Western as good as Unforgiven, but this is definitely as good if not even better. -
MCT:May 3, 2008FOR A FEW DOLLARS MORE (1965)
directed by Sergio Leone
starring Clint Eastwood, Lee Van Cleef, Gian Maria VolontèClint Eastwood is back as the Man with No Name - even if he has one - in the second chapter of the Dollars Trilogy. He is still in it for the money as his character is now a bounty killer looking for a wanted bandit. Another boutny killer like him crosses his path and they will team up together, except that one is in it for more than just money, its personal.The film begins with the introduction of this new character, played very effectively by Lee Van Cleef, he is a good shot. He aint quick but can shot as far as he want and never miss target. Eastwood, just like in the previous film, is very laid back and give a fun emotionless performance.
Sergio Leone's direction is one step further than in A Fistful of Dollars in terms of style. Lots of great wide shot and close-ups. One scene has a duel between the main bad guy and another man. Leone build the supsense slowly with a wide shot and comes closer to the character with wise editing and great music by Ennio Morricone.
The themes are similar here, nothing too deep though even if with get some veangence and also some sweeter stuff. The characters our drawn with a bold pen but they never move out of the way and stay true to themselves whice makes them more realistic despite missing deeper psychology.
For a Few Dollars More is a fun western, with some cool twists, lots of humor and a great soundtrack.
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MCT:April 19, 2008
My favorite Sergio Leone film. Pound for pound it just gives you the most cool stuff. I like Lee Van Cleef actually playing a good guy, too.
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MCT:April 18, 2008
This movie was a good one. I just don't like it that they use the same villians in it....and with different names....
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MCT:April 14, 2008
A magnificent follow-up that's practically in a whole world of its own. To a certain extent, it rivals 'The Good, the Bad and the Ugly' - 'Bravo'!
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MCT:March 30, 2008
Great soundtrack, clint and lee van cliff at thair very best. Oh and I Love the three person standoffs at the finale.
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MCT:February 5, 2008
Definitely a must see for anyone who enjoys western films. In my opinion, better than A Fistful of Dollars, yet not as good as The Good, The Bad & The Ugly.
