One (Clint Eastwood) wants the bounty on his head.
The other (Lee Van Cleef) just wants his head.
Lately, I have been getting back into Italian genre cinema. As a teen, I fell into researching the horror, spaghetti western and gialli films of the mid-Twentieth Century.
After reviewing a couple of Mario Bava movies, I was in the mood to expand my horizons.
Last month, my local cinema played all three Dollars movies. I had only seen Fistful, so it seemed like the perfect opportunity to see them the way they were meant to be seen.
Watching the parts of the Dollars trilogy on the big screen a week apart I thought it could add to the film’s impact.
‘Due to technical issues, the screening of Fistful of Dollars was cancelled and then re-scheduled to play before For A Few Dollars More.
I have not had good luck with double/triple bills. I fell asleep during the Tetsuo movies, and I flat-out had to leave midway through my last double bill because I knew I would not make it through the second movie.
It is a testament to the movies that I did not need to do that this time.
I think about Fistful of Dollars in the same terms as James Bond - from modest beginnings to something genre-defining and massive in scope and influence.
I watched this movie years ago but had never gone back.
Weirdly, I have more familiarity with the spaghetti westerns which followed its template: Sergio Corbucci’s Django and Giulio Questi’s Django Kill! (If You Live, Shoot!).
Fistful is the template those movies are riffing off of, so it always felt a little familiar and understated compared with the films I mentioned.
Another shadow over this movie is Yojimbo, the movie it is a remake of. I watched that film for the first time last year, and it is still fresh in my mind.
I appreciate how it relies on pure visual storytelling, its sense of humour (the gag about coffins). The low budget is an asset - the isolated, stripped-down settling adds to the sense of societal breakdown.
Eastwood’s ‘Joe’ is cool and calculating, always weighing up the odds to avoid sticking his neck out. Meanwhile, Gian Maria Volente is a great antagonist.
I think why I do not fall under the movie’s spell comes down to taste - Fistful is more solemn than Yojimbo - I missed the great beat where the family our hero saved sticks around and he has to physically force them to escape.
While I appreciate Fistful, I flat-out love For A Few Dollars More.
I had never seen this movie before, and watching it right after Fistful was instructive.
Out of Kurosawa’s shadow and not wedded to an established plot, you immediately get a sense of confidence and expanding vision.
A sign of the filmmaker’s confidence is how funny the movie is - the dialogue is terse and ironic, while Leone throws in plenty of visual gags (the image of the gunman with a half-shaved face is inspired).
So much of the film’s emotion and subtext is conveyed without relying on dialogue.
Colonel Mortimer’s (Van Cleef) motive is conveyed purely through his fixation on El Indio’s poster - intercutting between the word ‘dead’ and his eyes as bullets discharge on the soundtrack.
The filmmaking combined with Van Cleef’s minimalist performance builds in emotional intensity as the movie progresses.
The opposite of his performance in Fistful, Gian Carlo Volente is a force of nature as El Indio. Drugged out, both cunning and out of control, he seems haunted by the death of Mortimer’s sister. Once again, most of our sense of his internal state is implied through visual storytelling.
Volente’s vulnerable, open, energetic performance is perfectly juxtaposed with Eastwood’s aloof professionalism and Van Cleef’s simmering rage.
The contrast between the bounty-hunters is even more fascinating: old/young, hi-technology versus traditional gunslinging, methodical planning versus improvisation.
It is a testament to the film’s sense of visual storytelling that it manages to make these two performers - with a similar sense of emotional restraint - appear to be more fleshed-out, vulnerable heroes.
The ending is perfect - the blending of the two locket chimes, the final reveal of the connection between El Indio and Mortimer. The emotion of their duel is so potent I wish they never had Mortimer explain what his connection to the girl was.
Packing memorable characters, a great sense of humour, and understated emotional impact, For A Few Dollars More is a great movie.
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