For a Few Dollars More

In the second of Sergio Leone’s unofficial Dollars trilogy, Clint Eastwood returns to the role of the quiet, humble and heroically tough loner, but this time round he is known as Manco. In ‘For a Few More Dollars,’ Manco becomes a Bounty Hunter on the trail of a notorious outlaw known as El Indiano, (Gian Maria Volonte), who with the help of his gang are spreading carnage throughout El Paso. On his way to finding this Out-law, Manco comes across Mortimer, (Lee Van Cleef), whom he initially clashes with. But after a while the two get together in an alliance to take down the vicious Indiano once and for all.

For a Few More Dollars, is definitely a more action-packed venture than it’s predecessor, A Fistful of Dollars with a slightly more twisted, yet actually more coherent plot. The highlight of the film is without doubt the equally brilliant performances, from not just Eastwood but the entire cast as a whole including Lee Van Cliff, who has amazing on-screen chemistry with Clint Eastwood. Enrico Morricone’s score is just as stunningly and beautifully performed as it was in the first film. The movie has a far greater visual appeal, which may have something to do with the fact that the budget was increased three-fold.

Now with all that being said there are still problems with this film. Much like the first film, For a Few Dollars is still very slow and drawn out and the opening title isn’t bright, colourful or creative as it was in the first film. It’s bland, uninteresting and doesn’t fit particularly well with the rest of the film, in contrast to the last 20 minutes of Fistful, which was one of the best aspects of that film. The last 20 minutes of For a Few Dollars are pretty underwhelming to say to the least and it detracts from the rest of the film. Nevertheless, this is still an excellent sequel which automatically opened it’s doors up to the longest, most famous and most well-crafted film in the whole series, just a short year later.

7/10 – Calum Roberts