For A Few Dollars More
The second installment in the legendary Man With No Name Trilogy from 1965 is one that quickly redeems the flaws of the first film, A Fistful Of Dollars, where Clint Eastwood in his iconic role was set adrift in a sea of cardboard characters and a recycled story. For this one, director Sergio Leone smartly realized that surrounding Eastwood with strong supporting turns and a fluid, original story would make much of the difference, and it did: Eastwood now plays a bounty hunter who gets on the trail of a wanted bandit leader, and finds himself teaming up with a rival to get the job done. As Eastwood’s partner, Lee Van Cleef (who would play the lead villain in the next film, The Good, The Bad, And The Ugly) is a guy whose presence matches that of Clint, and whose motive for catching the bandit is much more personal than just a lot of money, and the two play off each other superbly, keeping the viewer guessing if these two can really trust each other. But the real meat as far as the improved writing goes is in the bandit leader himself, El Indio, played by Italian acting legend Gian Maria Volante. Arguably the first truly great Western villain in cinema history, Indio is given depth and characterization from his tendency to smoke opium (or is it weed?) to deal with his stress, or the traumatic memories he has of a brutal crime he committed years ago having gone terribly wrong. In addition, as the story goes on, he would be appearing to lose his mind, committing rash acts and basically being willing to throw his entire loyal gang under the bus to keep the loot from a large bank robbery. The only issue here would be some story elements that slow the pacing a bit: Eastwood and Van Cleef know where Indio is and how to find him and the lucrative reward on the heads of him and his men, but instead of hunting them down and launching a series of ambushes, they instead conspire to have Clint infiltrate the gang and set them up for a bigger fall, an idea that is a bit convoluted to say the least, and only comes off as well as it does due to Indio’s unstable nature which leads to some irrational actions. That being said, even lesser characters benefit from rich writing and presentation (such as Klaus Kinski’s hunchback henchman), the music by Ennio Morricone is as vibrant as it always was, and the legendary cinematography as usual in Leone’s films leave nothing to be desired. Finally there is the last 20 minutes of the film itself, as Indio’s psychosis comes full circle, and we’re set up for the big showdown, which grabs the viewer by the shirt and never lets go with its emotional impact. All this plus the final exchange between Eastwood and Van Cleef and the “Meat Wagon” final shots add this up to what it is: A Undisputed Western Classic that would only be surpassed by The Grand Masterpiece that was The Good, The Bad, And The Ugly the next year…
9/10