DVD Review: For a Few Dollars More
KINO has released, on blu ray, the second in the Dollars trilogy directed by Sergio Leone and featuring Clint Eastwood. Usually overlooked due to being sandwiched between the milestone “A Fistful of Dollars” and the magnificent “The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly,” For a Few Dollars More” is overall an even better film than its excellent predecessor.
Even before the credit sequence, Leone presents a lone rider in long shot, surrounded by negative space, looking tiny from the perspective of a sniper, who shoots him dead off his horse. A title card flashes on the screen which states: “Where life had no value, death, sometimes, had its price. That is why the bounty killers appeared.” This explains that the unknown man who is killed is the likely victim of a bounty hunter . This sets the precedent for what follows.
We are first introduced to Colonel Mortimer (Lee Van Cleef) who forces a train to stop by pulling the emergency cord, gets off, and kills Guy Calloway (José Terrón), for a $1000 bounty. Mortimer’s character is immediately defined in this scene. His human prey escapes through a window, mounts his horse and tries to flee. Mortimer goes outside, opens the pack on his own horse and reveals several firearms. He grabs one, aims, and shoots the man’s horse dead. Leone films this in a long shot from the shooter’s perspective. When Calloway stands up and faces Mortimer, the director switches to closeups. Calloway is shot, but not killed. He gets up and begins shooting at Mortimer, but is too far away for his pistol shots to be effective. He keeps moving closer as Mortimer patiently puts together a gun that has the necessary range, and shoots Calloway dead. He then collects the bounty. Mortimer then inquires about a criminal by the name of Red "Baby" Cavanaugh (José Marco), who has a $2000 bounty. He is told where Cavanaugh is, but is also told that another man inquired about him recently. The man's name is Manco (Clint Eastwood).
Eastwood's character of Manco is not specifically the same character as Joe in “A Fistful of Dollars.” The previous film had been produced by Jolly Films, but, after a falling out with Sergio Leone, they were not involved in the sequel and Alberto Grimaldi produced. Jolly Films sued, claiming rights to the character, but it was decided in court that the rudiments of the western gunfighter was part of the public domain and one could not copyright the manner of such a character. Thus, it cannot be legally considered that Manco is the same as Joe in “A Fistful of Dollars.”
One of the highlights in For a Few Dollars More is the inevitable confrontation between Manco and Colonel Mortimer, which happens fairly early in the movie. We have already been fully introduced to each man and their methods, and it gets to the point in the narrative where the only logical circumstances is for one to eliminate the other or for them to join forces. The latter seems unlikely, as both appear to be loners who would fiercely avoid collaboration with anyone.
Leone sets the confrontation between Manco and Mortimer outside the saloon on the street, with nobody watching, framing the situation as a classic western movie showdown. It begins as satire as each man scuffs the toe of the other's boot, first Manco scraping the heel of his on the toe of Mortimer's, then Mortimer responding in kind. It almost appears like the reciprocal comic battles of Laurel and Hardy. The men venture into the street. Manco shoots Mortimer's hat off his head. When Mortimer goes to pick it up, Manco shoots it further down the street. This happens several times, with Mortimer's anger building not unlike Wild's in the previous scene. Leone shoots much of this from Manco's perspective, sometimes from just behind Manco so both figures are visible within the frame, Mortimer well into the background. Occasional medium shots give us a look at Mortimer's building anger. In response, Mortimer shoots Manco's hat off of his head, it flies into the air, and Mortimer continues to shoot at it, keeping it propelled toward the sky. Each man succeeds in impressing the other and they decide to defy their own loner instincts and team up.
The dynamic the script calls for is between an older gunfighter and a younger one. Leone wanted to cast Henry Fonda in the role, who was several years Eastwood's senior, but even with the larger budget, he could not meet Fonda's price. Lee Van Cleef plays the role well (referring to himself as approaching 50), but in real life the actor was only 40 and a mere five years older than Eastwood. Still, the acting of each makes this dynamic work effectively. Van Cleef had not made a film in three years and had been concentrating on TV work when he was hired to play Mortimer in For a Few Dollars More. Usually playing bit roles, Van Cleef expected his part in this movie would only take a few days. Upon arriving on the set, Van Cleef was shocked, and pleasantly surprised, when he discovered he'd have a co-starring role.
Ennio Morricone's music is once again utilized for maximum effect, and Leone also investigates more possibilities with sound in this movie. During the confrontation between Manco and Mortimer, the shooting of the hats is not only punctuated by the sound of the gunshots, but of a whistling that accompanies that hat's movement. Perhaps the most effective use of sound is El Indio's pocket watch tune, which is made even eerier when its conclusion results in murder, including of a young woman and her baby in another brutal defiance of Hollywood convention. Morricone's score, and Leone's use of sound, seem even more intrinsic to the action than it had been in “A Fistful of Dollars.”
KINO’s blu ray is a brand new 4K restoration that is filled with interesting special features. The special features include audio commentary by film historian Tim Lucas, audio commentary by film historian Sir Christopher Fralying, material from Sir Christopher’s archives, Clint Eastwood’s memories of the film, The original American release version, and location comparisons.
The blu ray is available at this link: For a Few Dollars More.
Portions of this review are excerpted from my book The Clint Eastwood Westerns.