The Middle Child of the Man with No Name Trilogy

A sequel to "A Fistful of Dollars" seems like a foregone conclusion considering its worldwide success. But in 1964, there was nothing inevitable about it. Sergio Leone had received no financial compensation from the considerable box office of his first Western and wished to make a personal, partially autobiographical project about growing up in Trastevere during the 1930s. However, he was under pressure to repeat his Western success and Italian lawyer Alberto Grimaldi offered Leone 50% of the profits plus expenses. This was an offer that a man with a wife and children to support couldn't refuse. So he set out on the development of  the ironically titled "For a Few Dollars More," wishing to top his earlier film. This determination shows in the finished product. "For a Few Dollars More" is a more ambitious film than its predecessor in terms of narrative, character and style and it's the film which really shows Leone developing the epic side of his filmmaking which would come to fruition in "The Good, the Bad and the Ugly." It may not be Leone's best film, but it may be his most purely enjoyable; an exercise in narrative filmmaking which brims with style and confidence.

Leone brings back the Man With No Name - this time briefly given the name Manco - in the shape of Clint Eastwood and explicitly makes him a bounty hunter (called bounty killers in the film) with no other motivation than money. This gives the film a specific historical context during the late 19th Century when law and order in the West was maintained in a decidedly fragile state by a haphazard system of local Sheriffs and traveling Judges. Bounty hunters were encouraged as an efficient way of finding and dealing with fugitives. Eastwood's all ready iconic character is joined by a new figure; Colonel Douglas Mortimer played the great character actor Lee Van Cleef. Mortimer is also a bounty hunter but one haunted both by his past as a soldier and a tragic family history. After a brief, witty confrontation , the two men team up with the common goal of bringing to justice El Indio (Volonte), a deranged, dope-addled bandit who is inextricably linked to Mortimer's family tragedy.

The sweeping confidence of the film reflects a director who is finally able to do what he wants in the way he wants. Leone's work is immensely stylish, packed with increasingly exotic use of close-ups and pacing which, while never slow, is a little stately in a manner which often recalls Luchino Visconti. There is more intentional humor in this film than in its predecessor with whole sequences built up for the sake of a humourous pay-off, such as the scene with the apples towards the end. There's a lushness to the film, both in its stunning visuals which make full use of the landscape in a way which Leone would intensify in his next two films, and in its emotional richness, largely supplied by the character of Colonel Mortimer. In "Fistful," there's not a great deal of motivation or even characterisation. In this film, Mortimer's character is all motivation and, partly due to Lee Van Cleef's sympathetic and witty portrayal, he comes across as the main target for our sympathy. Virtually every Spaghetti Western which followed the huge success of this movie in Italy would feature a flashback to explain the motivations of a particular character but few are either as simple or as effective as the one here. Leone keeps this in the background at first, with unexplained memory 'flashes' from El Indio that are later revealed as his connection with Mortimer. The pocket watch watch, with the initially unexplained portrait of a lady, is well used too, providing another angle of narrative suspense.

Everything in"For a Few Dollars More" seems a little bigger than in its predecessor. The violence is a little more graphic and sadistic, Carlo Simi's production design of El Paso - Leone's first great bustling period location - is on a larger scale and the psychopathic, sociopathic behaviour of El Indio is more melodramatic and theatrical. Gian Maria Volonte takes the opportunity to go over the top with both hands, consuming the scenery with relish as one of the nastiest, most irredeemable bad guys in cinema history. In contrast to this slightly garish conception, Clint Eastwood's performance seems all the more restrained and funny. He gets comic effects simply by doing very little and allowing all around him to emote their way into the stratosphere. His character is made even less heroic, again being the hero mostly because of his charisma and finally being slightly redeemed through his friendship with Mortimer. This friendship adds a more human dimension to the whole film, bringing in complex emotions which the first movie ignore. Leone originally wanted Lee Marvin for the role but couldn't afford the actor's asking price and Van Cleef's warm, likable performance is masterful; a mature, if cynical, reflection contrasted with Eastwood's youthful arrogance, even though Van Cleef was a mere five years older.

Leone's style is developing and the movie contains most of the elements which will be considered hallmarks of his film making. Along with the harshly cynical view of the world - good men have to turn to violence because of the greed and corruption around them - and extreme sclose-up shots, we get more religious iconography creeping in - the church in which El Indio delivers his speech about robbing the bank being an example - and the recurring motifs such as the circular dance of death during the final gunfight.All in all "Dollars is a worthy second film in an unintended trilogy with the best saved for last.