Tuesday, August 17, 2010

The Movie For A Few Dollars More Reviewed

By Lizzie Copeland

Leone's Dollars Trilogy is without a doubt one of the all time classic series when it comes to all out action, suspense and, well, coolness. The film in the series that is considered a "Great Film" would have to be The Good the Bad and the Ugly, but the absolute coolest of the series is, without a doubt, For a Few Dollars More. Maybe not the best, but certainly the most fun of the entire trilogy, and definitely one to put on your queue the next time you sign into your movie download service.

The movie is really defined by all the little cool moments. While The Good the Bad and the Ugly was really defined by Eli Wallach's incredible performance as the complex, dirty and amoral character of Tuco, and Fistful of Dollars was the one that really started the whole genre off and defined its style, For a Few Dollars More is the one with all the coolest stuff, like Lee Van Cleef browsing through his selection of dozens of guns whenever he needs to shoot someone, or Clint Eastwood beating a guy up with just one hand.

See, he uses a pocket watch every time he kills someone. It's a musical pocket watch, so he winds it up and lets it play while staring down his adversary. When the music comes to a stop... He draws and fires. Definitely a great villainous ritual for any western baddie to commit to.

Cleef and Eastwood make a great team as the heroes. Cleef plays Colonel Mortimer, a former Civil War hero turned bounty hunter, while Eastwood plays, again, the Man With No Name. This film is, chronologically within the world of the film, the final act, even though it was released second (The Good the Bad and the Ugly serves as a prequel to Fistful of Dollars), and Eastwood has had enough violence and wants to retire, but still plays the Kid role to Cleef's older, wiser bounty hunter.

One great scene has the two shooting each other's hats off, and then shooting said hats down the street, as, essentially, a way of chest pounding, showboating, to impress the other. It begins with the two wanting the other to back off their bounty, and ends with the two building a strong partnership that's a lot of fun to watch develop.

There really isn't another film in almost any genre outside of the musical that uses music quite as effectively as this film. The pocket watch plays a little melody written by Ennio Morricone, and in the finale, the melody is layered into an epic orchestrated piece that really builds an incredible amount of tension before anyone draws a pistol and finally fires.

Leone is one of the all time greats, and it's too bad his career was cut short before he could complete Stalingrad, his WWII epic.

The one thing missing is perhaps Eli Wallach. There aren't really any characters in the film with the depth and complex humanity of Tuco in The Good the Bad and the Ugly, but the film is certainly the most fun film of the trilogy.

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