I feel bad for the second movie in a trilogy. It always has a tough go. In the first movie, we get introduced to people and ideas. The director’s style in a specific genre gets shown for the first time. It’s the first time the crew gets to show what they’ve been excited to do. And the last movie is where all the storylines wraps up. It’s where everybody does it up brown because it’s their last chance to make an impression with franchise.
The second movie, though, has to suffer somewhere in between. It gets neither the starting nor the ending momentum. Even when the movies are only thematically linked, the second gets compared to its obvious betters on either end. Even if it’s a good movie, it won’t be recognized as being good enough to stand up to comparison on either end. I haven’t been able to think of an exception, at least.
For a Few Dollars More is no exception. Sorry movie, I just can’t help it.
Clint Eastwood, returning as the man with no name (known as Monco in this movie), is the same baddass he was in A Fistful of Dollars. He starts out in a barroom gambling for a wanted man’s life and of course he wins, then he wins a couple more times as other thugs in the bar try to kill him. It’s a pretty good shootout, with a great last second win that was fun to watch. Somehow, though, it doesn’t quite measure up to the shootouts in the previous movie. In this movie, it’s pretty clear that Monco is motivated by money and little else. The previous touch of helping-his-fellow-man is gone. I’m not sure I like the change.
Gian Maria Volontè (right) returns, this time as the villain El Indio, out to rob the El Paso bank. I actually like him better this time around. There’s something more sinister, more intelligent in El Indio than there was in Ramón Rojo. Both have their detailed plans, but El Indio thinks five steps ahead. I like that in a villain. Also, El Indio’s gang has the coolest hideout ever. Between jobs they camp out in an old abandoned church where El Indio can stand at the pulpit to address his mob. Again, best hideout EVER.
Finally, there’s Lee Van Cleef (below, left) in the role of Col. Douglas Mortimer, an older bounty killer who forms a partnership to stop and kill El Indio and split the reward. Pretty interesting character. He’s almost the man with no name, but he’s more methodical and less impulsive. There’s a bit of a cross/double cross between the two, but in the end they have a grudging respect for each other. I loved the nicknames they had for each other. The audience is reminded every time Monco called Mortimer “Old Man” or Mortimer called Monco “Boy” that while they were partners on this case, they would hardly be called friends.
Several things distinguish For a Few Dollars More from its predecessor. Firstly, there’s a bigness to the story that wasn’t present before. A Fistful of Dollars was contained entirely in one little near-ghost town, whereas this film spreads itself wide over miles and miles of desert and through several towns and cities.
Second, there is about a billion times more dialogue. That fact is both good and bad. It’s good because we can get a bit more insight into these fellas. Unfortunately, as with the other two parts of this trilogy, the dialogue is filmed with mostly Italian actors and then dubbed into English. It wasn’t terribly noticeable in Fistful, but with this much dialogue and no one trying to sync anything up or obscure the dubbing, it’s a bit distracting.
Overall, For a Few Dollars More is a good movie. Not quite as good as Fistful, but definitely good by any standard.
One final note; I loved the stopwatch. LOVED. It was a nice affect for El Indio and somehow (once we knew the reason for it) made him more sinister and more sympathetic at the same time. Either that, or I’m psychologically damaged beyond repair. Maybe both.
All right, all right. Probably both.
