The ruthless bandit and murderer “El Indio” is busted out from jail by his gang. He quickly organizes his outlaws and plots to steal an unheard of ~$1 million from the Bank of El Paso. Skillful and cunning bounty hunters Manco (not to be confused with Mando) and Colonel Douglass Mortimer each suspect the plot and travel to El Paso to collect the bounty on El Indio. Aiming to keep the bounty for themselves, the two hunters initially try to intimidate each other out of the job. However, they soon realize that teaming up is the best course of action (one from the outside and the other inside, by infiltrating El Indio’s gang). Still, El Indio gets the upper-hand at El Paso. This sends our two anti-heroes on a tension-filled ride to defeat the bandits—one fighting for financial gain and the other, as we learn, for personal satisfaction.
“For a Few Dollars More” is the second film in Sergio Leonne/Clint Eastwood “Man With No Name” or “Dollars” trilogy. Last year I watched the first film, “Fistful of Dollars”, and a few years prior “The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly” (the third and final flick). So yeah—out of order. But still, the three stories don’t lean on each other, so any order is good. And I think this film might be my favorite of the trilogy. Sure, “Fistful” is a brilliant remake of Kurosawa's “Yojimbo”. And “Good/Bad/Ugly” is so tremendously epic and suspenseful (and features the best, most famous, most fully-developed, over-the-top, and absolutely listenable version of the music). But there was something pure and simple about this film.
This film might have the best characters of the three. Manco was the most fun version of Eastwood’s character and Mortimer was charming. And “El Indio” was slick and cunning, while being one of the most ruthless western villains of all time. And yet, he had this sad yearning (for a woman he raped—let’s not get ahead of ourselves) that weirdly grounded a character. To this end, the “twist” at the end of the film wasn’t a dueling gimmick, but rather a character motivation. And all of this was punctuated by Ennio Morricone’s fantastic score. In particular, a brilliant set piece with a musical watch that manages to grow beyond the diegetic plucking our characters hear, and expands to sweeping underscore for the tension and sadness of the moment. Throw in expanse vistas, gunfights galore, and Leonne’s sense of style and you have an excellent film, and a perfect start to this year.