[quote=“John Welles, post:120, topic:327”]I’ve watched “For a Few Dollars More” and I must say, I’m impressed. Great story and acting.
Heres a few thougths on it:
To me, “For a Few Dollars More” dosn’t feel like the other “Dollars” movies. (Correct me if I’m wrong) But it seems to me that Lee Van Cleef gets the most screen time (not that its a bad thing!), and Clint Eastwood is more of a supporting character.[/quote]
Wouldn’t say Clint is a supporting player by any means here but LVC steals the show a bit in the same way that Eli Wallach does in GBU. It has been suggested more than once that this was one of the reasons Eastwood declined any more Leone vehicles. He could see himself being crowded out more and more.
I wouldn’t say that they stole the film, as Eastwood was still the man, but he hadn’t the stage for him alone.
At least in his all his own films (the Malpaso films) before Unforgiven he never had any other top class actor besides him. Only for 1 film Burt Reynolds, who wasn’t a match for him in these days.
[quote=“Phil H, post:121, topic:327”]It has been suggested more than once that this was one of the reasons Eastwood declined any more Leone vehicles. He could see himself being crowded out more and more.[/quote] I have a book that was published when Clint was awarded the Golden Lion for career achievements at the Venice film festival which collects a lot of essays and interviews, and it quotes Leone saying so. In the same book, Clint states he wanted to try something different… I suppose it’s a bit of a mixed bag of motivations.
Anyway yeah, I tend to consider this film more Lee Van Cleef-centric than Eastwood-centric. I didn’t count the minutes each actor is on screen, but I guess the mere fact that LVC’s character is the one who has personal motivations in his rivalry with the villain makes him more central to the film. You really get to feel for him, at least I know that I did
Quite - Van Cleef’s character has greater depth than Eastwood’s, offering the actor more to work with and giving him the chance to display his untapped abilities (and to essay variations on the role in subsequent Italian Westerns). No wonder he was so grateful to Leone in later years for this opportunity.
Clint’s character has no depth at all in this one. He gets some kind of human quality in the third one, when he meets the dying soldier, but that’s it.
I guess it’s because he fits in the “villain” category, while in GBU the roles of the three leads aren’t so clearly defined. Not that being a villain is necessarily a big handicap per se, I’m pretty sure that most people associate Star Wars with Darth Vader rather than Luke Skywalker… But yeah, definitely not Indio’s case.
And it’s a shame that his role gets overlooked because I think it’s vital to the colonel’s story. Not just because he’s the reason for the death of Mortimer’s sister, but because he’s equally haunted by the memory. In a way, since we don’t know anything about the colonel’s motivations until the very end, the emotional/psychological side of the story is all on Indio’s shoulders, until we get to know why the colonel was so determined to kill him.
It’s one of the reasons I think this film has to be seen at least twice; if you know Mortimer’s motivations since the beginning the story is even more compelling IMO, and several little things make more sense. Especially the duel scene, when the second music box starts playing the look on LVC’s face is just priceless.
I first saw this movie back in the early 70’s while in the Air Force over in Spain. I recently bought the 2 CD collector’s edition, and I must say I’m as impressed by it today as I was way back then. Of all the Leone westerns, it’s clearly my favorite, although I do like them all. I agree with the other posters, it really has 3 leads, not just Clint. The more I have watched it, the more apparent that becomes. Lee Van Cleef as Col Mortimer is the primary brains behind his shaky alliance with Eastwood, and Indio of course is the brains behind his gang. All 3 of their roles are defined well, and all 3 actors deliver in a big way. The film is very compelling- it’s greasy, sweaty, dark, brutal, funny, poignant - all blended beautifully with Leone’s amazing directing and Morricone’s gorgeous soundtrack laid so effortlessly over the top of the entire film. It clearly is one of my most favorite movies of all time.
As Chris Casey pointed out on another thread, the best release is the German R2 paramount release. I have this one and can confirm that it is great. I think, but maybe mistaken, that even the supposedly full-length beating scene in this version (longer than in the supposedly “uncut” MGM releases) may still be very slightly cut by a couple of seconds.
There is a longer version out meanwhile, at least a friend of me claimed this. Which would mean that newer releases of this DVD are maybe slightly longer.
But, well I don’t care very much for these few seconds. (if they really exist)
