“For a Few Dollars More”
Movie Review
For A Few Dollars More is
a 1965 spaghetti western film directed by Sergio Leone. It stars Clint Eastwood
and Lee Van Cleef as bounty hunters and Gian Maria Volonte as the main villain.
Klaus Kinski plays a supporting role as a secondary villain. The film was a
co-production between Italy, West Germany and Spain. The film is the second
part of the film series known as the Dollar Trilogy.
The man many called Manco
("Lefty") is a bounty hunter, a profession shared by former army
officer Colonel Douglas Mortimer. They learn that "El Indio," a
ruthless, cold-blooded bank robber, has been broken out of prison by his gang
and that all but one of his jailers have been killed. When Indio murders his
captor's family, he is shown holding a musical pocket watch taken from a woman
who shot herself when he tried to kill her husband after raping her. The
incident has haunted Indio, and he takes an addictive drug to cloud his memory.
Indio plans to rob the
Bank of El Paso, which contains a secret vault containing "about a million
dollars." Manco arrives in town and learns of Mortimer, who arrived
earlier. He sees Mortimer deliberately insulting the hunchback Wilde checking
the bank. Manco confronts Mortimer and after the two learn about each other,
realizing that the others won't back down, they decide to work together.
Mortimer persuades Manco to join Indio's gang and "leads him between two
fires." Despite Indio's suspicions, Manco achieves this by freeing Indio's
friend from prison.
Indio sends Manco and
three others to rob a bank in nearby Santa Cruz. Manco kills three bandits and
sends a false telegraphic alarm to wake the El Paso Sheriff and his posse, who
are riding into Santa Cruz. The gang breaks through the back wall of an El Paso
bank and steals a safe, but is unable to open it. Groggy is furious when only
Manco returns from Santa Cruz, but Indio accepts Manco's version of events,
thanks to Mortimer, who gives Manco a solid neck wound. The group rides into
the small border town of Agua Caliente, where Mortimer, who has guessed their
destination, awaits. Wild recognizes Mortimer, forcing a showdown that results
in the Hunchback's death, after which Mortimer offers his services to Indio to
open the vault without using explosives. Indio locks the money in a strongbox
and says the loot will be delivered a month later.
Mango and Mortimer break
into the strongbox and hide the money, and are soon caught and beaten. Mortimer
secures a strong box lock, however, and Indio believes the money is still
there. That night, Indio instructs his lieutenant Nino to use one of Cuchillo's
knives to kill the man guarding Manco and Mortimer. After Nino frees the
prisoners, Indio reveals that he knew they were hunters all along, executes
Cuchillo for betraying the gang, and goes after Manco and Mortimer, hoping
they'll all kill each other so he and Nino can split the money. However, Groggy
realizes the plan and forces Indio to open the strongbox, which he finds empty
after killing Nino.
Finally, after he and
Manco kill the thugs, Mortimer calls out to Indio, revealing his full name.
Mortimer shoots and kills Groggy, but Indio, sporting a pocket watch, is
disarmed and challenges the bounty hunter to retrieve his weapon and kill him
as the music ends. As the music ends, the same tune begins with a similar
pocket watch stolen by Manco from Mortimer. Manco handed Mortimer his gun belt
and pistol, "Now we begin." As the music ends, Mortimer fires first,
killing Indio.
Mortimer
retrieves the watch from Indio's hand, and Manco comments on Mortimer's
likeness to the woman in the vignette photo on the cover of the watch. Mortimer
reveals that he is her brother and, with his revenge complete, refuses and
abandons his share of the bounty. Manco dumps the corpses of Indio and his men
into a cart, finally adding the corpse after killing Groggy, and rides off to
collect the bounties of all those who stole from his hideout, Stop to recover
money.
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