For A Few Dollars More (1965)

The second film in the Dollars Trilogy, we get the magnificent Lee Van Cleef, added to this brutal, cold world apart from the staple of Clint Eastwood, the wide landscape, powerful closeups, musically drawn-out suspense sequences etc. We see the growing of the artist that Leone is. It is purely in his technique that Sergio establishes his signature and his own view of the world. I had added that one of Leone’s strong point was his penchant for strong imagery. Adding to that, we have here sequences that convey gallons of storytelling and character detailing only by visuals and the editing of sequences. The introduction of Lee Van Cleef is a standout example of this.

In a near wordless 4-minute sequence, we see Lee Van Cleef’s Col. Mortimer come into a bar to take out a wanted fugitive. Interrogating the bartender, who again wordlessly conveys where the fugitive is present, we see him going to capture him. In the process as the man escape via jumping off the building in a hurried manner and get onto a horse. This piece of action is intercut with the cool as a cucumber Mortimer, who calmly walks out of the bar onto the road, slowlyyyy aims his gun and BANG-shoots him. The man injured tries to shoot him but sloppily, all the while Mortimer is standing calmly, unperturbed. This singular sequence, tells us everything we have to know about him; a sharpshooter, brave, cool suave bounty hunter, a man with a badass arsenal of weapons. All of this is shown to us, establishing a strong character, only to then be topped by the intro of Clint Eastwood as Manco or The Man With No Name.

Something to be said here is the influence of Sergio Leone on Tarantino.

The structure of For A Few Dollars More is ostensibly a set of sequences; the intros of the leads, shootouts, jail breaks, the heists etc viewed through the Sergio Leone prism with increased suspense and tension to the genre staples. Tarantino’s films, from Kill Bill itself, can be seen from that view. We have a set of sequences all tensed up only that in QT’s films the tension is primarily by drawing out the scene by dialogue rather than visual imagery and editing. The influences speak.