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For A Few Dollars More

For A Few Dollars More

List Price: $14.95
Your Price: $11.96
Product Info Reviews

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Rating: 1 stars
Summary: Sad to say, the soundtrack is not in synch
Review: I just purchased a copy and it's unwatchable. By the time of the prison scene the sound is out by a good quarter second, maybe more.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Excellent Film lacking extras
Review: No problems with this DVD re: Picture and Sound quality. Both are at an acceptable standard. Lack of extras may put some people off, but if you enjoy the series I would recommend buying the relatively inexpensive box set!

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: An Underrated Masterpiece
Review: This is the movie that introduced me to Clint and it remains tied as my favorite Eastwood picture along with "The Outlaw Josey Wales."

Eastwood plays a bounty hunter named Manco (yes, he has a name) who pairs up with another bounty hunter named Colonel Mortimer (played by Lee Van Cleef) to bring in a psychopathic bandit called Indio. In the course of the cold-blooded goings on (and this picture is much grimmer than "A Fistful of Dollars" or "The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly") it becomes clear that Mortimer has much more than a monetary interest in Indio's death. The key moments in the understanding of what is really going on lie with the music that plays whenever a set of watches are opened. Mary Blige fans will recognize the music.

Van Cleef and Gian Maria Volonte come close to stealing the show from Eastwood (and in fact do in spots) but it is the laconic, calculating Eastwood character that keeps the whole story from degenerating into the oater that it very well could of.

Sergio Leone and Ennio Morricone displayed their directorial and musical genius to its best effect here with the stars who could pull it all off.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: outrageous
Review: would have given this version 5 stars if not for one major outrageous flaw- it's censord!!! after years of torment buying videos in englund and thus suffering from their almost facist type of prude censorship (which led to the cutting of sometimes whole scenes from films) i thought that i have finally found my salvation in the dvd era. in particular the american zone 1 films whom to my knowledge were keeping the integrity of the original films and even striving to improve them by salvaging lost piecess which were cut by brutes like those mentioned above. well then- surprise, outrage, grave disapointment. this version is censored my friends in the part near the end of the movie when indio is torturing clint and lee van cleef. believe me folks it's no ruse because i have compared this version to a very old video one which i have at home. dont ask me the reasons why this was done because i myself do not understand the thought pattern behind this heinous act. nevertheless be warned and take care of your money. oh and this review reffers also to "the man with no name trilogy boxed set" for that matter so take care even more (this set being expensive etc).

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: A True Rarity - A Better Sequel.
Review: Few times in film history will you see a sequel that truly improves upon the original. This is one of those movies. Maybe it's because For A Few Dollars More is less a sequel and more a completely new realization of the Man with No Name. Certainly Eastwood is playing the same character, but otherwise this film has no connection to it's predecessor. Another reason may happen to be Sergio Leone. In "A Fistful of Dollars" the Italian maestro was just getting his feet wet. Playing around with the conventions of the genre. He made mistakes, but he was just warming up.
With A Few Dollars More, Leone has worked out the growing pains. There is an obvious effort to pull back from the overindulgent, over stylized and generally bombastic tendencies that occasionally reared up in Fistful. This time the film is expertly crafted througout and shades more on the subtle side. Leone's cinematography is even more enveloping, backed by an even richer score by Ennio Morricone. They seem to have perfected things here. There are so many moments here that just overflow with tension, it's hard to say which is best. But I must say that rarely has a score been so well used than in the melodic strains from a simple, gold pocket watch.
Then there are the performances. Not only are they just as big as Sergio style, it's hard to imagine any one else in these roles. Eastwood is just as fantastic as he was in the first film, even if his role is just a bit smaller. Lee Van Cleef's rival bounty hunter manages to be just as intimadating as Eastwood while creating a very different character. Both are very much different sides of the same coin. And the steely gaze from these men's eyes would make most men shake in their boots. There psyche out showdown is truly a battle of the superheavyweights.
Not to be overshadowed here is an absoulutely amazing performance from Gian Maria Volonte. His El Indio is a character working on so many psyschological levels, you can't help but be equal parts enthralled and terrified. Valonte seems fully unleashed here, a marked contrast to his much more cliched sort of villian in "A Fistful of Dollars". Unfortunately this talented actor is almost completely unknown to American audiences.
Woven together here is one of the greatest westerns ever produced. Some may call it to slow, but if you can allow yourself to get into this in a more cereberal way, I think you will find an amazingly rich film. Certainly a much darker one. A few logic leaps aside, I can find few faults here. The first two track downs and kills by the two bounty hunters are worth the price alone. So Get this and appreciate it if you love westerns. Appreciate it more if you simply love great filmmaking.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Attention, Owners of the Laserdisc . . .
Review: Just looked at the first 6 chapters of what I presume to be the June 2001 re-issue of the DVD and I'm pleased to report that a number of frames that were missing from the laserdisc version have been restored, namely where you see the bullet wound in Guy Callaway's forehead and where the sheriff tells Col. Mortimer, "His name is ... Manco" along with the cut to Manco walking into the town of White Rocks. Sound synchronization doesn't seem to be a problem as reportedly has been the case with the initial release of this DVD, though with a movie as heavily dubbed as this one is to begin with, it's hard to tell for sure. [Others have] mentioned some frames were missing from the scene where Manco and Mortimer are being beaten up by Indio's gang. I'm sorry to report that this is true; they don't even show where Indio suddenly stops laughing and orders his men to stop the beatings. They cut to where he tells his gang what he plans to do with Manco and Mortimer.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: A Plea To Reissue Leone's Films
Review: Having just rewatched For A Few Dollars More and A Fistful of Dollars for the first time in years I have to ask why are Leone's films treated so shabbily on VHS and DVD. Why have many of his films gone unreleased? Leone's westerns are the basis for almost every action film since 1964. His personal style is as important to film as the Bible is to literature. I have not yet viewed The Good The Bad And The Ugly on DVD but I can only assume that it is on par with the other Dollar releases. Little improvement has been made over the earlier issues of these films on laserdisc. They are marred by dirt, dull transfers, and other signs of deterioration. The best that can be said about them is what was best about most laserdisc releases, that the films are letterboxed. Aside from the prestigious Criterion Collection most laserdiscs were fairly dull. Like For A Few Dollars More you were lucky to get a trailer and a widescreen presentation. I would love to see such releases go the way of laserdiscs. It is time to give Leone's films the treatment they deserve. At the very least these films can be digitally cleaned and restored to their original beauty. Why not a commentary by the surviving cast and if not them why not a film historian, trailers from various countries, and an isolated soundtrack of Morricone's brilliant score. How about some footage of Leone himself. There must be something out there. Leone's films have made a lot of money for United Artists/MGM I think a little respect is due.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Is the soundtrack fixed?
Review: The first issue of this DVD had the soundtrack out of synch with the film. Has anyone played this release yet (6/2001)?

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Twang-ggggg.
Review: This was the middle one, and is my personal favourite. It's deeper and more interesting than 'Fistful' and less overblown than 'The Good etc', and it has Lee Van Cleef as the coolest western gunfighter ever (looking as if he has stepped out of 'The Matrix' in a flowing black cape and 'guns, lots of guns'). It's the standard Leone stuff - gunfights, over-the-top stylisation, bizarre Ennio Morricone soundtrack - but it's done really, really well, and the final gunfight to the tune of a pocket watch is a classic. Everything is hyper-real, from the close-ups, to the personal soundtracks of the main players, even to the dubbing which actually helps the film's symbolic atmosphere, and it's light-years away from 'Rio Lobo'. Shame that the DVD offers nothing apart from a trailer, though.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: One of Eastwood's Best!
Review: Drama, action and suspense are all rolled into this classic Western. Although this movie isn't academy award material, it's certainly far better than the shallow, over-hyped "Unforgiven."

Both Eastwood and Van Cleef deliver solid performances in this film as does Volonte in the role of El Indio. Yet for all its strengths, the film does have a few weaknesses. Namely, it tends to drag at times and there are a few noticable miscues.

Aside from these minor flaws, this is a really enjoyable movie that's definitely worth watching time and time again.


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