For a Few Dollars More (1965)
The second best spaghetti western ever is about so much more than the ubiquitous 'man with no name'. Eastwood's Monco (See, he does have a name) often plays second fiddle to Lee Van Cleef's Colonel Mortimer, a fellow bounty killer, like Eastwood on the trail of the safe cracking Indio and his band of outlaws. However unlike Eastwood, Mortimer is after Gian Maria Volonte's Indio for personal reasons.
Almost playing like a fore runner to director Sergio Leone's masterpiece The Good, The Bad and The Ugly (1965). The film is as much a character study, especially when it comes to Mortimer and the screen hogging intensely laid back Indio, who seems more dangerous when he's laconically watching a beetle than when he's gunning down folk, as it is western adventure. The moments of humour seen in Leone's other Eastwood films are for the most part missing from For a Few Dollars More, giving the whole thing a more intense feel to it.
Leone's direction is assured, allowing the film to breathe when need be but also ramping up the tension and excitement to boot. Helped in no small way by Ennio Morricone's almost punk rock score which drives the action along.
For a Few Dollars More is a real highlight of not just spaghetti westerns, but the whole western genre as a whole.
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