The classic western by Sergio Leone, For a Few DollarsMore (1965) has been on TV. The film stars Clint Eastwood and Lee van Cleef and has a musical soundtrack by Ennio Morricone.

Notwithstanding its evident B movie origins – as a derivative low-budget addition to the western genre – the film is one of the most significant in modern film history…it is impossible to understand modern cinema and its visual style without being familiar with this film and others like it.

The film is part of a trilogy of films made by Leone, and with music by Morricone, that define the spaghetti-western genre. These films were European versions of the popular US western films, shot in Spain and using hitherto unknown actors. Dollars More was the breakthrough film for both Eastwood and for van Cleef. It was Eastwood’s great good-fortune that the director, Sergio Leone was a genius…

Leone brought an epic and grandiose style to the visual style of the film that has informed countless directors including Quentin Tarantino…

Many commentators have identified Dollars More as the most successfully realised of Leone’s films…combining, as it does, epic visual scale and compressed narrative pace. In general as Leone’s films got bigger, they got longer, and slower…

My friend and colleague, Christopher Frayling, has spent his whole career writing about Leone and the significance of these films. You can find his books in the library.

The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (1966), includes best ever gunfight climax 

If you enjoy this film, check out Leone’s other films…

Once Upon a Time in the West (1968), includes the best ever opening sequence (30 minutes of titles and credits unfolding…followed by a short period of mayhem)

and

Once Upon a Time in America (1984)

Brilliant.