In Sergio Leone’s spaghetti western sequel to A Fistful of Dollars (1964), Clint Eastwood is once again the “man with no name” – although confusingly he’s also now called Manco. This is a more sophisticated attempt to do something similar to that first film, with several of the same actors appearing in different roles.
This time, there’s a rival bounty hunter played by Lee Van Cleef. My favourite scene involves the two men shooting each other’s hats in a macho display of one-upmanship. But then they team up to defeat a ruthless band of bank robbers (led by the unconvincing Gian Maria Volonté and also including a hunchback played by Klaus Kinski), and we eventually learn that they have very different motivations...
The music is again brilliantly scored by Ennio Morricone.
On the down side, there are some “comedy” moments that don’t work at all. These add a surreal weirdness to a story that is actually fairly brutal.
The commentary by film historian Christopher Frayling is insightful and well worth watching.
No comments:
Post a Comment