DVD Review: For a Few Dollars More Special Edition

There is nothing that I can say here to match the words of Sir Christopher Frayling, who features prominently on another Leone classic. Frayling (author of Sergio Leone: Something To Do With Death & Once Upon a Time in Italy and Spaghetti Westerns) has always been entertaining and educating with his never-ending knowledge on this, one of his favourite subjects and his favourite director. This is Leone’s second western and a much more sure affair. Everything, including the budget, has been cranked up a notch and Ennio Morricone’s score adds brass and orchestra to his squealing guitars, male choirs, bells and gunshots. 'A Fistful of Dollars' was such a runaway hit but it was this, their second collaboration that made everyone take notice.

Even the title credits have changed from before. We are almost lulled into believing we are seeing the same when the screen turns red but that quickly burns out, and an off-screen character cocks a rifle and blows out smoke which forms the titles only to be shot away. A title caption then reads ‘Where life had no value, death, sometimes, had its price. That is why the bounty killers appeared’. This was a reference to the movie’s original title of ‘The Bounty Killers’ and to indicate how lawless the land we are about to see was. Lee Van Cleef (at the time very much a bit player from many Hollywood movies) speaks from behind a Bible and then we see his face. Clean-shaven and dressed in black, this is almost Leone’s tongue in cheek nod to all the American western bad guys. His piercing eyes would earn him the character name of Angel Eyes in 'The Good The Bad and The Ugly'. Once off the train, he walks into a saloon and the music stops dead. Again, this is a poke at the genre it is re-inventing. A shoot out ensues and ‘The Bounty Hunter’ from 1954 featuring Randolph Scott is vamped up. The technical killing machine of Colonel Mortimer with his arsenal of weaponry takes out the bad guy.

Eastwood again wears his now trademark outfit. Back are the poncho, brown hat and cheroot, but he is not the Joe from the previous outing. This time he is a Manco, a professional killer, and he is out for cash with killing on his mind. Again we do not have a clean-cut hero, here we have killers who are either efficient killing machines who do it for the money or psychotic killers who do it for fun.

This time, Leone still smarting from the legal wrangling from his first western leaves the samurai epics alone and borrows heavily from ‘The Bravados’ in which Gregory Peck plays a man who hunts down the killers of his wife (one of them being Lee Van Cleef). A pocket-watch played an integral part in the storyline as it does here. Leone tells his tale littered with all the Hollywood trimmings, but with a Roman flavour and lots of religious iconography.

The plot now starts. Sprung from jail, the psychotic, dope-smoking and larger than life Indio (played by Gian Maria Volonte who was also the main bad guy in 'A Fistful of Dollars') with his gang, kill everyone in sight. We see the gang (including Klaus Kinski as a psychotic hunchback) in a church , and kill the family of the person who put Indio away before he then kills the man himself. Indio climbs the stairs to the pulpit with his gang looking like the 12 apostles below, and delivers his sermon. He is planning a bank heist from information he got while being inside prison. During these scenes, Morricone also uses a religious touch by adding in church organs to his avant-garde score.  Then we have two bounty killers riding to the same point for Indio and his gang. In lighthearted machismo, Leone has the two killers face each other off in what looks like a face-off in a school playground. It’s who can shoot better is the bigger man kind of thing. They join forces and hatch a plan to take down the gang.

In April 2004, the guys at MGM pulled out all the stops with the re-issue of 'The Good, The Bad and The Ugly' and they have done so here again. On disc 1, the cleaned-up and never sounding better print (sound options in both English and French 5.1 and DTS replacing the previous mono only track), with an encyclopaedic commentary by Sir Christopher Frayling which is a marvel and worthy of the price alone.

Disc 2 is split into 3 sections of a similar selection to that of the 'A Fistful of Dollars' release. The first section is the most lengthy and includes documentaries, interviews and footage comparisons. The first here is 'A New Standard', as Sir Christopher again, this documentary covers much the same ground as his audio commentary on disc 1 and for those not willing to do the commentary this is a marvellous and entertaining 20 minutes. Next on the list is 'Back for More', shot in 2003, interviewing Eastwood about his past collaboration with Leone and this movie in particular. Eastwood lovingly talks about the time that made his career. Anecdotes about the casting of Lee Van Cleef and his other co-stars. This is a short and sweet 7 minutes worth, and leaves you again wishing for more. ‘Tre Voci’ is again a loving tribute to the master Leone, with three of his friends, Alberto Grimaldi (producer to Leone, Scorsese and Fellini amongst others), Sergio Donati (writer of many of Leone's westerns) and Mickey Knox (dubbing director of Leone's westerns and actor)speaking candidly about their dear departed friend and their times together.

Sergio Leone

'Restoration Italian Style' is a short tech feature on the restoration of Leone’s westerns released through MGM, with nods to this release and the previously mentioned 'The Good, The Bad and The Ugly', as well as the 2 other releases that will accompany this one to the DVD shelves; 'A Fistful of Dollars' and 'A Fistful of Dynamite (Duck You Sucker)' (for additional info on these please check out our database and their individual reviews). Although John Kirk talks at length about print issues and different cuts, this release, despite being a sparkling and much better print than the previous MGM release, still has a few scene jumps and some noticeable sound drop outs. 'The American Release Version – Extended Scenes' touches on some of the print differences, showing comparisons. There is very little different from the previous uncut MGM release here, the most noticeable difference being the absence of the United Artists logo at the start. Most of the changes here are subtle, small editing and frame counts, which could easily be due to the transfer techniques. Again we get the US PR bandwagon using the man-with-no-name tag and scenes where Eastwood’s character is referred to as Manco had been cut. 'Location Comparisons, Almeria, Spain 1965 – 2004' is also a nice little touch, showing clips from the movie and still shot comparisons of today. Now to the second section; Original Promotional Material which includes a theatrical trailer with a cringe-worthy voice over, a dirty double bill trailer (with 'A Fistful of Dollars') and 12 crackly radio spots.

Lastly we have 'Collector’s Gallery' with loads of black and white stills from the movie.

This is another near faultless release from MGM. We should dust down our ponchos, get out the 6 shooters, crank up the volume and escape for an afternoon with this release. Available from Amazon.UK and is intended as part of a boxed set later in the year, as of yet no US release has been announced.