august 2 2015:
for a few dollars more | 1965 | dir. sergio leone | italy + spain + west germany | 132 min.
saw this earlier tonight at the new beverly on 35 mm. the print was okay - good, but definitely not pristine, and absolutely not perfect. they must be doing some sort of lee van cleef retrospective because every trailer they showed had him in it. which was funny to watch. this film is the sequel to a fistful of dollars, but, as i hadn’t seen the first, i can say it definitely stands alone. clint eastwood and lee van cleef are two bounty hunters who agree to work together to bring down a prolific bandit.
my biggest beef with watching this film was just how long it felt. it’s only ten minutes over two hours, but it felt like it was taking forever, mainly because the plot never definitively ends. there are so many spots in the film where it could end, but leone just keeps dragging you along. otherwise, i really enjoyed it. the brief moments of comedy - the parts that are so of their time as well as the great western one liners - made for a few dollars more more than bearable, to say the least. i wouldn’t watch it again, but it was definitely a good one to see.