FOR A FEW DOLLARS MORE

Italy, 1965, 128 minutes, Colour.
Clint Eastwood, Lee Van Cleef, Gian Maria Volonte.
Directed by Sergio Leone.

A Fistful of Dollars and For a Few Dollars More were the original spaghetti Westerns. Conceived and directed by Sergio Leone, they featured the American television actor from Rawhide, Clint Eastwood. These films, plus The Good The Bad and The Ugly, were to give Eastwood the opportunity for appearing in many American films and go on to stardom and a career as a fine director. The characteristics of the spaghetti Western are atmosphere, their use of wide-screen and colour locations (often in Spain) and the use of studied close-ups. Musical scores by such composers as Ennio Morricone are also an excellent feature of these films.

There is a relationship between the Japanese Samurai films and the American West. The Seven Samurai was adapted as The Magnificent Seven. Rashomon was adapted as The Outrage. These are film by Akira Kurosawa. His Samurai film Yojimbo forms the basis for the adaptation of A Fistful of Dollars. Violent, interesting and exciting, these films are of historical interest for the Italian Westerns of the 60s and the very many derivatives and spin-offs from these originals. Leone himself was to go on to make Once Upon a Time in the West and A Fistful of Dynamite.

1. Why was this sequel to a Fistful of Dollars so popular?

2. Why was the series so popular, almost a cult?

3. The character of the man with no name? His impact? The use of the conventions of the Western? The use of parody of conventions? The entertainment impact on audiences?

4. Bounty hunting and the caption of the film - the value of life in the West? Why was it worth so little?

5. The man with no name as a bounty hunter, clashing with and then joining the real bounty hunters? Lee Van Cleef and his style of Westerns?

6. Their companionship? Was it credible? The extent of bounty hunting - what are your impressions of bounty hunting? What motivated them? Were bounty hunters admirable in any way?

7. The elaborate planning of the robbery of the E1 Paso Bank. How interesting was this?

8. The diplomacy and the techniques of the bounty hunters in infiltrating the plan?

9. The character of the villain? How important a villain was he? What was so evil about him? (The significance of the flashback?)

10. The aftermath of the robbery?

11. The villain killing off his associates? Was this to be expected? The nature of the villainy?

12. The relentless following of the bounty hunters and their diplomacy and confrontations with each other?

13. The effectiveness of the final confrontation and the shoot-ups?

14. The motive and theme of revenge? Why do Hen want such revenge, at such lengths?

15. The themes of violence and adventure and life and death? Standards of morality in the West?

16. Why do audiences enjoy such Westerns?