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Showing posts with the label Gian Maria Volonte

A Fistful of Clint: "For a Few Dollars More" (1965)

  Saddle up, cow folk!  It's time to follow the tumbleweed to a time of outlaws and bounty hunters as we once again join up with The Man With No Name... El Indio has been broken out of jail.  Two bounty hunters race against time and each other to hunt him. Who'll catch him the outlaw first?  The nameless drifter, or the former Officer who has a personal stake in the confrontation with El Indio? Who'll earn a few dollars more...? This sequel to " A Fistful of Dollars " keeps up the tradition started with the first one.  Stark landscapes, morally ambiguous characters, and setting a new standard by which Westerns would be measured against in North America. The story isn't really all that complex- but is certainly sufficient to carry the weight and power of the characters.  In fact, this movie is absolutely more about the characters than the plot.  You're bound to lose track of the story details as you become fascinated by the three main characters.  ...

A Fistful of Clint: "A Fistful of Dollars" (1964)

  It was high noon, and the tumbleweed were tumbling by when I first saw him... The Man With No Name... his steely glare burning into me brighter than the white hot sun reflecting off the scorched, arid dirt... Nah... not really.  I was a teenager in an air conditioned basement... A drifter follows the tumbleweed into a small one road town.  At one end was the Baxter family, and at the other end, the Rojo family.  Both families were fighting for control, with the average citizen suffering in between. Seeing an opportunity to make money, the drifter proceeds to play a deadly game of tug of war with the two families... " A Fistful of Dollars ", directed by Sergio Leone, is a masterpiece of the Spaghetti Western genre.  Compared to most of the North American Westerns filmed at the time, it stripped away the idealistic sheen off of the genre.  It was gritting, sweaty, dirty, with very complex and morally ambiguous characters.  It dropped the "white hat/bla...