Sightlines · reception
How For a Few Dollars More was received
1965 · Sergio Leone · For a Few Dollars More on Sightlines
The arc
Dismissed by most American critics on its 1967 US release as just another violent 'spaghetti western' cash-in, it's since been reclaimed as the moment Leone's style fully arrived — and a fixture near the top of best-western lists.
What’s debated
The evergreen trilogy debate: is this actually better than The Good, the Bad and the Ugly? A vocal contingent of fans insists the middle Dollars film is Leone's tightest.
Its footprint
Morricone's chiming pocket-watch theme — a musical duel built into the story itself — became one of cinema's most imitated standoff devices, echoed and homaged in westerns and beyond ever since.
Where it stands
The cinephile's pick of the Dollars trilogy: less famous than its sequel, but the one film buffs love to champion as the connoisseur's Leone.
Did you know? Lee Van Cleef had largely drifted out of acting and was working as a painter when Leone cast him as Colonel Mortimer — reportedly after first choice Lee Marvin opted to make Cat Ballou instead. The role relaunched his entire career.