← For a Few Dollars More
For a Few Dollars More poster

For a Few Dollars More · reception & legacy

1965 · Sergio Leone

How For a Few Dollars More has been received, argued over, and remembered.

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.