Search - For a Few Dollars More on DVD

MPAA Rating: R Content Advisory: Not For Children, Adult Humor, Western Violence Movie Release: 1965 DVD Release: 07/28/1998 Format: DVD - Enhanced Wide Screen Letterbox for 16x9 TV Audio Tracks: English, French Subtitles: English, French, Spanish SwapaDVD Credits: 1 Number of Discs: 1 Run Time: 2 hrs 11 mins Studio: MGM Total Copies: 1 Genres: Western, Spaghetti Western See Also: For a Few Dollars More [Special Edition], For a Few Dollars More [Collector's Edition]

This pulse-pounding follow-up to Sergio Leone's A Fistful of Dollars brings back Clint Eastwood as the serape-clad, cigar-chewing "Man With No Name." Engaged in an ongoing battle with bounty hunter Col. Douglas Mortimer (Lee Van Cleef), the Man joins forces with his enemy to capture homicidal bandit Indio (Gian Maria Volontè). Both the Eastwood and Van Cleef characters are given understandable motivations for their bloodletting tendencies, something that was lacking in A Fistful of Dollars. In both films, however, the violence is raw and uninhibited -- and in many ways, curiously poetic. Leone's tense, tight close-ups, pregnant pauses, and significant silences have since been absorbed into the standard spaghetti Western lexicon; likewise, Ennio Morricone's haunting musical score has been endlessly imitated and parodied. For a Few Dollars More was originally titled Per Qualche Dollaro in Più; it would be followed by the last and best of the Man with No Name trilogy, The Good, the Bad and the Ugly. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Clint Eastwood - The Man With No Name
Lee Van Cleef - Col. Douglas Mortimer
Gian Maria Volontè - El Indio
Josef Egger - The Old Man
Mara Krup - Hotel Manager's Wife

Treated much better by MGM/UA than A Fistful of Dollars, the Region 1 DVD release of For a Few Dollars More offers only the widescreen version of the movie, with non-anamorphic letterboxing that preserves the original 2.35:1 aspect ratio. The transfer is very good, starting with a good-quality source print that seems only to have a few dust speckles and the odd scratch to mar it. The transfer has been handled carefully, keeping the image reasonably sharp and free of grain, while at the same time preserving solid blacks. The contrast is superb, providing an excellent dynamic range across the image. Also, the transfer engineers appear to have been very cautious with compression, as artifacts seem not to be present anywhere; edge enhancement is likewise not to be seen, with the exception of a couple of shots where the pattern on Eastwood's poncho causes some shimmering. The colors are vivid and accurate, and flesh tones look very good (there is a fairly broad range of flesh tones in this movie, thanks to the way various characters are made up). The sound is dual-channel mono and has undergone some cleaning and pressing. Effective use of noise reduction and re-equalization has been made, opening the dynamic range somewhat and providing clearer high and low ends. The soundtrack has also been maximized, which overcomes the disparity between the MGM/UA logo and the following film. The French soundtrack, also dual-channel mono, is much more confined to the mid-range, and appears to have been maximized to the limit, with some evident distortion and a constant rumble. Dubbing appears to be as accurate as it could be, considering the multiple-language nature of the original film, and subtitles are also included. The sole extra is a trailer for the movie -- curiously enough, this appears to be the U.K.-release trailer, which has an English narrator doing the hard sell. There are animated menus with sound and 32 chapter stops. The eight-page booklet enclosed with the DVD looks pretty, but is an absolute headache to read. ~ Steven E. McDonald, All Movie Guide