#755. For a Few Dollars More (1965)

Directed By: Sergio Leone

Starring: Clint Eastwood, Lee Van Cleef, Gian Maria Volonté




Tag line: "It's the second motion picture of its kind! It won't be the last!"

Trivia: Before the opening credits, the whistling heard in the background is actually director Sergio Leone

After a bit part in High Noon, Lee Van Cleef went on to appear in dozens of movies and television shows (mostly westerns) throughout the 1950s and into the ‘60s, proving time and again that he was a solid character actor. The two films he made with Sergio Leone, For a Few Dollars More and The Good, The Bad and The Ugly, would finally make him a star.

Monco (Clint Eastwood) is a bounty hunter, hot on the trail of the notorious bandit, El Indio (Gian Maria Volonté), a murderer with a huge price on his head. But there’s more than one gunslinger after this particular reward. Col. Douglas Mortimer (Van Cleef) is Monco’s chief rival in the hunt, and the two even try joining forces to track down their elusive prey, though it’s a tentative partnership at best. Will they find Indio and bring him to justice, or will Monco and the Colonel end up shooting each other before they finish the job?

Leone is no stranger to staging a quality showdown; the opening of Once Upon a Time in the West and the ending of The Good, The Bad and The Ugly are proof of that. For a Few Dollars More features a handful of exciting showdowns, including the first meeting between Monco and Col. Mortimer (while there’s no blood shed, each one inflicts some fairly heavy damage on the others hat before it’s through). Of course, a Leone gunfight wouldn’t be complete without the great music of composer Ennio Morricone, whose whistles and trumpets always set the perfect mood.

The role of Mortimer was originally offered to several actors, including Charles Bronson (who wasn't interested) and Lee Marvin (who had already committed to Cat Ballou). In a pinch, Leone hired Van Cleef, despite the fact the actor had only worked as a bit player to that point, and almost always on the wrong side of the law (Ride Lonesome, The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance). Though more at home portraying criminals, Van Cleef succeeded in bringing a heroic charisma to the part of Mortimer, and is really quite excellent. But his turn as a good guy would come to an end, albeit temporarily, with For a Few Dollars More. In a year’s time, he’d again share the screen with Eastwood in The Good, The Bad and The Ugly, playing one of the most ruthless characters in his long career.

And in the process, a Spaghetti Western star was born.

#745. The Good, The Bad and The Ugly (1966)

Directed By: Sergio Leone

Starring: Clint Eastwood, Eli Wallach, Lee Van Cleef





Tag line: "For Three Men The Civil War Wasn't Hell. It Was Practice!"

Trivia: Clint Eastwood wore the same poncho through all three "Man with No Name" movies without replacement or cleaning

The Good, the Bad and the Ugly was the third and final chapter in director Sergio Leone’s “Dollars Trilogy”, a series that included 1964s A Fistful of Dollars and ‘65s For a Few Dollars More, and in the opinion of many fans and critics alike, this last entry is easily the best of the bunch.

As the American Civil War rages on, three gunslingers search for a hidden fortune in gold. Tuco (Eli Wallach) knows that the money is buried in a graveyard, but his old partner, Blondie (Clint Eastwood) - whom Tuco tried to kill at one point - is the only person who knows which headstone it’s under. Their tenuous partnership finds the two traveling miles in every direction, always one step ahead - or one behind - the violent war that is devastating the territory. 

Before long, the duo discovers that a third man, the tight-lipped assassin Sentezza (Lee Van Cleef), is also after the gold, and is ready to kill whoever stands in his way. Blondie and Tuco must work together to beat Sentezza to the cemetery, all the while looking for new and exciting ways to stab each other in the back. 

In fact, the only certainty in this whole fiasco is that before any one man can walk off with the loot, he’ll more than likely have to put a bullet in each of the other two!

I realize it’s a bit of a cliché to say that a film is “chock full of action”, but in the case of The Good, the Bad and the Ugly, it’s the absolute truth. Within the first hour, there are twelve shootings, three failed hangings (and one that’s successful), four getaways, two paid bounties, a showdown, and a robbery.  On top of that, the Confederate Army pulls out of a town just before Union cannons reduce it to rubble, and a complex double-cross leads to a manhunt that brings about a brutal revenge under the hot desert sun. 

All of this in a single hour, or approximately one-third of the film’s running time. And rest assured, the remainder of the movie is every bit as thrilling, featuring further run-ins with both the Union and Confederate armies (in a humorous scene, Blondie and Tuco, disguised as Confederates, try to flag down what they believe is a small troop of southern cavalrymen, only to be taken prisoner when the soldiers dust off their grey uniforms to reveal they’re actually blue underneath), and a final showdown between the three main characters that might be the most dramatic in movie history, with plenty of extreme close-ups punctuated by the stirring score of Ennio Morricone.

While I’ll always be a fan of Leone’s Once Upon a Time in the West, The Good, the Bad and the Ugly is his crowning achievement, an epic adventure that is shocking, engaging, poignant, and electrifying.

And that’s just the first hour!

#644. Once Upon a Time in America (1984)

Directed By: Sergio Leone

Starring: Robert De Niro, James Woods, Elizabeth McGovern



Tag line: "As boys, they said they would die for each other. As men, they did"

Trivia:  The U.S. distributor reportedly failed to file the proper paperwork so that Ennio Morricone's score, regarded as one of his best, could be put up for nomination for an Academy Award

There was a stretch of about six months in the late '80s when I watched Sergio Leone's Once Upon a Time in America every single week, which had my family and friends questioning my sanity. 

How could I repeatedly sit through a 229-minute movie, they asked, especially one that no longer held any surprises for me? 

Of course, those posing such questions had never seen the film, so...

Once Upon a Time in America is the story of a group of street-wise kids who went after their share of the American Dream the only way they could. Starting at an early age, running errands for local New York crime bosses in the 1920s, David “Noodles” Aaronson (Robert DeNiro) and his friends, Max (James Woods), Patsy (James Hayden) and Cockeye (William Forsythe), soon blazed a trail into the world of organized crime. 

Aside from owning and operating a successful nightclub, where the booze continued to flow during the dark days of prohibition, the four also hired themselves out as hit men, usually handling jobs set up by gangster Frankie Minaldi (Joe Pesci). But when Max plans a daring, incredibly dangerous robbery, Noodles gets nervous, setting in motion a chain of events that will alter their lives forever.

Once Upon a Time in America is an extraordinary motion picture, from the way Leone follows his characters' meteoric rise in the criminal underworld to its stunning re-creation of early 20th century America, captured so vividly by cinematographer Tonino Delli Colli. In addition, the score composed by Ennio Morricone is among his finest ever, often relying on the gentle sound of a solitary flute to speak for the wounded souls of the film's protagonists. 

There are quiet, special moments, like when a young Noodles (played by Scott Tiler) peers at Deborah (Jennifer Connelly) through a peephole as she practices her dancing, or when Max meets Noodles outside the prison gates, a light rain adding a sense of melancholy to an otherwise happy reunion. There’s even magic in the violence, which Leone handles with his usual gusto. Once Upon a Time in America is a movie to cherish, a true work of art, and to dedicate nearly four hours to such a film is, in my opinion, a small sacrifice to make.

I think it was Roger Ebert who once said “No good movie is too long, and no bad movie is short enough”. Check out Once Upon a Time in America, and you'll know exactly what he means.

#100. Once Upon a Time in the West (1968)

Directed By: Sergio Leone

Starring: Henry Fonda, Charles Bronson, Claudia Cardinale




Tag line: "There were three men in her life. One to take her... one to love her... and one to kill her"

Trivia:  Future director John Landis was one of the stunt men on this film

The opening sequence of Sergio Leone's Once Upon a Time in The West, which features a showdown between Harmonica (played by Charles Bronson) and three trench-coated gunmen (Woody Strode, Jack Elam and Al Mulock), is a brilliantly paced, suspenseful bit of film making, punctuated by sharp, snappy dialogue. 

It's undoubtedly the most entertaining opening to a western I've ever seen - perhaps even the best ever committed to film, period - and was the perfect introduction to what proved a truly memorable experience. 

As the railroad pushes its way west, there are men pushing right along with it, draining as much money as they can from its rails. 

Frank (Henry Fonda) is one such man, a ruthless killer who won’t allow anything - or anybody - to stand in the way of profit. To obtain a valuable piece of property, Frank murders the current landowner (Frank Wolff) and his family in cold blood, then lays the blame for it at the feet of another notorious gunslinger named Cheyenne (Jason Robards). 

But it isn’t Frank’s lucky day. First, the landowner’s new wife, Jill (Claudia Cardinale), who the recently deceased married in a secret ceremony in New Orleans a month earlier, has just arrived by train, making her the legal heir to the dead man’s estate. Then there's the mysterious stranger, known only as Harmonica (Bronson), who has also rolled into town. Harmonica has an old score to settle, and won't rest until he shoots Frank dead. 

Throughout it’s entire 165 minutes, Once Upon a Time in the West remains just as intense, just as witty, and just as exciting as its first scene. But a funny thing happens as the movie progresses; while you’re sitting there, smiling at the unrestrained volatility of it all, you begin to notice that Once Upon a Time in the West is also a very beautiful film, with sweeping panoramas that vividly capture everything it's western setting has to offer. Cinematographer Tonino Delli Colli framed the movie as if every shot, every locale, every detail was of the utmost importance, and before long, he has us believing it as well. 

As a rule, I usually watch a movie at least three or four times before I rank it among my favorites. Through the years, I’ve only made two exceptions, adding a film after a single viewing, and only because it was so staggeringly excellent that keeping it off the list would've constituted a crime. 

The first was Chungking Express. 

The second, Once Upon a Time in the West. 

It was love at first sight.