Tag: Clint Eastwood

For a Few Dollars More

As I said the other day, I was about 30 minutes into For a Few Dollars More.

Well now I’ve finished it.

Wow.

I loved it even more than A Fistful of Dollars.

It had a bigger scale, and featured the excellent Lee Van Cleef.

The man with no name and Van Cleef are both competing Bounty Hunters, both in search of a villainous gang leader with a big price on his head.

After an excellent display of skill between the two of them in the dead of night, they decide to join forces to get their hands on the gang leader and the other members — all with varying prices on their heads.

Clint Eastwood
Lee Van Cleef

What follows is an unfolding story that keeps its secret right till the end — right before one of the best film endings I’ve ever experienced.

The ending isn’t huge and flashy. But the way it reveals its secret, followed by the music cue as a showdown begins, is just incredible.

It elevated the already enjoyable film into one that instantly became one of my favourites.

Now at the time of writing I am 30 minutes into The Good, The Bad and The Ugly. I have more memories of this one than the previous two, but I’m looking forward to the rest of it with my new-found appreciation for the western genre.

An American, a Mexican and an Irishman…

I’ve started watching films again.

Robert DeNiro as The Irishman
Clint Eastwood as The Man with no name

The Irishman

Firstly, I started with Martin Scorsese’s The Irishman.

Loved it.

The main cast have been great in everything I’ve seen them in. And this film was no different.

A masterclass.

For me it had those Jackie Brown vibes, in that a lot of it felt like I was just chilling out with these characters for most of it. Characters I quickly became fond of, despite their dubious business dealings.

And until I saw the conversation between Martin Scorsese and Pacino, De Niro and Pesci afterwards, I had no idea it was all based on a true story.

It took me three sittings to watch it as it was done between sleeps (raising a 2 month old)

Despite it being such a long film, I actually wished it was longer.

A Fistfull of Dollars

The first spaghetti western, and the film that launched Clint Eastwood’s film career.

A Fistfull of Dollars is cool as hell.

The man with no name wanders into a western town where two families are at war with each other.

So he decides to cleverly pit them against one another for his own gains.

I had seen this many years ago, but for some reason westerns didn’t do much for me. That was until I experienced the Red Dead Redemption games, especially the story of Arthur Morgan in Red Dead Redemption 2

Since then I have been eager to explore more of the genre.

To be honest I think I’m trying to re-experience what I got with Red Dead Redemption 2, but with other stories.

But Arthur Morgan is always there at the back of my mind.

Sobs.

I loved this film.

Trivia: this features the scene featured in Back to the Future part 2, and the emulation that Marty performs in Back to the Future part 3.

At the time of writing I am 30 minutes into “For a Few Dollars More”.

Only taking breaks as I only get chance to see them at night when I have baby duties and of course at that point I’m knackered.

But I’ll get there eventually.

And at least my little girl is getting a good film education early.