We go back and forth about which of Sergio Leone’s mid-sixties spaghetti Westerns is our favorite, like an indecisive diner trying to choose between their four favorite pie flavors at Bakers Square. Right now we lean toward For a Few Dollars More, but if anyone wanted to argue for West, the last, longest and most operatic of the quartet, we wouldn’t make them draw pistols at high noon. On the downside, Charles Bronson’s expressionless, flinty hero is simply not as compelling as the expressionless, flinty hero played by Clint Eastwood in the previous three films. And the pacing is, truth be told, pretty slow. But Leone did pull off a brilliant bit of stunt casting by convincing Henry Fonda, for the only time in his career, to be the bad guy. He’s just terrific. Those clear blue eyes, icons of benevolence in everything else he did, here become emblems of pure and icy evil.
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