Two bounty hunters—Clint Eastwood’s Man with No Name and Lee van Cleef’s Confederate Army office Colonel Mortimer—find themselves rivals in pursuit of psychotic bandit Indio (Gian Maria Volonte) and his band of ruthless cutthroats (including mad Klaus Kinski as a hair-trigger hunchback). Eastwood and van Cleef have different motives—money and revenge, respectively—and neither can trust the other not to put a bullet in his back when their mission is completed.
Working with a bigger budget, director Sergio Leone hones all the elements of his unique style in this lengthy yet spectacular entertainment. Looking forward to his later masterpieces (‘The Good, the Bad and the Ugly’, ‘Once Upon a Time in the West’), the film deftly blends moments of quiet with sudden bursts of violence and devotes a surprising amount of screen time delving into the fractured mind of the crazed villain. Ennio Morricone’s score is one of his most memorable.