For a Few Dollars More

60th anniversary screening in a digitally restored print. In collaboration with Athens Kallithea FC.

Directed by: Sergio Leone
Starring: Clint Eastwood, Lee Van Cleef, Gian Maria Volonté, Klaus Kinski
Duration: 132’
Year of Production: 1965

The blazing sun. The desolate (Mediterranean) landscape. The sweat. The dirt. The blood—bright red, cinematic blood. The sound of revolvers. The ticking of clocks. Clint’s piercing gaze. Lee Van Cleef’s sharp cheekbones. Volonté’s hysterical laughter. Leone’s claustrophobic close-ups. Morricone’s brass and percussion. This is how a cinematic legend is composed.

Painting on a larger canvas and filming with a bigger budget, Sergio Leone twists the grammar of the traditional Western, presenting an amoral, “over-dramatized” version unlike anything seen before. He unleashes on audiences an ecstatic spectacle of image and sound, a celebration of style without which we couldn’t understand future action cinema—where the hero (?) is simply the one who manages to look just a little cooler than the rest of the scoundrels.

The film’s dimension and impact on pop culture are immeasurable. Attending the screening at the legendary “El Paso” stadium in Kallithea is a must: both so you can say years from now that you were there, and because Leone’s cinema belongs exclusively on the big screen. Giannis Basileiou