The second instalment of Sergio Leone's Dollars trilogy is the best and most influential of the three. Honing the stylised visuals and dark humour of the original, Leone takes this opportunity to develop such future genre staples as the uneasy alliance against a common foe and the three-way shoot-out. But, while the pursuit of bandit Gian Maria Volonté by bounty hunters Clint Eastwood (motivated by greed) and Lee Van Cleef (driven by revenge) forms the core of the action, it's the attention to everyday detail and the symbols of a passing era (religion and the railroad) that give this operatic classic its distinctive aura.

Two bounty hunters both pursue the brutal and sadistic bandit, El Indio, who has a large bounty on his head.