The concluding part of Sergio Leone's Dollars trilogy is not only the most graphic of the three, but also surpasses the compassion and dark humour of its predecessors. There's nothing particularly new about a plotline involving buried treasure. But that's partly the point, as Leone is paying homage to the Hollywood western while revising its cherished traditions. Moreover, the story's deceptive simplicity allows Leone to interweave strands of communal and individual drama, which he throws into shocking relief against the bloody futility of the American Civil War. The genre had never witnessed such stylised violence, yet, while Lee Van Cleef and Eli Wallach unflinchingly accept it, Clint Eastwood can still spare some humanity for a dying soldier. Superbly scored by Ennio Morricone, this proved to be the benchmark for spaghetti westerns until Leone outdid himself with Once upon a Time in the West (1968).

While the Civil War rages on between the Union and the Confederacy, three men – a quiet loner, a ruthless hitman, and a Mexican bandit – comb the American Southwest in search of a strongbox containing $200,000 in stolen gold.