the spritual and somewhat necessary follow-up to the dollars trilogy, clint eastwood’s first western as a director proves to be the most visually experimental film within his oeuvre. at times the film borders on the genre conventions of horror, with the depiction of the death of the character of ‘the marshall’ being incredibly grim and suggestive, in line with the likes of exploitation horror films.

visually the film is nothing short of tremendous, especially within the towns transformation into an interpretation of hell authored by our protagonist (a literal man with no name, bringing to mind obvious parallels with leone’s dollars trilogy). as is to be expected with eastwood’s work the film is strictly paced, and perfectly so. saying that, there are deviations from the usual expectations, with flashbacks invisibly melded within the framework of the general structure. it all serves to add up to a rich experience tho, and while its not the greatest film in eastwood’s catalogue, its still a beautifully unique take on the western genre.