A FISTFUL OF DOLLARS (1964)

Director: Sergio Leone

Writers: Adriano Bolzoni, Mark Lowell, Victor Andrés Catena, Sergio Leone, Jaime Comas Gil, (and the following uncredited writers) Akira Kurosawa, Ryûzô Kikushima, Fernando Di Leo, Duccio Tessari, Tonino Valerii

Producer: Arrigo Colombo, Giorgio Papi, Pietro Santini

Cast: Clint Eastwood, Gian Maria Volontè, Marianne Koch, José Calvo, Margarita Lozano. Wolfgang Lukschy, Sieghardt Rupp, Antonio Prieto, Joseph Egger, Daniel Martin, Benito Stefanelli, Mario Brega, Bruno Carotenuto, Aldo Sambrell 

A gunslinger stranger (Clint Eastwood) rides into the small town of San Miguel just south of the Texas border. He finds that two feuding crime families dominate the town: the Rojos and the Baxters. The stranger decides that there is a lot of money to be made by playing the families against each other. 

The Flashback Fanatic movie review

An unofficial remake of the Japanese film Yojimbo (1961), A Fistful of Dollars is truly historic. It established the Italian-made “spaghetti western” as an internationally successful film genre and launched the international star status of American actor Clint Eastwood. Director Sergio Leone’s intense and stylish take on the Western genre changed it forever.

Death hovers over nearly every scene in the film. The arrival of Eastwood’s “Man with No Name” character immediately results in violence. Our assumptions that he will be the hero to set things right are challenged through out most of the story. He is an antihero that sees the grim situation of a town almost entirely populated by two rival gangs as an opportunity to exploit for wads of cash. Of course, he often has to use his deadly gun fighting skills to achieve his goals. Nobody could have played the part better than Eastwood, and he deserves all the success that followed. 

The “Man with No Name” character that Eastwood plays in this first of three films is so effective because we know nothing about him. He has an air of mystery about him that is due to him simply not telling anybody much of anything. In his world, all anyone needs to know is that he is looking for work as a gun fighter. The less anyone knows, the easier it is for him to turn things to his advantage. 

This film established the laconic attitude and individualism that would typify Eastwood’s characters in the multitude of films he would continue to headline. It takes an actor with real presence to pull off a role like this without seeming to be just an affected poser. Of course, it is Eastwood in this less-is-more role and performance that established most of the image many action heroes of later years vainly hope to achieve. Most of them come off as pale imitations. 

Eastwood’s impact is aided enormously by a great director in Sergio Leone. There is a style shown here that still seems fresh and exciting, no matter how many other directors in the decades since have been influenced by it. Gone is all idealism in people and society. Leone’s world of the old American West is populated by brutal characters dealing with the fragile beginnings of civilization being cobbled together in a barren wilderness. His films are full of men with striking and unusual features covered in stubble and sweat. Leone lavishes plenty of close ups on the many interesting faces he casts in his films. The testosterone levels reach the saturation point when the voices being dubbed for these barbarians sound so deep and guttural that they seem animalistic. 

The chief villain here is Ramón Rojo. He is one of three brothers that lead the Rojo gang of liquor sellers competing with the gunrunning Baxter family to control the town. While his marksmanship and quick thinking are admirable, Ramón is such a macho showoff and ruthless sociopath that you really have to hate his guts. Gian Maria Volontè is so commanding and despicable as Ramón, that he makes a welcome return as a different villain in the sequel For a Few Dollars More (1965). 

Director Leone not only infused the Western with a brutal and selfish cynicism, he energized it with gritty and melodramatic style. His interest in the music used in his Westerns was as important as the cinematography and the staging of his action scenes. He began his collaboration with composer Ennio Morricone on this film with fantastic results. The music punches up the emotions of every scene as well as establishing a break from the American attitude in this movie genre. Morricone’s music, as well as Leone’s directorial style, has become a classic standard for the Western film.