A Fistful Of Dollars

A Fistful of Dollars (Per Un Pugno Di Dollari) (1964)

Runtime: 100 minutes

Directed by: Sergio Leone

Starring: Eastwood, Gian Maria Volonte, Wolfgang Lukschy, Sieghardt Rupp, Marianne Koch

From: Several European companies

It was about time I saw this again so I could give it a proper review, which you can read below: 

Last night-as sometimes happens-I struggled for a time trying to figure out what I should watch. Finally, I realized I hadn't seen a Western in awhile (it's probably a genre which will always be underrepresented by me) and I hadn't seen any one of these three movies in years so this seemed the most logical way to go. I am glad that I still think it's great, and I say FAFDM and TGTBTU are even better. It is a rare accomplishment for one film to help revitalize an entire genre and spawn a sub-genre of its own, but that's what this did and for at least a decade afterwards we got plenty of Spaghetti Western films, most of which did not come close to this in terms of quality and entertainment.

Most people know by now... the plot is a remake of Yojimbo-which is a great film too, and in the future I'll do a better review of that-it was unauthorized and Toho sued, but that's what it was; The Man With No Name (who actually does have a name here: Joe) ends up in a random Mexican border town which is dominated by two sets of bad guys, and they have ruined the area. Joe manipulates things so those two are feuding and eliminating each other, with a final showdown that Alternate Timeline 1985 Biff Tannen loves, for those that remember the Back to the Future sequels.

What a difference this was from the old Westerns of the past; things are real gritty and hard-hitting, with pretty nasty bad guys that do some pretty awful things, and a badass hero who is taciturn and is cynical, yet still befriends an unlikely person and he definitely is willing to fix an injustice that happens against some weak characters. Not everything goes to plan but he's still awesome as he's both great with his pistol and is intelligent.

It's not just Eastwood's performance which is awesome; so it the way that Sergio Leone filmed the scenic Spanish countryside, including those legendary extreme close-ups. Morricone's score is incredible and is a big asset for the entire MWNN trilogy. The entire cast does well but it's Clint's show. If you've never seen any of these movies, it's a must for anyone on this forum to see all three movies, as this is captivating the entire time and it only gets better from here.