A Fistful of Dollars (1967)

The first classic in the Spaghetti Western genre - a remake of Kurosawa's Yojimbo

This 1964 film was the first of what came to be called "Spaghetti Westerns" and took then TV star Clint Eastwood and made him into a major Movie Star. If you look on IMDG at Clint Eastwood's career you will be amazed at how rich and varied it has been. Star of all kinds of movies, director of many films, producer, writer, and much more. Just amazing.

This film is Sergio Leone's remake of Kurosawa's wonderful "Yojimbo" (1961) and uses guns instead of swords just as John Sturges's "The Magnificent Seven" had done with "The Seven Samurai" (1954) in 1960. In both films, an unnamed stranger shows up in a town torn between two crime families. The stranger proves his ability with a gun in one and a sword in the other. He is courted by both sides, and angers both by taking payment and doing `chores' for both sides. A local tavern owner and a carpenter employed making coffins befriends him and pay for that later. The stranger also sees a family whom he helps to his terrible cost.

In the end, he gets the two sides to fight and all but destroy each other while he cleans up those who remain on the winning side.

Eastwood uses such a taciturn style that it became a trademark for many years. He uses few words, and the fighting comes in separated torrents rather than wall-to-wall blood as it might have seemed in 1964.

Rated R for violence that seems somewhat tame by today's standards. We see worse and more gruesome stuff on almost any episode of CSI.

A classic that is worth seeing or seeing again.

Reviewed by Craig Matteson, Ann Arbor, MI
May 8, 2008

A great Eastwood Spaghetti western classic

This is one of the "man with no name" spaghetti western movies. Clint, bounty hunter, rides into a town where his horse is scared off by several of the local bullies and leaves Clint horseless and hanging onto a saloon sign. After a drink and chat with the bartender, he approaches the thugs and asks them to apologize to his horse. They try to draw on him, but, in cool fashion, Clint guns them all down. Later, he recognizes an opportunity to be a hired gun for one of the town's gang families. Things are going well for him in playing both sides against each other until he gives in to a moment of conscience. He pays for it, but comes back to deal out some hard western justice.

April 28, 2008

Sergio Leone directed several masterpieces--this isn't one of them

Here's where it all began: the first of director Sergio Leone's "spaghetti westerns" and the movie that launched Clint Eastwood's career. Leone and Eastwood would go on to have many triumphs both together and apart, but when this film is stripped of its historical importance what's left is an average-at-best western. A low-budget affair marred by ugly photography and bad audio dubbing, FISTFUL's thin plot is cribbed from Kurosawa's YOJIMBO (and, indirectly, Dashiell Hammett's novel RED HARVEST) but lacks the artistry of its sources. The result is a disappointingly dull, uninvolving film. Even its meager compensations--some decent action sequences and a great Ennio Morricone score--would be topped in later efforts. This has none of the operatic grandeur or masterful vision with which we associate Leone; if you're looking for a good entry point into his work, check out the brilliant ONCE UPON A TIME IN THE WEST. This one's safe to skip. March 20, 2008

Sergio Leone's masterful version of Akira Kurosawa's "Yojimbo", was the first important Spaghetti Western

This epic cinema classic in western, filmed in Italy, West Germany and Spain, was the first major film by Italian master filmaker Sergio Leone, introducing one of the most recognizable characters in film history: The stone cold killer cowboy, always cool, silent mercenary and head-hunter, bulls-eye expert shooter, the man with "no name". Ice cold look, no emotions, and incredible "poncho" wearing cynical gun fighter, our man Clint Eastwood. Of course 20 spaghetti westerns were produced before this one, but why is this film so important?

The plot, as we all know, was taken almost intact from Akira Kurosawa's Samurai film masterpiece "Yojimbo", when the first cool killer was portayed by Toshiro Mifune, and the influence shows along with the script in every aspect. If Mifune slices 4 guys in 3 seconds, Eastwood shoots down 4 guys in 2 seconds, and that's a fact not totally based on weapons choice, but on the lethal impact of the character for the situation. The honor and violent sense of justice are just other factors to mention. Despite those "re-make" factors, this is a major film by it's own terms, mostly because of the style and aesthetics in such a different filmaker, because Sergio Leone is detailed and precise in his work, with extreme close-ups, extreme characters, artistic pictures of the landscapes and of course the haunting music by Ennio Morricone. The low budget shows in the production, but this factor made Leone make more character emphasis in my opinion, and this newborn legend that is Clint Eastwood, who flew away from a declining acting carrer in Hollywood, was a major succes and a final influence in the cowboy stereotype.

This new "amorality" in the lines of what's good or bad of this anti-hero epic was the most remembered piece of history in here. Maybe John ford's "the searchers" was acclaimed as the end of traditional westerns in the early 50's , but it's nothing like this. This cult masterpiece is the "Reservoir dogs" of westerns, it broke conventional standards and turned the western industry, spaghetti or not, upside down, like Tarantino's classic did to ganster films in the early 90's. It's all about the entertaining sofysticated style, artistic quality, deepness of characters, storytelling and music scores. All mixed in a masterful fashion, in a way only an Art director knows how to balance.

This raw and violent portrayal of Honor and cynisism was more stylised and solid than the previos S.W, and spawned the two well known sequels of the famous Leone's western trilogy, ended by one of the most Epic masterpieces in the history of filmaking "the good, the bad, and the ugly". Old story, but it's impossible to understand the western movie industry without this important reference, simple as that. The prolific careers of Leone, morricone and Eastwood "started" here.

I will not refer to this new 2 disc DVD edition, cause the extended-edited remastered editions VS original releases is too much of a controversial issue. I don't blame anyone for being a die-hard collector or a passionate fan of the genre or Leone's trilogy. I just want to express my admiration for this important classic western.

Good luck, and enjoy this first, but in my opinion less strong of the trilogy, classic action western. March 14, 2008

fist full of dollars--

a young clint eastwood in a young western that makes no sense!! I didn't like it! IT was extremely unbelievable, especially the one scene that a machine gun hidden in the back of a wagon has killed an entire calvary troop but only kills two horses. I just don't think this is one of his best movies March 12, 2008

More reviews at Amazon.com ...