A Fistful of Dollars

A drifter gunman (Clint Eastwood) arrives in the Mexican village of San Miguel in the border of United States of America, and befriends the owner of the local bar Silvanito (Jose Calvo). The stranger discovers that the town is dominated by two gangster lords: John Baxter (W. Lukschy) and the cruel Ramón Rojo (Gian Maria Volontè – a.k.a. John Wells). When the stranger kills four men of the Baxter's gang, he is hired by Ramón's brother Esteban Rojo (S. Rupp) to join their gang. However, the stranger plots a scheme working for both sides and playing one side against the other.

"Per un Pugno di Dollari" is a milestone in the history of the cinema, since the genre of "Spaghetti Westerns" didn't really exist previous to this movie. Sergio Leone used the storyline of Akira Kurosawa's "Yojimbo", replacing the samurai without a master ("ronin") Sanjuro Kuwabatake performed by Toshirô Mifune and the scenario of the rural Japanese town in Nineteenth Century by the stranger without a name (Clint Eastwood) and a small Mexican town in the border of the Wild and Far West. The result is a magnificent and remarkable movie, and beginning of the trilogy of Clint Eastwood's character Joe, who proves that "a man with a rifle beats a man with .45", completed by "Per Qualche Dollaro in Più" and "Il Buono, il Brutto, il Cattivo", . My vote is eight.

Title (Brazil): "Por um Punhado de Dólares" ("For a Fistful of Dollars")

A one man vigilante enters town, proceeds to take four shooters down without a frown, the filling of, a feudal sandwich, allies to both, presents his own pitch, it's not too long before his masterplan is blown. As the barrels start to role and then cascade, cadavers keep the coffin man in trade, the bullets ricochet, will our Joe make his payday, or will the bandits and the smugglers have their say.

It's hard to believe this 1964 western is as engaging as it was when I first watched it as a kid growing up. I've enjoyed its company many times since, as well as that of Yojimbo upon which it was based; the timeless tale of one man doing the right thing, fighting the corrupt and the crooked, just for a fistful of dollars or, in modern parlance, a computer full of crypto - I know which I prefer.

In the middle '20's, Dashiell Hammett (best known as author of "The Maltese Falcon") wrote'Red Harvest", in which a nameless private eye (also alcoholic, a status shared by many Hammett heroes) is hired to clean up a small town kept in fear by two warring boot-leg mobs.

I believe "Red Harvest" did make it to film in the '30's, but I haven't been able to track that down and never saw it.

In 1961, Akira Kurosawa brought a version of the story to the screen in "Yojimbo', with Toshiro Mifune playing the nameless hero. Kurosawa and Mifune add an earthiness to the hero lacking in Hammett's tension filled original: Mifune's samurai is always scratching, eating, cringing or sneering. Perhaps this is to make up for the subtraction of the element of alcoholism that was the chief weakness of Hammett's anti-hero. But it also has the effect of rounding out the character so that he becomes human to us in a way Hammett's anti-hero is not.

In 1965, an Italian director, not yet credited with completed film, Sergio Leone, was hired to do a typical "spaghetti western" of the era. Instead, he remade 'Yojimbo" (without giving credit to the original, by the way) as "A Fistful of Dollars". The failure to credit "Yojimbo" as inspiration raises some ethical questions - but it must be noted that Kurosawa himself made no reference to Hammett in the credits to "Yojimbo"! In any event, "A Fistful.(...)" is a young director's film, full of flaws; but it has an undeniable black-humor and is crisply directed, with some striking visuals that seem to come out of nowhere, given the genre context in which the film is made. The nameless hero is played with a particular coolness by Clint Eastwood, which undercuts the earthiness- the scratching and scruffiness - that remains from the Mifune version - Eastwood's anti-hero rarely eats, and never cringes or sneers. The pivotal torture scene from Yojimbo remains, given a peculiar brutality by the addition of a pan of the expressionless faces of the onlooking outlaws. This scene - predicated on Eastwood's unwillingness to give up the young family he has saved, is finally what makes him a hero. Is it enough? Well. if not, he's certainly one stinky of a masochist, taking a beating like that for nothing. In a world as corrupt as that in which our hero finds himself, it is the smaller sacrifices that determine the ethics of a man. Remaining silent is sometimes the boldest statement to make; it was good enough for Kurosawa and Leone; it's good enough for me.

e.j. winner

'A Fistful Of Dollars' is a wonderful movie which, despite having an enormous following of fans around the world, sometimes gets unfairly dismissed in my opinion. For two reasons - firstly because the second and third movie in Leone/Eastwood "Man With No Name" trilogy ('For A Few Dollars More' and 'The Good, The Bad and The Ugly') are so damn good it's easy to overlook this one. Despite being made on a much tighter budget and being less ambitious than the sequels to follow, it's still one of the greatest westerns ever made in my opinion. The second reason is the Yojimbo thing. Now movie buffs frequently slam 'A Fistful Of Dollars' as being a rip off of Kurosawa's 'Yojimbo', which I think is extremely misleading. I'm not disputing that Leone was familiar with Kurosawa (I have no idea one way or the other), but one name I rarely hear ANYONE mention is Dashiel Hammett. Hammett's hard boiled crime classic 'Red Harvest' was published THIRTY YEARS before 'Yojimbo' and features the same central premise of an anti-hero playing two rival groups off against each other. So if anyone deserves acknowledgement as uncredited inspiration for Leone (AND Kurosawa) it's Hammett. Anyway, this is an absolutely brilliant movie and it launched Clint Eastwood, a popular TV actor, into being a major movie star, and likewise put Sergio Leone on the map. I can't recommend 'A Fistful Of Dollars' highly enough, it's pure entertainment, and very, very cool!

The epitome of the S.W. is violent , beautifully crafted and exaggerated . This was the first S.W. to receive a major international release . It is a remake of Yojimbo (1961), which itself was based on 1929 novel "Red Harvest" by Dashiell Hammett . It pits ¨Man with no name¨ against two families that are feuding over business : the Baxter (Wolfgang Lukschy , Margarita Lozano) and the Rojo (Gian Maria Volonte , Antonio Pietro , Sieghardt Rupp) . Meanwhile , Eastwood saves a damsel in distress (Marianne Koch) , her husband (Daniel Martin) and son . ¨Man with no name¨ is helped by Silvanito (José Calvo) and an old gravedigger , Piripero (Joseph Egger).

This classic Western contains slow and deliberating filming , elaborate shoot-outs , and portentous close-ups of grime-encrustred faces with bloodbaths included . A remake to Yojimbo by Akira Kurosawa , in fact he sued the filmmakers for breach of copyright . The impact of this Spaghetti opened the gate for the huge numbers of Italian-Spanish Western which made fortune for their producers and directors in the sixties and early seventies . This has been described as the first "spaghetti western", but when this film was made , there had already been about 25 such westerns produced in Italy . This one made Eastwood an international star and previously better-known for his running character in TV series ¨Rawhide¨. Leone did revive his career almost instantly on the strength of this film , though the role was formerly offered to Charles Bronson , Frank Wolff , Rory Calhoun , Steve Reeves and Richard Harrison . In fact , Richard Harrison was the one who suggested Clint Eastwood to Sergio Leone when the famed director was looking for the main actor , as Harrison said : Maybe my greatest contribution to cinema was not doing Fistful of Dollars , and recommending Clint for the part . Leone came to the set of ¨Rawhide¨ intending to recruit Eric Fleming for the lead in the upcoming "A Fistful of Dollars" , due to Fleming's off putting personality, Leone looked elsewhere , director Charles Marquis Warren suggested Eastwood as an alternative . As all of Eastwood's later Western and his ¨Dirty Harry¨ movies owe a considerable debt to Leone . Furthermore , here appears Leone's habitual secondaries , acting as ominous hoodlums , such as : Mario Brega , Aldo Sambrell , Antonio Molino Rojo , Lorenzo Robledo , Jose Canalejas , Frank Braña , among them.

It's a slick remake of Akira Kurosawa's Yojimbo , the plot is mainly ripped off from classic Japanese , as Kurosawa wrote to Leone reclaiming the copyright . Ultimatelly , the Toho (Yojimbo's producer) obtained the rights of exhibition and received 15% of the film's worldwide gross and exclusive distribution rights for Asian countries . ¨Fistful of dollars¨ was filmed in low-budget during seven weeks on location in Golden City (Sierra of Madrid) , and Almeria : Albaricoques and Tabernas ; besides , interiors located on Roman Cinecitta studios . In the premiere the main cast and technicians were replaced by American names as John Welles (Gian Maria Volonte) , master of arms Benny Reeves (Benito Stefanelli), Dan Savio (Ennio Morricone who composed a groundbreaking and streaking soundtrack) , designer production by Charles Simons (Carlo Simi) and even Bob Robertson (Sergio Leone) ; nowadays , justly stay the true names . For Leone enthusiastic with his usual trademarks , it's full of which made his films so memorable, others might find it a bit long but no one can deny its sense of style what achieved a great burst of world-wide popularity .