A Fistful of Dollars (1964, R)

A Fistful of Dollars is a memorable, hard and violent Spaghetti western directed by Sergio Leone and starring Clint Eastwood. This is arguably Eastwood’s breakout role, after the success of his TV series Rawhide, in which he starred.

            A Fistful of Dollars is a shoot em up type western, and has only a shallow level of depth beyond that.  That being said, I’ll get to the plot line.

            A lone, mysterious, American stranger (Clint Eastwood) rides into a dusty Mexican town riding on a mule.  He quickly shows his gunfighting skills by taking down four thugs with his pistol in a draw.  There are two warring gangs against each other, pitting against each other for control of the town.  On one side is the Baxter family, on the other side the Rojos.  The stranger, or perhaps more appropriately, the man with no name, gets hired by both gangs, and sets out to destroy both groups and restore peace to the town with his own sense of justice.

            A Fistful of Dollars is actually a remake of the Japanese film, Yojimbo, which was set in Japan and dealt with the samurai.  Leone, wanting to reinvent the western genre, took the plotline from Yojimbo and applied to here.  With Eastwood in the lead, the entertainment is great.

           

            Like I said up above, a Fistful of Dollars is a shoot em up, violent for its time western.  Its value as a story is lowly, and it all plays out with guns blazing and fists flying the entire time, and the violence never lets up.  We do, fortunately, get one insight into the purpose of the Stranger’s actions when he is asked by a family he is freeing why he is doing this.  He replies with my favorite line in the movie, “Why?  Because I knew someone like you once, and there was no one there to help. Now get moving”.  When they stay put, he says, “go on, get out of here!” and sends them scurrying on their way.

            The man with no name character is undoubtedly one of the most iconic western characters in film history.  The man with no name is not like your John Wayne type hero.  He fights dirty, will draw and shoot first, and speaks with as very few words as possible.  He wears a green poncho, with a sheepskin vest under that and black jeans.  His Colt Peacemaker six gun as a diamondback rattlesnake on the grips.

            The film all boils down to a classic western showdown, the kind of showdown that has been parodied all too many times. 

            Even after how iconic and original the film is, it’s not at all a masterpiece, and I wouldn’t even call this one a classic.  Mainly, it released Eastwood to stardom.  He starred in the film’s sequel, for a Few Dollars More, and the prequel, the Good, the Bad and the Ugly, which is one of the greatest westerns of all time.
Rating: ***