By the time Sergio Leone made this film,
Italians had already produced about 20 films ironically labelled
spaghetti westerns.
Leone approached the genre with great love and humor.
Although the plot was admittedly borrowed from Akira Kurosawa's
Yojimbo (1961), Leone managed to create a work of his own
that would serve as a model for many films to come.
Clint Eastwood plays a cynical gunfighter who comes to a small
border town and offers his services to two rivaling gangs.
Neither gang is aware of his double play, and each thinks
it is using him, but the stranger will outwit them both.
The picture was the first installment in a cycle commonly
known as the "Dollars" trilogy.
Later, United Artists, who distributed it in the U.S., coined
another term for it: the "Man With No Name" trilogy.
While not as impressive as its follow-ups For a Few Dollars
More (1965) and The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly (1966), A
Fistful of Dollars contains all of Leone's eventual trademarks:
taciturn characters, precise framing, extreme close-ups, and
the haunting music of Ennio Morricone.
Not released in the U.S. until 1967 due to copyright problems,
the film was decisive in both Clint Eastwood's career and
the recognition of the Italian western.
Cast:
Mario Brega, Marianne Koch, Wolfgang Lukschy, Gian Maria Volontè,
Clint Eastwood, Carla Calo, José Calvo, Margarita Lozano,
Antonio Prieto, Benny Reeves, Sieghardt Rupp
Director:
Sergio Leone |
