A Fistful of Dollars
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Movie Reviews of A Fistful of Dollars
Movie Review: The film that started a career
Summary: 5 Stars
A Fistful of Dollars is the first of the classic Sergio Leone Dollars trilogy and also the film that helped skyrocket Clint Eastwood to the top. Borrowed from a Akira Kurosawa film, the story centers around a gunman who appears in a town with two rival families trying to control everything. For his own profit, the gunman begins to play both families until finally it all blows up in a huge gunfight. This is a classic spaghetti western that should not be missed. The whole genre is different from the often idealized hero portrayed in American westerns. The spaghetti westerns threw all the cliches on their side and instead used their own including the anti-hero, extreme close-ups, sadistic villains, and eerie musical soundtracks.Clint Eastwood plays the role of the Man with no Name, even though he is called "Joe" in this one. His squinting, cigar-chomping gunman set the stage for westerns from then all the way until now. Gina Maria Volonte stars as the violent leader of the Rojo family. In the DVD check out the credits. Almost all the names of the Italian actors were changed for the American release. Volonte would later return in For a Few Dollars more as the evil Indio. The rest of the cast consists mainly of spaghetti western regulars, most notably Mario Brega. Once again Ennio Morricone gives us another haunting soundtrack that must be mentioned when talking about these movies. The DVD is relatively cheap but still offers fullscreen and widescreen, great theatrical trailer, and a booklet full of interesting information. A must have for fans of spaghetti westerns!
Movie Review: Shoot 'em Up, Indeed!
Summary: 5 Stars
Western movies. We used to call them "shoot 'em ups" because everyone was carrying a gun and a large number of people ended up getting shot in a creative variety of ways. I'd sort of forgotten about that but last night my wife and I watched "A Fistful of Dollars," a spaghetti western staring Clint Eastwood. It was a good movie but, man, I can't even begin to add up the casualties. There were handguns, rifles, shotguns and machine guns. Bad guys, good guys, soldiers and even a woman bit the dust. A small town casket maker was the leading beneficiary of all this mayhem, except that by the end of the movie there was almost no one left in town.
In any case, the movie concerned one of those memorable Eastwood loner characters who manages to pit two rival gangs of bad guys against one another until finally Eastwood, himself, gets trapped and beaten to a pulp and barely escapes death. Not a wise move! He recovers, of course, and comes back to finish off the remainder of the bad guys, which almost included the remainder of the town. It's a good story, very well done by director Sergio Leone, if you can stand the violence. Beautiful settings and photography. Nice music. Good acting. Interesting story. Highly entertaining. If all the guns, fights, assorted violence and death bothers you, well there's always "The Sound of Music."
Gary Peterson
Movie Review: Best of the "man with no name" trilogy
Summary: 5 Stars
I think people are missing the point of this film when they focus on the action sequence. The underlying theme of the entire movie is one of self sacrifice for what is right and just. It is wrong to conclude that main the character (clint eastwood) pits the two gangs against each other for the money. If that is the case, then why does he give it ALL away to Marisol, to whom he owes NO obligation or favors, at the risk of his own life? Fortunately for the viewers, Marisol does ask why. His answer is "..because...I used to know someone like you..and there was no one to help.." (probably referring to his own mother whom he was powerless to rescue from the raping bandits). That one line says EVERYTHING about his past, his motivation, and the theme of the movie. The director goes to great length to convince the viewer the "man with no name" has no morals. In fact, he seems downright evil and greedy, as he constantly says "I don't work for cheap" and seems to be ready for hire for any sordid duties asked of him for the right price. Only in the very brief and defining moment of the movie (when he rescues Marisol, her son, and her husband) we see him as he truly is. Unlike most westerns, the man does not waste words preaching righteousness, he lets his actions speak for themselves. It is the moral subtlety of this movie which makes it great.Movie Review: THE SAMURAI AND THE GUN
Summary: 5 Stars
Astonishing remake of Akira Kurosawa's YOJIMBO, FISTFUL OF DOLLARS, directed by italian director Sergio Leone, deserves to be in every movie lover's library. In Toshiro Mifune's role, Clint Eastwood gave a performance that established him as one of the greatest american star of the next forty years.With an international cast of german, italian, spanish and american actors, FISTFUL OF DOLLARS could have been only an ordinary B-movie of the early 60's. On the contrary, this movie has become the symbol of the revival of a dying Hollywood genre - the western - and will be followed by dozens of imitations until the definitive burial of the genre by Clint Eastwood with the masterpiece UNFORGIVEN.
The villain, played by Gian-Maria Volontè, is so terrific that Sergio Leone will hire this wonderful italian actor to play the role of Indio, the bad guy of FOR A FEW DOLLARS MORE, with the result we all know.
I was a little bit anxious before playing the DVD ; the bad quality of the image of FOR A FEW DOLLARS MORE was still on my mind. But, don't worry - be happy, the copy was in almost perfect state and the transfer well done. Subtitles and a trailer as bonus features.
A DVD for your library.
Movie Review: Might be the best of the Spaghetti's
Summary: 5 Stars
This film has as much chutzpah as the first record albums from Jimi Hendrix and Led Zeppelin. As far as Western's go, director Sergio Leone abandoned all the Hollywood cliches and makeup artists to make a film that stands as the grittiest of all the Westerns, and since Westerns are about grit, I think this one is the best. Clint Eastwood's dialogue is as sparse as in the other "Dollar" movies, and although this film is shorter than the other two (The Good the Bad and the Ugly, For a Few Dollars More) I think Clint has more memorable lines, and certainly his most memorable -- "My mule don't like people laughin'..." Meanwhile, Gian Maria Volonte's diabolically empassioned performance as the cruel "town boss" Ramon Rojo is truly memorable, displaying why he is as popular in Italy as Clint is in America.Ennio Morricone's film score is as great as you would expect, and I could say more about this film but other reviewers have done some excellent work. I just wanted to say that I rate this one slightly above The Good the Bad and the Ugly; both of these a half-tick better than A Few Dollars More, but all three are better than any Hollywood western you are ever likely to see.