A Fistful of Dollars
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Movie Reviews of A Fistful of Dollars
Movie Review: Fistful of Dollars
Summary: 5 Stars
Totally sweet. If you ever hear a negative review concerning this movie, it is undoubtedly a woman or a girly man afraid of guns and the use of guns in general. People totally die all over the place, and Clint Eastwood doesn't care about their families or anything.Movie Review: A Fistful of Dollars
Summary: 5 Stars
The greatest western of all time (or one of them)! Clint is at his baddest-cool in this great tale of double crossing, "I'm gonna kick your ass" pistolero shootout. The first scene with the sensitive mule is one for the books!Movie Review: "My mule don't take kindly to laughin' "
Summary: 5 Stars
This is one of Eastwood's best westerns. It is very action packed and the DVD is super. If you like this also try Hang Em' High, Eastwood's first american western after the Dollars trilogy.Movie Review: A turning point in westerns.
Summary: 4 Stars
Though the Wild Bunch is often considered to be the first truly modern western, with it's fatalistic, and soon to be very seventies approach to film making, I think there are some claims to be made for A Fistful of Dollars. Though it certainly has a lot less to say than that other classic, Fistful is just as unyielding in it's remote and dark view of the west. And despite Wild Bunch's claim to being revolutionary when it comes to violence on film, Fistful, (though certainly less gory) is by no means a lightweight. The body counts and carnage are sometimes reminiscent of eighties action flicks like "Commando" or "Rambo 2". though it's certainly much better.The minor milestone of this film is in it's creation of the spagetti western genre. So called because it was brought to life by Italian director Sergio Leone and his impressive visual style. Like many of his Italian filmmaking peers, Leone has a sense of visual style that can very nearly, (and quite often completely), overwhelm a film. Sweeping and breathtaking camera movements, claustrophobic close-ups and so-on. It is often done well, but can be over done. Fistful straddles that line but only occasionally steps over.
Helping to maintain that grip is a story removed from another film classic, Akira Kurosawa's "Yojimbo". Two rival gangs square off with the "Man with no name in the middle", playing them against each other. Clint Eastwood makes this one of the most gripping characters in western history. We find out almost nothing about this man, but that seems to suit his nearly mythic qualities. Unfortunately the same can't be said for the other characater's in this movie. Real story development is something of a weakness here. Luckily Eastwood is pretty much a one man show. He makes every scene he's in gripping and his cat and mouse games reveal him as exceptionally crafty and intelligent loner.
The other stars here are Leone's cinematography and Ennio Morricone's score. They complement each other expertly in creation of mood and suspense. A stare down never had as much gravity as this. By the time the bullets fly, beads of sweat have begun to form. They do manage to go a little overboard into stylized, gun blazing ecstacy from time to time. This is probably due to the fact that Sergio, for all his technical expertise, was just beginning to get his feet wet in this genre. Things can get a bit overblown and he hasn't quite mastered the ability to maintain complete control as he would in later outings. Yet sometimes things gell so perfectly that it's unable to sit, mouth agape at the utter beauty of his creations. When Eastwood uses a stick of dynamite to create a smoke screen and walks in amidst the billowing dust, I really started thinking that it was probably one of the most awe inspiring pieces of visual cinema created to that point. And all of this just helps the story seem larger than the dusty, isolated world it inhabits. And certainly helped Eastwood become the legend that he is today.
Another notable performance here is Gian Maria Volante'. He is good here as the head of one of the rival groups, but he is much better appreciated by his more well rounded baddie in the next in this series, "For A Few Dollars More". Though he happens to play a completely different character.
Even if you like westerns. you won't necessarily like this film. It's an about turn from what came before. Even if the Man with no name does retain some of those noble desperado qualities from the past, (the "Wild Bunch" managed to drain those away completely), Fistful's tone seems to have much more in common with modern action movies. Nonetheless, it is a great western. And maybe even more notable as a first in a rather small sub-genre.
Movie Review: Eastwood begins his apprenticeship under Sergio Leone
Summary: 4 Stars
Clint Eastwood dedicated his Oscar-winning "Unforgiven" to "Sergio and Don" - Sergio Leone and Don Siegel - and that film makes a perfect wrap to the genre of "man with no name" westerns. "Fistful of Dollars" marks the beginning of Eastwood's tutelage under Leone, and we can extrapolate that he learned well.
"Dollars" represents several other firsts - the first "spaghetti" western, filmed in Italy with a mostly Italian cast which was dubbed into English (although Eastwood of course spoke English). It's the first of the "man with no name" series, although Clint's character is called Joe several times by supporting characters such as the undertaker. To my knowledge it's also the first western where Eastwood is beaten to within an inch of his life, only to return and wreak havoc on his tormentors. (See "Pale Rider" or the previously mentioned Unforgiven.) It is also, to my knowledge, the first re-make of a Kurosawa film. (Yojimbo, in this case, with the great Toshiro Mifune in the "man with no name" part.) Word has it Kurosawa was delighted to have his films remade as westerns as the great Japanese master was influenced early in his career by John Ford's westerns.
Eastwood rolls into San Miguel, just below the Rio Grande. He is told immediately by a crazed bell-ringer that he may end up rich... or dead in San Miguel, and the bartender generously lets him have a drink on the house before advising him to leave and never return.
San Miguel, see, has two boss families - the Rojos and the Baxters. Both are on the wrong side of justice, morality, etc, but one of the Baxters wears a badge while it is acknowledged that the most fearsome man in town is Ramon Rojos, played by Gian Maria Volonte.
Set pieces and a few expositional scenes mainly with Silvanito the bartender played by Jose Calvo give you the basic story: the Baxters and Rojos fight over power to accomplish their various underhanded schemes. Eastwood's Joe shows up and quickly demonstrates that he's quicker with a pistol than anyone has ever seen. Joe plans to use his quickdraw skills to play one family against the other, hiring himself out as a mercenary and taking payments from both families.
Leone's style, familiar now, must have looked stunningly original in 1964. There are no good guys with white hats in this tale. We hear that Ramon stole another man's wife after falsely accusing him of cheating at cards, and Ramon is the kind of man no one argues with... until Eastwood shows up. Joe is the kind of man who'll shoot four men dead for being mean to his mule. The western was never the same, but it is interesting to watch the progression of the man with no name character until, in Unforgiven, he is finally the most real man yet. If I give Unforgiven 5 stars I cannot do the same to Fistful of Dollars, but it's worth the trouble.