A Fistful of Dollars Reviews

A landmark Western that established the Clint Eastwood persona and revitalized the genre. The plot is deceptively simple--and it's lifted from Japanese director Akira Kurosawa's 1961 classic YOJIMBO. Eastwood, the mysterious Man with No Name, rides into a small town embroiled in a struggle for power between two families. Eastwood hires himself out as a mercenary, first to one faction and then to the other, with no regard for honor or morality. He eventually destroys both, leaving the town to the bartender, coffin-maker, and bell ringer as he rides off into the desert from whence he came. The plot is simple and the Italian performances verge on the operatic, but Leone revitalizes the Western through a unique and complex visual style. The film is full of brilliant spatial relationships (extreme close-ups in the foreground, with detailed compositions visible in the background) combined with Ennio Morricone's vastly creative musical score full of grunts, wails, groans, and bizarre-sounding instruments. Aural and visual elements together give a wholly original perspective on the West and its myths. Eastwood had a heavy hand in the interpretation of his role, stripping his part of most of its dialogue. His character is wholly amoral, a mystery man with no past who relies on his skill with a gun and his cleverness. This image, which he would hone to perfection in the subsequent Leone movies (and one the actor continues to examine and sometimes criticize, especially in the films in which he directs himself) transformed Eastwood into a cultural icon of almost mythic proportions. Though far from perfected in this film, Leone's style would mature through his next two films and peak with his masterpiece ONCE UPON A TIME IN THE WEST.