A Fistful of Dollars (1967)

It's always interesting to watch a movie decades after it came out and then to write a review about it! This movie does an awful lot extremely well - the acting, the soundtrack, the cinematography - I can understand why it did so well it it's day and while it has held up till today - 50 years later. There are definitely a few times where you watch it and you can tell it feels a bit dated by some of the stuff that goes on and the plot is a little weak in some areas - but these are all forgivable things when you consider it came out 50 years ago and I think in some ways we have improved upon things in cinema over those 50 years; but there is no question that this film helped pave the way for many films to come. Definitely worth a watch if you still haven't seen it.

A wandering gunfighter plays two rival families against each other in a town torn apart by greed, pride, and revenge. A Fistful of Follars once again benefits from Clint Eastwood's macho perfomance but also his acting in general now as far as the rest of the cast goes? they did a pretty good job as well but don't really expect to see some oscar worthy perfomances or something like that. Definitely a Western that although a bit dated at times still has some very good scenes and Eastwood once again killing it in a part that fits him quite well.... (7/10)

This film has always been my favorite western film of all time. The movie starts out with Clint Eastwood and Belle Star riding into the town of San Miguel. The two arrive at the town by landing off of a spaceship flown by the aliens from Close Encounters of the Third Kind. (making this a prequel to that film) After getting of the spaceship Clint Eastwood gets a strange sense of confusion do to the drastic change in altitude. He then strangles Belle Starr for three days, then tries to revive her. (It didn't work) Clint Eastwood then kills three members of the Baxter's then tells the coffin maker "My mistake four coffins" almost forgetting Belle Star's corpse lying out towards the town entrance. Clint then proceeds to screw over both the Baxter's and the Rojo's for his own personal gain. The ending of this movie was great Clint Eastwood is getting shot at by Ramon Rojo in the final duel and then stands out in front of Romon and says "hold on to something. here comes the rain, this damn is about to break" after a long pause Roman not buying into what Clint Eastwood is saying shoots him in the face killing him instantly like an idiot. A space fly's over picking up Roman and his gang, reveling that he was actually Clint Eastwood character all along. The strange feeling Clint had when getting off the spaceship was really Roman taking over his body.

RELEASED IN 1964 and directed by Sergio Leone, "A Fistful of Dollars" stars Clint Eastwood as an expert gunman who drifts into a Mexican town where he finds himself in the middle of a war between two factions, the gun-running gringo Baxters and the firewater-running Hispanic Rojos. The story's based on Akira Kurosawa's 1961 samurai flick, "Yojimbo," which was patterned after the work of John Ford, so "A Fistful of Dollars" is an Itala copy of a Jap imitation of an American Western (!). Interestingly, Kurosawa sued Leone, but it never went to court. It ended with a settlement of $100,000 and 15% of the revenue of "Fistful" for Kurosawa.Speaking of ripping off (or homages), Ennio Morricone's excellent score (as usual) features a moving piece obviously inspired by Dimitri Tiomkin's outstanding "El Degüello" from "Rio Bravo" (1959). Compare the two.The opening act is great and is probably why so many people fondly remember this movie, but the middle act is weak. It starts with a thrilling massacre of dozens of Mexican soldiers, albeit curiously bloodless, carried out by a machine gun the likes of which the Earth has never seen (until this movie). For instance, it has multiple muzzles, like a Gatling gun, yet nothing revolves. I could go on, but I'll have mercy.This sequence is followed by a gunfight near a graveyard where members of the factions are absurdly fooled by two motionless corpses placed there earlier by Joe (Eastwood). Why sure! The final act is marred by another unbelievable scene where Joe boldly faces the main antagonist in a showdown. He has total faith in something that protects him with zero concern that any other part of his body besides his central torso might be hit. Why sure! Someone might argue that Joe KNEW Ramón Rojo would only aim for the heart, but there were several other lethal heavies present. How did he know they weren't going to shoot? Speaking of Ramón, Gian Maria Volontè is charismatic in the role, but he's even better in the follow-up, "For a Few Dollars More" (1965), as a wholly different character.Other problems include bad English dubbing, cartoony gore, the camera's curious infatuation with close-ups of sweaty, maniacal countenances and no female character of much note, although Marianne Koch and Margarita Lozano appear in small roles.There's this myth going around that Leone's Dollars trilogy introduced the concept of the antihero, otherwise known as the "good (or likable) bad man." Actually, the antihero had been around for decades when "Fistful" was released in '64. Take, for example, John Wayne's Ringo Kid in "Stagecoach" (1939) or Richard Widmark's Comanche Todd in "The Last Wagon" (1956) or Anthony Quinn's Bob Kallen in "The Ride Back" (1957) and, particularly, Brando's Kid Rio in "One-Eyed Jacks" (1961). These are just off the top of my head.The difference with Eastwood's antihero in Leone's so-called Man With No Name trilogy is that, unlike the antiheroes above, he is without personality, unless squinting, shooting, killing and smoking cheroots are taken as profound marks of character. In Short, Leone introduced the antihero CARICATURE as opposed to the antihero CHARACTER. Cool caricatures with superhuman bravery & abilities work just fine when you're in your teens or early 20s, but after you mature a bit you naturally desire more three-dimensional and believable characters."A Fistful of Dollars" is worth checking out for its engaging first act and its iconic place in Western history, but there are superior Eastwood Westerns, such as the two Leone non-sequels (1965 & 1966 respectively), "Hang 'em High" (1968), "Two Mules for Sister Sara" (1970), "The Outlaw Josey Wales" (1976), "Pale Rider" (1985) and "Unforgiven" (1992).THE MOVIE RUNS 99 minutes and was shot in Almería, Andalucía, & Madrid, Spain; and Rome, Italy.GRADE: C