A Fistful Of Dollars

This movie introduced the spaghetti western to Europe, this movie is well known for being based off of a great Japenese movie (one that we have seen in class, in fact). That appellation, an insult that quickly caught on and became a label, resulted from pejorative press references disparaging the movie's Italian background. A Fistful of Dollars also jump-started Clint Eastwood's big-screen career. While this was not his first movie role, at the time when he agreed to top Leone's marquee, he was best known for the TV series Rawhide. After this film and its two sequels, the actor became a hot commodity.

A Fistful of Dollars is a remake of Akira Kurosawa's Yojimbo, with guns replacing swords, the setting shifted from Japan to the Old West, and Eastwood standing in for Toshiro Mifune. Leonne did a great job turning this into his own, Americanized version of a foreign classic.

The strengths of A Fistful of Dollars relate to style, not storyline. There's nothing terribly complex or original in the movie's plot, as it follows similar plot lines to other spaghetti westerns before it. An American loner who goes by the name of Joe (Eastwood) enters the small Mexican town of San Miguel. As far as the audience is concerned, he has no past, and, if not for his incredible skill with a gun, he would have no future. He immediately displays his prowess with a revolver by shooting four men who have insulted his mule. Two rival families are vying for control of the virtually deserted town: the Baxters and the Rojos, both of whom are equally amoral and greedy. Joe decides to play one side off against the other, in the process reaping a financial windfall. The local bartender, Silvanito (Jose Calvo), watches Joe's double-dealings with a mixture of astonishment and amusement. When it comes to making money, Joe is virtually flawless, but he gets tripped up when his conscience becomes involved. After helping a woman, Marisol (Marianne Koch), escape from the clutches of the vicious Ramon Rojo (Gian Maria Volonté, aka Johnny Wels), Joe learns the meaning of the phrase "no good deed goes unpunished" as his attempts to deceive the Rojos backfire and he is captured, beaten, and tortured. The film ends, predicatably, with a big shoot-out.

All in all, this film definitely fits a similar pattern to other westerns before it, while still having that feeling that Kurosawa gave it in Yojimbo. Leonne does a great job doing exactly what he likely set out to do in this film. It's a good example of his ability as a director, and it's one that should be seen if you like a good western.