A Fistful of Dollars
"In his own way he is, perhaps, the most dangerous man who ever lived!"
The Man With No Name enters the Mexican village of San Miguel in the midst of a power struggle among the three Rojo brothers and sheriff John Baxter. When a regiment of Mexican soldiers bearing gold intended to pay for new weapons is waylaid by the Rojo brothers, the stranger inserts himself into the middle of the long-simmering battle, selling false information to both sides for his own benefit.
Curator's Take
“The shot heard 'round the world. Leone remade 'Yojimbo' and created a genre. It looks cheaper than the sequels, but that rawness is part of its charm. Clint Eastwood arrives fully formed as an icon.”
Why This Movie Is Important
The Big Bang of the genre. Sergio Leone reinvented the western by stripping it of its American optimism and replacing it with cynicism, sweat, and silence. Adapting Kurosawa’s 'Yojimbo', it introduced the 'Man with No Name', a morally ambiguous anti-hero who kills for money, not justice. It made Clint Eastwood an international superstar and established the visual language (widescreen close-ups, dust, ponchos) that would define the Italian western for a decade.
Production Details
A Fistful of Dollars is a 1964 western film directed by Sergio Leone. Originally released in Italy under the title "Per un pugno di dollari", the film was produced during the golden era of European westerns. The soundtrack was composed by Ennio Morricone. Cinematography was handled by Massimo Dallamano. The screenplay was written by Víctor Andrés Catena. The film stars Clint Eastwood as Joe, Marianne Koch as Marisol, and Gian Maria Volonté as Ramón Rojo. Running 1 hour and 39 minutes, it is a well-paced entry in the genre. The film features a notable on-screen body count of 36 kills. It holds an average rating of 7.8 from 4,553 ratings, placing it among the highest-rated films in the Spaghetti Western canon.
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Did You Know?
This film is an unofficial remake of Akira Kurosawa's 'Yojimbo', which led to a lawsuit that delayed its release in the US.
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