Fistful of Dollars (1964)

a.k.a Per un pugno di dollari

Clint Eastwood stars in the iconic Spaghetti Western from director Sergio Leone. Paramount R2 German disc. 

 

While the Western had been a staple of American cinema since its birth, it was not until the 1960s that Westerns were first produced in Europe. German director Harald Reinl shot the first Karl May Western - Treasure at Silver Lake (1962) - a big, colourful production filmed in Jugoslavia that proved very popular in Germany. At the same time, British producers James Sangster and Michael Carreras shot a Western in Spain. Savage Guns (1962) proved unsucessful with audiences, but struck a chord with the Italian distribution company Tecisa who went on to shoot Gunfight at Red Sands (1963) starring Richard Harrison who went on to star in another entry, Gunfight at High Noon (1963). The films made money, but went largely unnoticed among the American Westerns, thanks to casting of American actors and the Americanisation of the actor and crew names. In 1964, Sergio Leone was known as a competent director, responsible for a large scale peplum The Colossus of Rhodes (1961) and as writer of several more, with the historical epic now declining in popularity he was given the job of directing a Western...

A lone man (Clint Eastwood) walks into the town of San Miguel. A few miles south of the Mexican border, it is dominated by two families - one smuggling guns, the other smuggling booze. Seeing an opportunity to bring peace, and make money, he plays the families off against each other, getting paid by both sides and watching as they kill each other off...

Curiously, the storyline for this production is a slightly simplified remake of a Akira Kurosawa samurai film Yojimbo (1961), very popular at the time, concerning a man who sets two gangs against each other to kill them off. While most American, and even the German Karl May Westerns had clearly drawn heros in the lead role who would act out of simple kindness, the Clint Eastwood 'Man with no Name' character is a pure anti-hero who does good only when it helps him and acts regardless of moral or legal boundaries - the anti-hero became a Spaghetti Western staple. The notion of this was so shocking that a prologue was shot for American television broadcasts to explain his motives better. Compared to many of the later Euro-Westerns, Fistful of Dollars boasts strong characterisation and a relatively slow pace more akin to its American cousins - it also avoids the comic relief and irony that would plague many of the films, especially into the 1970s. Ultimately, the strong script builds to a powerful and tense climax with a good ending.
 
While the storyline is celebrated, it is Leone's direction that stands this film above almost every other film in the genre. It is clear from the start that he is very comfortable with the scope widescreen frame, in which his earlier peplums were shot - almost every shot in the film uses the frame to its fullest, often combining close-ups in one corner with background action in the rest of the frame. Ennio Morricone (credited as Dan Savio) provides the film with a distinctive 'whistling' soundtrack, a million miles from the orchestral soundtracks of the American Westerns.

It was accepted at the time that an American actor would play the lead role in the European Westerns, to help sell them a American films. Leone had originally enquired about getting Henry Fonda (12 Angry Men (1957)) or Charles Bronson (The Magnificent Seven (1960)) to play the lead role, but neither were interested - after the sucess of the film, both would later appear in Leone's epic Once Upon a Time in the West (1968). Clint Eastwood was a B-movie actor who had made some fame on the Western TV series Rawhide in the early 1960s, he took the role expecting little but a trip to Europe during a break in the TV series filming. Like most enigmatic lead characters, Eastwood isn't overly taxed by the role with his emotions ranging from scowling to shooting, although his when he gets attacked later on in the film, his physical acting is strong, conveying a man really injured, not just hurt and his physical stature is suited to the role. Gian Maria Volontè as Ramón plays the role with strength, and looks rather like Oliver Reed in some shots. The rest of the cast do fine.

Fistful of Dollars was a very influencial film and kick-started a number of careers. Most importantly, it performed well enough to create a trilogy, leading to Clint Eastwood, Gian Maria Volontè, Ennio Morricone and even Sergio Leone himself becoming household names. The sucess of this film really got producers interested in the concept of filming Westerns in Europe, and by 1965 the genre was starting to take-off. Boasting a strong storyline and some amazing direction, this film is highly recommended to all, and is a good starting place for American Western fans to enter the world of the Italian West.

All text in this review written by Timothy Young - 28th July. 2006.
Text from this review not to be used without authorization.

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