\u201cA Fistful of Dollars\u201d was Clint Eastwood\u2019s first spaghetti western with director Sergio Leone.\u00a0 As it turned out it was an unauthorized western remake of Akira Kurosawa\u2019s 1961 samurai film Yojimbo.\u00a0 These spaghetti westerns were produced in Europe and cost only a fraction of Hollywood movies and so could make a profit with a much lower box office.\u00a0 Leone featured Eastwood as \u201cThe Man with No Name.\u201d\u00a0 He was an anti-hero who drifted from place to place and although of ambivalent morals he always ended up on the side of the less powerful.<\/p>\n
In this story the stranger (Eastwood) shows up in the Mexican village of San Miguel and learns that two criminal gangs, the Rojos and the Baxters are in competition for control of the town.\u00a0 The stranger offers his services as a gun fighter to both gangs and by playing them off each other he slowly whittles away both gangs.\u00a0 There is a sub-plot about a family that is being victimized by the Rojos.\u00a0 The wife has been taken as a concubine by one of the Rojos while her husband and small child are hostages.\u00a0 The stranger manages to free the wife and aids the small family to escape San Miguel.\u00a0 For this he is tortured by the Rojos to learn where the woman has gone.\u00a0 The stranger manages to escape and the Rojos, assuming that the Baxters helped him, burn down the Baxters\u2019 house and shoot down the whole gang as they flee the burning building.<\/p>\n
The stranger is helped to escape the town by the undertaker hiding him in a coffin.\u00a0 He heals up and returns to save his friend Silvanito who is being tortured by the Rojos to find out where the woman has gone.\u00a0 The stranger faces off against all the remaining Rojos and with the help of a sheet of steel plate hidden under his poncho he shoots them all dead and frees his friend.<\/p>\n
So, what\u2019s the verdict?\u00a0 The acting is minimal, the characters are cartoons.\u00a0 The story is straight forward and transparent.\u00a0 But it is altogether an enjoyable hour and a half of pulp fiction.\u00a0 Good vanquishes evil.\u00a0 Violence gets splashed all over the screen and the stranger leaves town just as he entered it.\u00a0 A man with no past or future living by his wits and his gun.<\/p>\n
As a final note, the film this was based on, Yojimbo, is a much different film because of the cultural and aesthetic differences between a Leone western and a Kurosawa samurai film.\u00a0 But it is a great picture in its own right.\u00a0 And if you enjoy Kurosawa\u2019s films it is a good one.\u00a0 If you\u2019ve never seen one before then start with his \u201cSeven Samurais\u201d first.\u00a0 It\u2019s an excellent film.<\/p>\n
\u201cA Fistful of Dollars\u201d is highly recommended for fans of the western and anyone with a simple taste for action.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
\u201cA Fistful of Dollars\u201d was Clint Eastwood\u2019s first spaghetti western with director Sergio Leone.\u00a0 As it turned out it was an unauthorized western remake of<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[239,237],"tags":[3364,3157,3365,97],"class_list":["post-16599","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-movie-reviews","category-reviews","tag-a-fistful-of-dollars","tag-clint-eastwood","tag-sergio-leone","tag-westerns"],"yoast_head":"\n