A Fistful of Dollars Review

 

        To kick off my venture to action movies from the 60s to the present, I’ve decided to look at the movie that made Clint Eastwood into a household name. Technically, he had appeared uncredited in B-Movie films like Revenge of the Creature and Tarantula!, among his other appearances in various movies and tv shows. A Fistful of Dollars propelled him into a western icon. The film is actually made by Italians which I’ll explain later in the review. 

1. The Man with No Name

        Throughout most of the movie, we follow Eastwood’s character. He doesn’t have a name but is referred to as “Joe”. As the film series progress, he has more names associated with himself. Anyways, he approaches a small Mexican town of San Miguel, which looks deserted. When he strolls forward, “Joe” realizes that the small town is under control from a group of bandits called the Rojos. They are in a heated conflict with the Baxter clan. 

        He notices that the civilians that he sees are living in squalor while the two clans keep their side of the town. Inevitably, he decides to play both sides of the different families. We learn that he isn’t really a bad guy or a good guy. He mostly expects to be paid when he does work for them. This is what you call an anti-hero, it’s a type of character who lacks any standard heroic attributes. It makes sense when he’s just a wanderer. 

        We do ultimately see him perform one heroic act. As he was riding into town, he sees a woman behind a chained window of a house. As the film progresses, he learns that the Rojos have kept that women, Marisol from her husband. He sneaks into the Rojos’ compound and break her out. The Man then gives the couple his earnings from the jobs he did with the two families. It’s the little moments that give him a moral boundary. As well as him saying that he met another woman like her in his past. 

        He even makes a few acquaintances with the town folk. Like the owner of the cantina Silvantino, who gets him updated with the town's situation.  I love his growth in the film, since he starts off as just looking out for himself. My favorite part is when he takes "Joe" to see a gun deal being established between the Rojos and the Mexicans. Which devolved to a massacre and setting up the Man's plan to pit the Rojos and Baxters against each other. 

2. Spaghetti Western

        So let’s talk about this sub-genre. I’ve been hearing every now and then and it vexes me to no end, since why exactly does spaghetti have to do with anything. The name was coined by Spanish journalist Alfonso Sanchez. Well, from what I gathered, the western genre was beginning to see a slow down in the US. Meanwhile, director Sergio Leone saw the potential for westerns in the Italian market. 

        The locations of the film for instance looked dry like the planet Tatooine. They were filming in various locations around Italy and Spain. This actually wasn’t the first time where Europeans had a hand with developing the Western genre. Back in the late 19th to the early 20th Century, the Lumiere Brothers made westerns in Europe until they decided to do more in Texas in San Antonio. 

        With the release of A Fistful of Dollars, more films from the sub-genre laid the foundation of how different Spaghetti Westerns were in contrast with the Westerns made in America. Films like Django were ostensibly foreign since they had little to no American casts. One thing that I noticed during my viewing of this film was that most of the voices that wasn’t Eastwood’s were dubbed. Since the film was both a Spanish and Italian venture. 

3. Legacy

        Like most films it established a precedent of the genre and added some fuel to it to keep the genre going. Clint Eastwood has a productive career after the release of the film, and as I mentioned earlier has joined a few actors who made western popular. It wasn’t until the early 90s where he would eventually direct, produce, and star in the film Unforgiven, which won best picture in the academy awards. 

        Eastwood’s character has been referenced in other film genres. In the Star Wars franchise, characters Boba Fett and The Mandalorian's Din Djarin have taken some ques from the mysterious protagonist. Eventually having appeared in films and television series in Disney’s streaming service. More so on the whole look of the film may have inspired George Lucas to reference the location of San Miguel to become Tatooine’s city Mos Eisley. 

        The music by Ennio Morricone has been synonymous with the western genre. It’s often imitated and copied in various media. Including the recent video games such as Red Dead Redemption and its sequel. Just this past decade, Quentin Tarantino paid tribute to the Spaghetti Western with his film Django Unchained. Which was actually based on the Django series that was part of the sub-genre during its popularity. 

4. Overall

        For Clint Eastwood’s first action film or western, he does a good job. Sergio Leone has done a great job with putting some stimulus with a genre that appeared to be losing steam. Clint Eastwood’s character is really interesting and laid the groundwork for the future anti-heroes to appear later. 

        Fistful of Dollars gets a four out of five.