Clint Eastwood

Marianne Koch

Gian Maria Volonté

Wolfgang Lukschy

Sieghardt Rupp

Joseph Egger

Antonio Prieto

José Calvo

Margarita Lozano

Daniel Martín

Benito Stefanelli

Mario Brega

Bruno Carotenuto

Aldo Sambrell

Lorenzo Robledo

Antonio Molino Rojo

Luis Barboo

Juan Cortés

William R. Thompkins

Fernando Sánchez Polack

José Canalejas

Jose Halufi

Nino Del Arco

Antonio Moreno

Frank Braña

Álvaro de Luna

Lee Miller

José Orjas

Manuel Peña

Antonio Pica

Julio Pérez Tabernero

José Riesgo

Umberto Spadaro

Peter Tevis

Edmondo Tieghi

Antonio Vico

Luis Rodríguez

Antonio Montoya

Massimo Dallamano

Ennio Morricone

Roberto Cinquini

Arrigo Colombo

Alfonso Santacana

Sergio Leone

Federico G. Larraya

Giorgio Papi

Carlo Simi

Julio Sempere

Mario Caiano

Tonino Valerii

Elio Pacella

Jaime Comas Gil

Alberto Gutiérrez

Sam Watkins

Dolores Clavel

Franco Giraldi

Francisco Rodríguez Asensio

Sigfrido Burman

Franco Palaggi

Ramón Crespo

Günter Raguse

José Luis Pérez

Manuel Baquero

Giovanni Corridori

Rafael Pérez Murcia

Víctor Andrés Catena

Nosher Powell

José María Sánchez

Adriano Bolzoni

Pietro Santini

Fernando Rossi

Anselmo Zabala

Mark Lowell

Adolfo Cofiño

Luis Ocaña

Alicia Castillo

María Antonia Puerta

Julio Wizuete

Domenico Parrello

Ramón Sempere

Stelvio Massi

Marta Pons

Alessandro Alessandroni

María Casado

Tilde Watson

Michele Lacerenza

Géneviève Hersent

Eduardo Noé

Cantori Moderni Di Alessandroni

Eugenio Villar

Igino Lardani

Jerónimo Montoro

Duccio Tessari

Fernando Di Leo

Ryūzō Kikushima

Akira Kurosawa

Western

Per un pugno di dollari

Jolly Film

Ocean Films

Constantin Film

Germany

Italy

Spain

Italiano

Español

A Fistful of Dollars

gunslinger

based on novel or book

hostility

greed

gang war

remake

murder

spaghetti western

Funny child acting, nonsense sense of distance, bad dubbing and weak dialogue bring down an otherwise magnificent film. A Western remake of Yojimbo, it's remarkable how such a simple story can lend itself to such a great experience. The atmosphere is built up masterfully - with stunning cinematography, striking close-ups, beautifully constructed mise-en-scene, a fantastic performance from Eastwood, Moricone's ever powerful music, and a lovely overabundance of laughing - all culminating in one of the best showdowns in cinematic history.

Even better than I remember. The story was more interesting than I remembered. The Man With No Name is more fun in this movie than I remembered. The side characters are more interesting than I remembered. My only complaints are that some of the acting and parts of the script could be better. This is really epic movie that I would not mind watching again!

A supremely entertaining western from 1964!

I will say the dubbing nature of <em>'A Fistful of Dollars'</em> is a little distracting early on, but by the time the opening portion concluded I was incredibly interested in what was happening onscreen. The pacing is excellent, thanks to some very fine cinematography, great action sequences and a top notch score.

Clint Westwood debuts as a leading movie star and is terrific throughout, portraying the wonderfully named J̶o̶e̶ "the Man with No Name". It's little surprise these are the films that truly made him. Away from Eastwood, I really enjoyed the trio that played the Rojo brothers - Gian Maria Volonté (aka Johnny Wels), Sieghardt Rupp and Antonio Prieto. They're just as important as the main man and play the roles superbly.

Bring on the sequels!

Leone almost single handedly destroyed the Western.
But it wasn't "single handed" because he had help from the critics who were even bigger hacks than Leone was.
Here, we have a movie based on Yojimbo, which is called a classic by some, though I doubt it is truly a classic. "Seven Samurai" is a classic, but not "Yojimbo". 
Still, "Yojimbo" is better than this, because too much is lost in translation here.
It's a thoroughly unmotivated movie about totally unmotivated characters. 
The only interesting bit in here is a quip about the equine that No Name (Eastwood) rides. 
Well, that's because the equine is the ONLY interesting and credible character in the entire movie.
Somehow, No Name thinks he can massacre what appears to be at least fifty gunmen without a scratch, yet he says at the end he doesn't take risks.
It's just a bunch of killing and shooting and noise with no motivation. For "bang per buck", it's one of the poorest payoffs ever. Only "The Wild Bunch" scores a worse "bang per buck" than this with its dullness for all the gun play.
When the dollar trilogy came out, only the crack heads and total dope heads thought it was cool, so the critics placated them. Now, those people are in authority, God help us, and have fooled following generations into the idea that this garbage is "classic". Talk about the emperor's new clothes, we see it illustrated here.

CinemaSerf

With barely enough cash to buy a drink, drifter "Joe" (Clint Eastwood) rides into a small, pretty war-torn town near the US/Mexican border. He makes friends with the bar owner "Silvanito" (José Calvo) and pretty quickly finds himself drawn into the brutal quarrelling between "Baxter" (Wolfgang Lukschy) and his nemesis "Rojo" (Gian Maria Volonté). When he kills a few of the former man's troops, it's the brother of the latter who offers him a job. Turns out that "Joe" is a bit more shrewd than that though, and so he decides that the best solution is the enemy of my enemy is not necessarily my friend - he can divide, sit it out a bit, and conquer - with considerable riches to be gained if his admittedly quite dangerous manipulation can succeed. Clint Eastwood is a fine exponent of the less is more style of acting. His expressions, his eyes, even his distinctive gait allow the character to develop effortlessly as this story takes a route that isn't as predictable (or easy) as you might expect. The supporting cast also work well to epitomise a small-town, brutal and venal mentality with plenty of action and hysterical laughter to keep the story moving along to a classic Morricone score set amongst the grubby and basic adobe homes. Sergio Leone does not feel the need to drag this out for hours - it's an almost perfectly paced piece of nasty, gripping, cinema that is really well worth a watch on a big screen if you can.

A Fistful of Dollars( 1964)

In his own way he is, perhaps, the most dangerous man who ever lived!

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A review by AshJohann

Written by AshJohann on Tue Dec 22 2020

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