A Fistful of Dollars (1964) August 10, 2007
Posted by Cal in : Action, Non-Asian, 1960s films , trackbackDirector: Sergio Leone Cast: Clint Eastwood, Gian Maria Volantè, Wolfgang Lukschy, Marianne Koch Territory: Italy Production Company: Constantin Film Produktion
I used to be badgered by people who knew I was into Hong Kong movies that I would “love” Spaghetti Westerns. I didn’t see what the attraction would be as I had never been into westerns, even as a kid. But on seeing Leone’s “Dollars” trilogy a few years ago, I’ll admit I know where they were coming from, and have become quite fond of the sub-genre.
This is a tale of a drifter (Clint Eastwood) strolling into town and playing one group of criminals against another for his own monetary gain. The story itself isn’t original – Kurosawa successfully sued for similarities to his film Yojimbo, despite the latter film itself bearing more than a passing resemblance to an 18th century stage play. What made it original was the dark, oppressive tone of the film (which became a staple of the genre and was occasionally taken to ridiculous extremes), the introduction of a laconic yet charismatic anti-hero and some dramatic and stylish directing. Not to mention the addition of one of the finest film score composers who ever lived.
The first five minutes sets the tone pretty well – this film, and all the characters in it, seem to have a morbid fascination with death. We even start with a hanging, and the only happy man in town is the local undertaker. However, the plot of the Baxters (bad) against the Rojos (very bad) is not overly compelling, and the story loses momentum during the latter’s burning of the former’s mansion. In a parallel to the Bruce Lee films, the screen seems to go dead when Eastwood isn’t on screen – although it’s more evident here than on subsequent films. Thankfully, the tempo does pick up again for the inevitable climactic showdown, though.
Although Leone insisted that the three films were unrelated, it seems pretty likely that the infamous Man With No Name is the same character in all three films. Furthermore, I’ve just realised (and a quick scan on the internet seems to confirm, or at least validate the theory) that A Fistful of Dollars is set after The Good, The Bad and The Ugly, and that Leone’s 1966 masterpiece is a prequel to this film. Whether the Man With No Name had a name or not is still a matter of debate. The tag seems to have been an invention of US distributors, but interestingly, although referred to by other characters under a variety of names from film to film, he never actually refers to himself under any of them. For example, in this one, he’s called Joe, but only by the elderly undertaker.
The music is provided by Ennio Morricone, and his style is evident even this early in his career with his haunting score of grunts, whistles along with more traditional musical instruments. Clint provides his own voice for the English language version, and he obviously took a great deal of care in the looping process to lip-synch the audio. I’m glad I ‘discovered’ these films in the DVD age, as I’m positive that all of Leone’s films would have looked utterly rubbish in a fullscreen format. You would just miss far too much detail on a pan-and-scan edition that it just wouldn’t be worth it as Leone seemed to work entirely in extreme close-ups and dramatic panoramic shots.
For anyone who still hasn’t discovered the Leone/Eastwood films, this is the obvious place to start, and A Fistful of Dollars still makes for entertaining viewing today. But be advised that there was better to come.
Comments»
Sergio Leone was one of the directors who really knew how to use the 2.35:1 ratio to create striking imagery (though it’s worth noting that your still has been disproportionately represented above).
Ennio Morricone is one of cinema’s greatest assets I think (and he’s still working, unbelievably) - it may be that the Leone films helped kick-start his career. As someone who’s worked on literally hundreds of films, it’s truly amazing that one person can come up with so many different tunes for soundtracks!
Interestingly, I heard that Leone didn’t want to use Morricone at first as he hadn’t heard anything by him that he liked. Quite hard to believe that now!
Oh, and that still should be showing correctly now…
Actually Yojimbo was thought to be based on Dashiell Hammett’s Red Harvest (1929).
If you watch the two together you will notice Leone took so much from Yojimbo including plot, shot selection, characters etc…
I believe all three of these films can be taken as unrelated (analogous to Yojimbo/Sanjuro).
I prefer the next two Eastwood/Leone films (I see you have just done a review on the second one) to this film.
Link on Red Harvest/Hammett
http://dir.salon.com/story/books/feature/2005/02/28/hammett/index.html?pn=1
Thanks for the link - very interesting. I haven’t yet seen Yojimbo myself, which is why I kind of skirt around the issue. It’s definitely on my “to get” list as I’ve really liked the Kurosawa films I’ve seen.
I agree that the other two Leone/Eastwood films are more enjoyable than this - The Good, the Bad and The Ugly is just superb. In the coming weeks, I plan to do reviews on all the Leone westerns if I can bring myself to watch Fistful of Dynamite again, and if I can find the time to watch Once Upon a Time in the West again!