4 minute read
Film Review: A Fistful of Dollars
The Man with No Name
Sergio Leone changes action cinema forever and makes westerns rock and roll in the first of his immortal dollars trilogy; A Fistful of Dollars (1964)
By Tadhg Curtin
A Fistful of Dollars really did change action cinema forever. The western hero was no longer the clean cut, seemingly invincible guy like Gary Cooper or John Wayne. The hero now seemed to be morally ambivalent, dressed in a hip way for the 60s, and his attitude seemed to be one of indifference. He was an anti hero; not a bad guy per say, but, compared to the really bad guys, was a saint in comparison. Growing up in Italy watching and loving American westerns, director Sergio Leone ended up influencing and changing the very genre in his wake. He also helped launch a tall, handsome T.V. star onto the big screen. Clint Eastwood plays a nameless stranger who rides into a town known for the deadly rivalry between two of its factions - the Baxter’s and the Rojo’s. Instead of fearing for his life, the man plays the two sides to his own advantage.
Leone based his story on Akira Kurasawa’s equally legendary movie Yojimbo (1961). Leone hadn’t sought proper permission to borrow the plot so Kurawsawa ended up suing and won, resulting in a big sum of money. It didn’t matter - A Fistful of Dollars was a huge success all around the world. Leone didn’t create the spaghetti western (a term coined for westerns made in Italy), there were a few made before him, but he certainly revolutionised it. He had such a unique style; extreme close-ups of the most memorable faces ever put on film mixed with extreme long shots. It was also a rougher western for it’s time. This movie opens with Eastwood riding on horseback into a town, he witnesses a group of men firing bullets at a little boy running crying to his mother, and what does he do? Nothing. I can only imagine what audiences felt watching this for the first time, but they seemed to dig it in a big way. A youthful 60’s audience embraced them with gusto.
Eastwood’s protagonist is given a right doing over by the baddies throughout the movie. Stephen Vega writes in his piece “For Only A Fistful Of Dollars – How A Low Budget Western Reinvented the Hollywood Hero” that: “In A Fistful of Dollars, something very different happens to the male hero/protagonist that hadn’t happened in earlier movies… he gets beaten to a pulp; he is no longer a superhuman, he is simply human, vulnerable and male”. And that’s the big influence. I’ve said it before but it’s true; iconic heroes we love take a battering, get up again, and finish the job. The James Bond series had also exploded onto the scene around this time and you see it’s influence on the style, particularly the score. This would mark the first of many iconic collaborations Leone had with legendary music composer Ennio Morricone, and Morricone gives these westerns an almost rock and roll sound. The opening credits have this feel as well, they feel like a Bond opening credits. They just replace scantily clad women and a dapper spy with guns, cannons and men on horses.
Dollars showed audiences that the west was dirty and dangerous. Characters didn’t seem to shave or even bathe in this world, and boy, was it rough. It’s Leone’s leanest film in terms of length and budget, but he would expand his cinematic canvas as he went on in terms of action set pieces. However here, seemingly from nowhere, Eastwood and Leone entered a town unknowns and exited it icons.
