A Fistful of Dollars (1964) – Film Review

Director: Sergio Leone
Cast: Clint Eastwood, Gian Maria Volontè, Marianne Koch
Certificate: 15

By Sarah Morgan

Mountains form the background. White buildings are to the fore. A poncho-wearing man rides his mule to a well and drinks, watching a young boy being kicked out of one of the nearby houses by a gunman.

The drinker does nothing, simply looks on as the gunman and his sidekick shoot at the youngster before giving his father a beating. The boy’s mother looks on, helpless. The drinker smiles at her, she shuts her window as a bell tolls in the distance and we cut to a noose hanging from a tree…

In that one short scene, Clint Eastwood’s career as a major Hollywood star was born. Not that he was anywhere near Tinseltown at the time – he was in Spain, making what he thought would be a low-budget Western nobody he knew would ever see during a break between filming seasons of TV show Rawhide.

“Revolutionary”

However, A Fistful of Dollars, a revisioning of Akira Kurosawa’s classic Samurai tale Yojimbo, became a worldwide smash, spawning two sequels (For a Few Dollars More and The Good, The Bad and the Ugly), also starring Eastwood, and a host of copycats that were never quite as impressive.

Eastwood’s solitary traveller says little, preferring his actions to speak for him as he sets about playing two feuding gangs against each other, clearing the streets of a small town on the Mexico-America border in the process.

The plot really isn’t all that important or unusual; it’s the way in which it’s treated that makes it stand out from the crowd. And in 1964, director Sergio Leone’s approach really was extraordinary. Although he attempted to emulate the way that Hollywood icon John Ford photographed the landscape, his use of extreme close-ups and lighting were revolutionary.

He struck lucky with Eastwood too. Tired of playing the all-round good egg Rowdy Yates in Rawhide, he was keen to do something different. He also realised there was too much exposition from his character so, in an unusual move for a leading man, cut back his lines as much as possible, feeling he could convey what was needed via gestures and a look – something he’s done ever since; nobody can argue that the approach hasn’t served him well.

“Unmissable insights”

No review can be complete without a mention of composer Ennio Morricone. A Fistful of Dollars marked the first time he worked with Leone, a partnership that would prove fruitful for them both. Morricone’s work here certainly sets the tone; it’s quirky, original and wonderfully atmospheric.

This new restoration would surely delight the director – it makes his movie look better than ever before. And there are so many special features included that they get a whole extra disc of their own. Some of them are newly recorded interviews with Leone’s former collaborators, while others, including chats with Eastwood and film historian Sir Christopher Frayling, have appeared on previous releases. They all, however, offer unmissable insights into a cinematic landmark.

Sarah Morgan

Sarah Morgan studied film journalism at post-graduate level with the BFI and has been writing about TV and film for PA Media’s newspaper, magazine and new media customers since 1996. She’s also written for a wide range of other publications, both online and in print, including the book Offbeat and Intermission magazine, and is a regular contributor to the Talking Pictures TV podcast. When she isn’t watching movies, she’s collecting and reading vintage crime and horror paperback books or, for her sins, watching her beloved Sheffield Wednesday.

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