{"id":93448,"date":"2023-11-24T22:57:02","date_gmt":"2023-11-25T05:57:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/?p=93448"},"modified":"2024-05-05T22:27:57","modified_gmt":"2024-05-06T05:27:57","slug":"fistful-of-dollars-a-1964","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/?p=93448","title":{"rendered":"Fistful of Dollars, A (1964)"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>&#8220;I never saw a town as dead as this one.&#8221;<\/strong><\/p>\n<table>\n<tr>\n<td>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/Fistful-of-Dollars-Poster.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/Fistful-of-Dollars-Poster-200x300.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"200\" height=\"300\" class=\"alignleft size-medium wp-image-93449\" srcset=\"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/Fistful-of-Dollars-Poster-200x300.png 200w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/Fistful-of-Dollars-Poster-86x128.png 86w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/Fistful-of-Dollars-Poster-180x270.png 180w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/Fistful-of-Dollars-Poster.png 630w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 200px) 100vw, 200px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><strong>Synopsis:<\/strong><br \/>\nA gunslinger (Clint Eastwood) wandering into a desolate town on the border between Mexico and the United States hires himself out as a hitman for rival feuding families.\n<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>\n<p>\n<strong>Genres, Themes, Actors, and Directors:<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Clint Eastwood Films<\/li>\n<li>Feuds<\/li>\n<li>Sergio Leone Films<\/li>\n<li>Westerns<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Response to Peary&#8217;s Review: <\/strong><br \/>\nPeary writes that &#8220;this seminal spaghetti western&#8221; &#8212; &#8220;released in the U.S. in 1967&#8221; &#8212; was &#8220;the breakthrough film for both director Sergio Leone and star Clint Eastwood, whose portrayal of the Man With No Name&#8221; &#8212; the &#8220;most ruthless hero in western-movie history&#8221; &#8212; &#8220;quicky established him as the screen&#8217;s most charismatic action hero,&#8221; all while having &#8220;ripped off&#8221; the story &#8220;from Kurosawa&#8217;s samurai tale <a href=\"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/?p=93416\"><em>Yojimbo<\/em><\/a>.&#8221; <\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/Fistful-Backdrop.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/Fistful-Backdrop-1024x434.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"640\" height=\"271\" class=\"alignnone size-large wp-image-93457\" srcset=\"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/Fistful-Backdrop-1024x434.png 1024w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/Fistful-Backdrop-300x127.png 300w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/Fistful-Backdrop-128x54.png 128w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/Fistful-Backdrop-768x326.png 768w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/Fistful-Backdrop-604x256.png 604w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/Fistful-Backdrop.png 1172w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>He notes that while it&#8217;s &#8220;not on the level of <a href=\"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/?p=95439\"><em>For a Few Dollars More<\/em><\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/?p=96354\"><em>The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly<\/em><\/a>,&#8221; it &#8220;did anticipate those films in several ways: the ritualistic, oddly humorous shootouts; the brutal violence; the use of music (by Ennio Morricone) to comment on the action; the near-death and Christlike resurrection of the hero (a theme Eastwood would use in his own films); a West that is populated mostly by ugly, unwashed, Fellini types&#8221;: <\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/Fistful-Closeups.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/Fistful-Closeups-1024x432.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"640\" height=\"270\" class=\"alignnone size-large wp-image-93455\" srcset=\"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/Fistful-Closeups-1024x432.png 1024w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/Fistful-Closeups-300x127.png 300w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/Fistful-Closeups-128x54.png 128w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/Fistful-Closeups-768x324.png 768w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/Fistful-Closeups-604x255.png 604w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/Fistful-Closeups.png 1297w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>&#8230; and &#8220;an America where every person&#8217;s death means someone else makes a financial profit.&#8221; He adds that &#8220;most interesting is the Eastwood character,&#8221; who is &#8220;distinctively dressed in a tattered poncho over a sheepskin vest, a black cheroot&#8230; wedged in his mouth&#8221;: <\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/Fistful-Cheroot.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/Fistful-Cheroot-1024x428.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"640\" height=\"268\" class=\"alignnone size-large wp-image-93459\" srcset=\"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/Fistful-Cheroot-1024x428.png 1024w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/Fistful-Cheroot-300x126.png 300w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/Fistful-Cheroot-128x54.png 128w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/Fistful-Cheroot-768x321.png 768w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/Fistful-Cheroot-604x253.png 604w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/Fistful-Cheroot.png 1293w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>&#8230; &#8220;and, with an air of casual sadism,&#8221; one &#8220;of the few survivors of a dying race of mythological super-warriors whose divine powers enable them to outdraw and outshoot anyone, to withstand terrible punishment, to have no fear of death, and to sense impending danger and have the cunning to get out of it.&#8221; <\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/Fistful-Bad-Boys.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/Fistful-Bad-Boys-1024x426.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"640\" height=\"266\" class=\"alignnone size-large wp-image-93456\" srcset=\"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/Fistful-Bad-Boys-1024x426.png 1024w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/Fistful-Bad-Boys-300x125.png 300w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/Fistful-Bad-Boys-128x53.png 128w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/Fistful-Bad-Boys-768x320.png 768w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/Fistful-Bad-Boys-604x251.png 604w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/Fistful-Bad-Boys.png 1175w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>I happened to revisit this film before rewatching Akira Kurosawa&#8217;s <em>Yojimbo<\/em> (1961), which I quickly realized I needed to do before I could post a review &#8212; and to be honest, it&#8217;s now hard for me to get past the fact that this movie is <em>literally<\/em> (without permission) a near-remake of Kurosawa&#8217;s earlier work. I keep hearing Kurosawa&#8217;s letter of protest to Leone in my head: &#8220;I like your film very much. It&#8217;s a very interesting film. Unfortunately, it&#8217;s my film not your film.&#8221; Thankfully, Kurosawa earned the right to 15% of all revenue from the movie, which helped fund his own future projects &#8212; so I suppose it worked out in the end. <\/p>\n<p>Regardless, this film now has a mythos all its own, with plenty written about how Eastwood (then star of the T.V. show &#8220;Rawhide&#8221;) stumbled into his first cinematic leading role after numerous others turned it down &#8212; and was mostly eager for a trip to Europe; how the film was made without dialogue and completely dubbed later; how Eastwood took his costume home every night to keep it safe for filming the next day (and still owns the original poncho); how Eastwood&#8217;s iconic squint and scowl were partly a result of his genuine dislike for smoking; how Morricone wrote most of the highly distinctive score ahead of time; and how critics mostly panned the movie at the time of its release, but eventually revised their assessment. It remains worth a look as an effective low-budget film which wasn&#8217;t precisely the first of its genre, but helped to spark the craze. <\/p>\n<p><strong>Notable Performances, Qualities, and Moments: <\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Distinctive direction by Leone<br \/>\n<a href=\"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/Fistful-of-Dollars-Bloody.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/Fistful-of-Dollars-Bloody-1024x436.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"640\" height=\"273\" class=\"alignnone size-large wp-image-93460\" srcset=\"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/Fistful-of-Dollars-Bloody-1024x436.png 1024w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/Fistful-of-Dollars-Bloody-300x128.png 300w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/Fistful-of-Dollars-Bloody-128x55.png 128w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/Fistful-of-Dollars-Bloody-768x327.png 768w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/Fistful-of-Dollars-Bloody-604x257.png 604w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/Fistful-of-Dollars-Bloody.png 1289w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\" \/><\/a><\/li>\n<li>Ennio Morricone&#8217;s score<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Must See? <\/strong><br \/>\nYes, for its historical relevance as the first major title in the Spaghetti Western sub-genre. <\/p>\n<p><strong>Categories<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Historically Relevant<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Links: <\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.imdb.com\/title\/tt0058461\/\">IMDb entry<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.tcm.com\/tcmdb\/title\/3645\/a-fistful-of-dollars#articles-reviews?articleId=1085\">TCM Article<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/1967\/02\/02\/archives\/screen-a-fistful-of-dollars-openswestern-film-cliches-all-used-in.html\">NY Times Original Review<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.dvdtalk.com\/reviews\/review\/73105\">DVD Talk Review<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.dvdtalk.com\/dvdsavant\/s90leonerev.html\">DVD Savant Review<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&#8220;I never saw a town as dead as this one.&#8221; Synopsis: A gunslinger (Clint Eastwood) wandering into a desolate town on the border between Mexico and the United States hires himself out as a hitman for rival feuding families. Genres, Themes, Actors, and Directors: Clint Eastwood Films Feuds Sergio Leone Films Westerns Response to Peary&#8217;s Review: Peary writes that &#8220;this seminal spaghetti western&#8221; &#8212; &#8220;released in the U.S. in 1967&#8221; &#8212; was &#8220;the breakthrough film for both director Sergio Leone&#8230;<\/p>\n<p class=\"read-more\"><a class=\"btn btn-default\" href=\"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/?p=93448\"> Read More<span class=\"screen-reader-text\">  Read More<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-93448","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-responses-to-peary"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/93448","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=93448"}],"version-history":[{"count":12,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/93448\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":96386,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/93448\/revisions\/96386"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=93448"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=93448"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=93448"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}