D.J. Haza presents the next entry in his series of films to watch before you die…
A Fistful of Dollars, 1964.
Directed by Sergio Leone.
Starring Clint Eastwood.
A Fistful of Dollars is the first in Sergio Leone’s Spaghetti Western ‘Dollars’ trilogy and introduces us to the ‘Man with No Name’ (Eastwood). On his arrival in a small Mexican border town the Man with No Name is told of the bitter feud between two rival families vying for control. The Rojos are a band of criminals and the Baxters are the law enforcement. The Man with No Name sets about trying to make himself some money out of this feud and begins to play the rival families off against one and other.
When a detachment of Mexican soldiers passes through the town on their way to swap American soldiers the gold for weapons the Rojos massacre the soldiers and steal the gold. The Man with No Name witnesses the heist and hides two of the Mexican soldiers bodies in order to trick the Rojos into thinking two of them had survived. As the Rojos look to find the soldiers and kill them the Baxters look to find them so they can testify against the Rojos and the battle gets bloodier.
Once the Rojos have massacred the Baxters the only person standing between them and control is the Man with No Name. In a final battle he hides a steel chest plate beneath his poncho and goes toe to toe with the Rojos. Once all the bad guys are killed the Man with No Name gets back on his horse and rides out of town.
A Fistful of Dollars is an iconic film and Leone sought to reinvigorate the Western genre in Italy with this being the first of his Spaghetti Westerns. He believed that American Westerns had become preachy, stagnant and had lost American audiences. Leone wanted to take the grammar of Italian film and put it in a Western setting. Despite the authentic Western look to the film it was not shot in America and instead the majority of shooting was done in Spain.
A Fistful of Dollars is a film you must see before you die because it launched the career of Clint Eastwood and he wasn’t even amongst the first ten actors asked to play the role. Initially Leone wanted Henry Fonda to play the Man With No Name, but the money wasn’t available for a major Hollywood star. He then turned to Charles Bronson, who refused as he thought the script was bad. Leone then went through another ten or so actors who all refused for one reason or another. He then turned his attention to Richard Harrison, but he had not had an enjoyable experience working in his previous Western role and so refused.
However, Leone did then ask Harrison if he could recommend someone and he mentioned that Eastwood could play a convincing cowboy. The rest, as they say, is history.
D.J. Haza
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Originally published January 16, 2012. Updated April 10, 2018.
