Long time ago, I was in a used book store and stumbled upon a scholarly book about westerns. The book covered all major westerns up to 1975, but the chapter I had been interested in was conspicuously short. The author gave only a lip service to "spaghetti westerns", considering them to be nothing more than the travesty of the genre. Validity of such notion might be debatable, but not for the critics in late 1960s and early 1970s, who had been looking at that genre with the same snobbish disdain as blaxploitation or kung fu movies. However, there was one director who had managed to give "spaghetti westerns" good name. Sergio Leone is one of the greatest and most influential Italian directors and his films often considered to be masterpieces. That was especially the case with three of his films known as Man With No Name trilogy, which brought subgenre of "spaghetti westerns" to the perfection. However, every beginning was hard and A Fistful of Dollars, made in 1964, is a proof for that.

Leone was often accused of not being too original in his first major film. Plot of A Fistful of Dollars looks very much like the one used in Yojimbp, 1960 samurai classic by Akira Kurosawa. However, even Kurosawa found his inspiration elsewhere, and Dashiel Hammett's 1931 novel Red Harvest is often credited as the first one to use the same plot. Some of the latter critics, on the other hand, claimed that Leone found his inspiration in 18th century comic stage play by Italian author Carlo Goldoni.

In any way, original or not, plot of this film begins when Joe (played by Clint Eastwood), mysterious poncho-wearing and mule-riding stranger, comes to San Miguel, small Mexican town on US border. The town seems dead, and the reason for that is soon revealed in the conversation with local bartender (played by Joseph Egger). Town is ruled by two gangs - Rojos brothers, liquor smugglers led by vicious Ramon (played by Gian Maria Volonte) and Baxters, arms smugglers nominally led by sheriff John Baxter (played by Wolfgang Lukschy) and really by his wife Consuelo (played by Margarita Lozano). Those two gangs are fighting for the control and the town is full of hired guns and so the killings became part of every day life. Joe, being fast on the trigger, sees that as an opportunity. He offers his gunfighting services to both clans, switches sides and then manipulates them into shootouts, earning lots of money in the process.

A Fistful of Dollars, being the first Leone's spaghetti western, is, naturally, inferior to his latter classical works like The Good, the Bad and the Ugly. The cheap budget is much visible, script seems rather unpolished and full of some interesting plot holes (town on Mexican side of the border having the sheriff is one of them). The acting at times, especially during the ultra-sentimentalist scenes in Marisol subplot, is plain terrible. The ending is weak, sacrificing plausbility for the sake of the neat little
happy end.

On the other hand, even at his worst, Leone shows his immense talent. Pacing is brilliant, scenes excellently shot and his trademark of extreme close-up used with great success. Black humour is also present in this film. And, of course, Leone used services of great Ennio Morricone, one of the best and most prolific music composers in the history of cinema. Leone has, as he would do in all of his latter films, used Morricone's score as the basis for his scenes, and not the other way around. Morricone (billed as Dan Savio on the credits) was here in his prime, using some of the motives that would be enhanced and even more effective in For a Few Dollars More and The Good, the Bad and the Ugly.

Apart from Leone, this film was important for another great talent. Clint Eastwood had already became famous in TV-series Rawhide, but the role of The Man With No Name (although actually named in this film) was the one that launched him to orbit. Eastwood here plays one of the first great antiheroes of cinema - tough, cynical and utterly materialistic man who doesn't have any problems with money through bloodshed. The audience roots for him not for the sake of his moral superiority, but simply because he happens to be much smarter and more successful than others. On the other hand, Leone's script shows that under the mask of cynicism lies kind human heart; Joe doesn't want to do the right thing not because he is bad; he is pragmatic because he knows better. And when actually does the right thing, he suffers because of it.

Eastwood was the only major American actor in this film, but that didn't prevent him for being partner with truly talented actors. Gian Maria Volonte (billed as Johnny Wels) is impressive as villain, and he would improve his villainy in next Leone's film. This film also features whole bunch of actors whose faces are more than familiar to the fans of Leone's spaghetti westerns.

A Fistful of Dollars is definitely pale in comparison to other films by Sergio Leone, but even such imperfect and inferior example of that master's work should be recommended as very entertaining film, even for those who are familiar with his masterpieces.

RATING: 7/10 (+++)

(Note: The text in its original form was posted in Usenet newsgroup rec.arts.movies.reviews on December 11th 1999)

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Movie URL: https://www.themoviedb.org/movie/391-per-un-pugno-di-dollari
Critic: AA