Fistful Of Dollars
The Spaghetti Western not only revolutionized the Western genre with gritty violence and darker characters and motivations, it also revolutionized the film industry itself, proving that foreign films (if good enough) could shake that very stigma of having been spawned in a foreign culture and be accepted by audiences worldwide including American males who consider being a fan of such films as traditional in their lives as Thanksgiving and apple pie. This particular film, made in 1964 but not released in America until 1967, was what really got the ball rolling, and while not a perfect film in any sense of the word can be forgiven for its flaws by its place in cinema history, essentially putting director Sergio Leone on the map (and warming him up for the real Masterpieces of his that were to follow) and more importantly, kicking off the career of perhaps the most steadfast AMERICAN movie legend of all time in one Clint Eastwood, a guy who at that point was only known for bit parts in films like Revenge Of The Creature and as the character of Rowdy Yates on the TV show Rawhide, but right from the opening frames, one wonders why he wasnāt already a huge, major star at this point, seeming perfectly comfortable and at ease bringing the proper presence and charisma to such a dominant lead starring role which his stature when watching the film in later years almost belies given the fact that this was a dirt poor low budget movie even at that time. The story itself was borrowed almost directly from Akira Kurosawaās 1961 Japanese classic Yojimbo which itself was cribbed from a Dashiell Hammett novel about a lone man pitting two warring factions against each other, but Kurosawa wound up suing anyway and won, which turned out to be a shrewd move on his part as he received 15% of the worldwide profits and since Leoneās film had few if any cultural barriers to break through unlike Yojimbo, caused Kurosawa to remark in later years that he made more money off of Leoneās work than he did his own. As for Eastwood, this was the first go around for the āMan With No Nameā character that many have identified him with (though a senile old undertaker character starts calling him āJoeā late in the movie for no apparent reason since Eastwood never identified himself as such) and while some have called it the first great anti-hero in movie history, the fact remains that Eastwood is very much a good guy with a particular code of honor all his own, and as such very clearly plays by his own set of rules that he never feels a particular need to spell out for us. An attempt was made in the mid 70s to tack on a prologue for network TV broadcasts (with an obvious double standing in for Eastwood) which stated that the character was an outlaw being promised a pardon if he undertook his āmissionā as a government assignment to wipe out the two rival gangs in that town (an idea later brilliantly realized by John Carpenter for Escape From New York), but that concept has NO place in any official viewing of the actual film itself, as Eastwood really comes across as MORE of a hero when thought of as one man acting alone and of his own volition rather than as some kind of undercover government agent. Among the things we can glean from The Manās character is an obvious distaste for bullies, as seen from the famous opening kill scene of no less than 4 gang members being handily shot down for shooting at and laughing at his horse. Turns out the town has the two gangs (The Rojos and The Baxters) always fighting it out and killing each other and leaving the town itself nearly devoid of any life whatsoever. The problem from the perspective of the screenplay though is that only one of the gangs (The Rojos) are portrayed as actually being evil and ruthless (and thus more interesting) while the other gang (The Baxters) are shown to be so boring, weak, and bland (outside from having a female as their leader), along with being slightly more honorable as well, that the viewer almost feels sorry for them and wonders why Eastwood doesnāt just join their side for real instead of playing them for fools and help them out against the clearly more detestable Rojos, who are led by a trio of brothers which includes the older, ārespectableā one who would appear to be the brains of the outfit, the cowardly, tough talking one who brags about the virtues of shooting a man in the back, and the slightly psychotic, but clearly most badass one of the group, Ramon, played by Gian Maria Volonte who was most definitely considered a major star by Italian standards, but who clashed on set with both Eastwood AND Leone due to his openly Leftist, Communist political beliefs (which he reportedly LOVED to shove down the throat of anyone within earshot), but whom nonetheless makes for a fine lead villain (if not quite stealing the show as he did playing the main bad guy in the next film, For A Few Dollars More) who is excellently built up even before his first onscreen appearance singlehandedly mowing down an entire squad of Mexican army soldiers and continues through his own sheer force of personality to carry his end of the film all the way to the conclusion. Eastwood of course casually strolls from one side of town to the other, collecting money for selling valuable (but usually false) intel to both leaders and leading their sides to more and more deadly confrontations while at the same time āsavingā Ramonās kept woman and reuniting her with her beleaguered family before giving them the money heās bilked out of the gangs for them to leave town safely. However, the more tricks that Eastwood pulls out of his sleeve, the more the movie itself starts to run out of steam a bit with his constant scheming, making the 100 minute movie start to drag on a bit in a way the much longer Good, The Bad, And The Ugly most certainly did not. Things do recover nicely for the big finish which is legendary in its own right for the homage it was paid in the Back To The Future Trilogy among other things, mostly because it not only depicts Clint outshooting the bad guys but completely destroying them psychologically as well, as we feel their fear over the fact that our hero has clearly got their number. All of which rocked audiences to their core nearly 50 years ago and continues to do so today not only for those who discover this, but the rest of Leoneās masterpieces also. In the end, truly an essential which while not perfect and still rough around the edges, provided the blueprint for the modern Western that many males consider watching to be a rite of passageā¦
8/10