Fistful Of Dollars, A (DVD)

The birth of the Italian western came right at the heels of the waning interest in the previously popular sword and sandals films, as many of those films were not only Italian made, but also many Hollywood spectacles like Ben-Hur and Quo Vadis were also filmed in Italy. With this shift in popularity, the new genre of completely Italian produced westerns, spearheaded by Michael Carreras' "Savage Guns" in 1961, provided a fertile and interesting breeding ground for a new genre of films that up until then had not gathered enough popularity to prosper. In the early 1960s, the Italian western still lacked several of the specific traits that made later films in the ...

Sergio Leone’s ‘A Fistful Of Dollars’ was actually release back in 1964 but it wasn’t until 1967 that an English language version of the film became available. It was very heavily influenced by Akira Kurosawa’s ‘Yojimbo’, so much so that Kurosawa actually sued for plagiarism but even if Leone did rip off Kurosawa there can be denying that this a classic film and a very atmospheric one. It also brought Clint Eastwood to the attention of the big screen, who up to that point was more familiar for his role in the tv series ‘Rawhide’. Although it’s interesting to note that Eastwood was not the first choice ...

When Sergio Leone made the first of his ‘Spaghetti’ westerns 'A Fistful of Dollars'(1964) it seemed he had invented a new genre in cinema. These low-budget westerns filmed in Europe featuring mainly European actors, with their propensity for theatrical violence were seen by the fans of the traditional western as a cheap tawdry imitation of a classic film genre. BACKGROUND Sergio Leone cut his teeth in cinema by making the so-called ‘sword and sandal’ epics in Italy in the late fifties and early 60's along with other future ‘spaghetti’ western directors such as Mario Bava, Sergio Corbucci and Domenico ...